SKP PhotoTips - It's All About Perspective

Odds are you've either taken or seen a photo of a 'miniature' person standing in the palm of their friend - you can have a lot of fun playing with perspective and distance.  On the other hand (excuse the pun!), remember when you took a great photo but it didn't quite portray how big or how small the subject was?  It's a good idea to incorporate something into your image that gives the viewer a sense of scale. 

We put in a veggie garden this year - here's a photo of a couple of red potatoes we grew:

They look a little on the smallish side, but you don't realise just how small they are until I include something that gives you a better idea:

As you can imagine, I was a little underwhelmed by these two.  For the record, we did harvest some larger potatoes, but the sweet potatoes were a much better crop.

But you can see what I mean about giving the viewer a reference point.  The photo below is of a famous Kauri tree in New Zealand.  It's of great significance to the Maori people, who named it Tane Mahuta, which means God of the Forest.  The Kauri is a beautiful tree with a scalloped bark that glows silver in the sunlight as it stands above the canopy of the forest.

You're not really sure how big it is until you notice the people at the bottom of the frame.  The woman closest to the camera is still a good distance from the tree, as you can see by the size of the blonde man, wearing a gray, sleeveless shirt.  He is standing on a platform built to protect the tree's shallow roots from tourists and is further from the tree than the woman is from him.  As a further reference, the man is roughly 1.83m (6ft) tall.

The next time you're out taking photos, think about how to help the viewer see what you saw.  Want to remember how tiny your baby's hands are?  Capture an image of him wrapping his fingers around one of yours.  Cradle that tiny kitten in the palm of your hand.  Be inventive and have fun!