Forced Perspective and Photography

[AardWolf]

Hey all,

Here's a build I put together that experiments with forced perspective and macro photography with a shallow focal depth. The background is four studs deep with one layer of hills, two layers of mountains, and a layer of sky.

Comments and criticism are very welcome- please tell me what you like and dislike so that I can improve on this type of scene!

[General Magma]

I think it looks nice overall, but the only problem I can point out right now is that the mountains seem to be situated too close to the line of figures in the back. To me, at least.

If they (the mountains) had been pushed into the background a bit further, and if they had been blurred out quite a bit more, I think it would've been much better.

I'm not sure if your camera can do that at this range, though, (blur out the background the way I mentioned) but pushing back the mountains a bit more might've done the trick,

and otherwise you could always use editing tools such as GIMP to add extra blur to the mountains. But otherwise, a nice shot.

[Captain Dee]

I agree that the overall shot is nice but I think the mountains loom up a bit too suddenly from the hills, which are almost lost behind the minifigs. Foothills usually climb slowly as you approach mountains (with some exceptions, like Mt. McKinley) and adding more height and possibly more depth (another layer in a different color green) would improve the hills in my opinion. But if you want the mountains to seem abrupt then don't change it. Adjusting the camera focus to really blur the background - or blurring it with photoshop, as I think you've mentioned using it - would be helpful regardless of any other changes; actually it could be all that's needed to make the scene more convincing. All the different minifigs make a nice crowd in the photo and the lighting on the close central fig is excellent. Changing the text color would also noticeably improve the presentation - as it is, the word "we" is lost amid the similar color of the fig, really forcing viewers to focus hard to read it. You could change the color of just that one word to something lighter - but not too light or it will look emphasized, unless that's what you want. The other option is to increase the height of the image by adding more white space at the bottom to allow room to print the full title underneath the fig. It's a neat little scene as is, but a few minor changes would improve it considerably. Nice work and keep us posted if you change anything.

[Exetrius]

I think this scene looks great! The mountains are well-shaped and the snow on the peeks looks realistic as well

[nzaphegp]

The mountains are well-shaped and the snow on the peeks looks realistic as well

Edited July 14, 2015 by nzaphegp

[rodiziorobs]

I think the forced perspective looks great! My only suggestion would be to use light grey instead of dark for the mountains. Atmospheric perspective causes far-away things to get hazy, so even if the mountains are intended to actually be dark, from far away they would look lighter. You could then use dark grey for the foothills.

I think changing the color scheme would really help to solidify the illusion of distance, but as far as the mountains' shape and the snow on top, you've done excellently.

Edited July 14, 2015 by rodiziorobs

[Spader]

Nice FP, the mountains make an awesome backround.

[AardWolf]

First, thank you all very much for such detailed, helpful, and well-thought-out feedback! It helps a TON and I truly appreciate it

I think it looks nice overall, but the only problem I can point out right now is that the mountains seem to be situated too close to the line of figures in the back. To me, at least.

If they (the mountains) had been pushed into the background a bit further, and if they had been blurred out quite a bit more, I think it would've been much better.

I'm not sure if your camera can do that at this range, though, (blur out the background the way I mentioned) but pushing back the mountains a bit more might've done the trick,

and otherwise you could always use editing tools such as GIMP to add extra blur to the mountains. But otherwise, a nice shot.

I'm with you- they definitely rise up too quickly. This is about all my camera can do at this range but I could have easily shifted the mountains back a bit. I'll try adding a blur to them and see if that makes it look better this time around!

I agree that the overall shot is nice but I think the mountains loom up a bit too suddenly from the hills, which are almost lost behind the minifigs. Foothills usually climb slowly as you approach mountains (with some exceptions, like Mt. McKinley) and adding more height and possibly more depth (another layer in a different color green) would improve the hills in my opinion. But if you want the mountains to seem abrupt then don't change it. Adjusting the camera focus to really blur the background - or blurring it with photoshop, as I think you've mentioned using it - would be helpful regardless of any other changes; actually it could be all that's needed to make the scene more convincing. All the different minifigs make a nice crowd in the photo and the lighting on the close central fig is excellent. Changing the text color would also noticeably improve the presentation - as it is, the word "we" is lost amid the similar color of the fig, really forcing viewers to focus hard to read it. You could change the color of just that one word to something lighter - but not too light or it will look emphasized, unless that's what you want. The other option is to increase the height of the image by adding more white space at the bottom to allow room to print the full title underneath the fig. It's a neat little scene as is, but a few minor changes would improve it considerably. Nice work and keep us posted if you change anything.

I agree- I wanted the mountains to rise up more gradually and I think I just got a little carried away when I was building them! My camera is in macro mode and at its limit on focal length (3.4) for this so I've pretty much maxed out the camera's abilities here. I don't actually have Photoshop but I think GIMP will do the trick for adding a blur as well. I'll try that and I'll change the color of the word "we" while I'm at it. Or maybe I'll add some more white space. Both are excellent suggestions, so maybe I'll just try them both . I'll post again with the changes I make!

I think this scene looks great! The mountains are well-shaped and the snow on the peeks looks realistic as well

Thank you very much! I was pleased with how the snow turned out too, so I'm quite glad you agree.

The mountains are well-shaped and the snow on the peeks looks realistic as well

Thank you! I'm glad you like how the snowy peaks look!

I think the forced perspective looks great! My only suggestion would be to use light grey instead of dark for the mountains. Atmospheric perspective causes far-away things to get hazy, so even if the mountains are intended to actually be dark, from far away they would look lighter. You could then use dark grey for the foothills.

I think changing the color scheme would really help to solidify the illusion of distance, but as far as the mountains' shape and the snow on top, you've done excellently.

You're totally right, and I did not think of that at all. That's an excellent idea and I think it would add to Captain Dee's suggestion of adding more layers of foothills too. Definitely something I will try out next time I build FP mountains! Thanks for your input!

Nice FP, the mountains make an awesome backround.

Thank you very much! I'm working to improve my FP right now so I'm glad you like how it looks.

[Humdrum]

Interesting topic, I think I'll keep an eye on this one because it looks like a useful technique for my own photography.

You're probably allready aware of this, but there is a nice article on the brickblogger about forced perspective: link

And if you do a google search on 'lego forced perspective' you'll find tons more pictures and articles.

It seems that Lego is a really nice tool for any photographer learning about perspective and studio photography in general

Edited July 24, 2015 by Humdrum