Tutorial - One View on Perspective

Tutorial - One View on Perspective

Perspective: A visible scene; especially: one giving a distinctive impression of distance (from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). By imposing a perspective in photography, you can "force" the viewer to think that what you are taking a picture of is closer, further away, larger or smaller depending on the angle and the closeness of the camera.

With dolls, if you want them to look like they are a part of their environment, part of the "human life-size" world, there are a number of tricks you can use. Here are the main ones I've used in order to create the impression that the dolls fit naturally in their environments.

Height is the main hurdle to overcome. Some dolls range from 3" to 27" tall, so if you were to set them on the ground, up against a door, they won't fill it at all. In like manner, those same doll's heads are nowhere close to a ceiling in a standard home, their bodies are dwarfed in comparison to a stairwell, and their hands are miniscule up against a brick wall.

The eye knows that a human (whether they are child or adult) takes up a certain amount of space in that doorframe, and it also knows (more or less) how much a doll takes up in a same circumstance. Knowing that a human stands at a certain level, that their head is a few inches from the top of a door frame, or a foot or so above a stairwell, or being cognizant enough to know where a human adult would be within your environment is important to creating a more realistic doll environment. Taking these hints from real life, you can make a guess where a natural place to elevate your doll so that it is roughly the same height of a normal adult (or if your doll is a child, place the doll at the level where a child's head should be).

This is where you need a friend with good arms or some sort of tripod or chair (something tall enough and safe) that you can suspend your doll from. The idea is to hold the doll out away from your friend's body, cutting them completely out of the picture, but at the correct height for a human adult so that they look like they are in human perspective through the eye of the camera. Usually this means that the top of the doll's head and your friend's are at the same height if not higher, but this isn't a rule. It's all a matter of what looks best through your camera's viewfinder. Personally I have my doll lifted much higher and out vertical away from a friend's body (the tops of their heads are nearly equal in height). I've done shoots holding the doll well above my head and laid on the ground and shot up in order to get a forced perspective.

Size matters, especially in perspective. The further back something is in a photograph (or painting, whatever), the smaller things appear. A camera is always closest to the doll because it is what you want to look large. If you have a shot where the doll is dwarfed by his surroundings, usually you're camera isn't close enough to the doll. In order for the perspective to work, the doll needs to be the largest part of the photo and the background needs to look much smaller in comparison.

A very interesting shot is leaning a doll against a wall and showing a long hallway behind them, fading out in the distance. Have a picket fence come up at waist level behind them. Using horizons, landscapes, cityscapes behind a doll are all lovely and very appealing giving the doll a life-like appearance. Stand your doll in front of a twisting trail that runs off into the woods. It will look like he is about to partake in a woodland adventure of a lifetime!

Cropping a photo is a wonderful way to enforce perspective. When a person sits on the edge of a chair, we know there would be a foot or a few inches between the sole of his shoe and the floor. If we don't have the sized chair for our beloved doll, there might be a huge gap between shoe and floor. Cutting the picture down, or cropping it just under the feet will immediately give the picture the illusion of reality. Most photo-editing software will have the ability to crop, or, use plain ol' scissors with a photo print. The same goes for cutting ceilings out when you have far-away shots. It's a good idea before you actually do permanent damage to a picture to test out your cropping and cutting by taking a dark piece of paper and lay it over the area to see if it improves the shot (or in many of the software packages, you can just save the original shot and create a separate test shot so that you don't lose anything). Cropping can be a lot of fun as you can center in on areas of a picture that you might not have initially noticed when you took the shots.

In comparison to the dolls, many mundane items don't always look normal because of the differences in size. This can be taken advantage of. Things with patterns, like woven mats, plants, fences, furniture, fabrics, bubble wrap, fur, carpet and thousands of other items can be used in the background or with the dolls as an interesting counterpoint. Perspective goes both ways, since you can use the smaller items like a bubble wrap as a background behind your doll as an interesting texture. Mats that are usually used for the dinner table can be used for a magic doll carpet! Be creative with your items as anything can be used as a prop and doesn't need to be used for its original purpose. Creativity is key!

Extreme angles can give an illusion of size as well. Tilt your camera to the left, right, and try severe "bird's eye" (from above their head) and "worm's view" (ground level) shots. See what you like and what you don't like, what comes out and what doesn't.

Forced perspective is fun making your doll appear life-sized, but you can also play with the opposite as well. Finding doll-sized props can help create the fantasy that they are standing in their own little world, but you can also mess about with it. You can have your doll be a giant or you can make it even more painfully obvious how small this doll is in comparison to the world. Things don't all have to be logical and predictable in photography.

Experiment with your camera, your angles, and your shots! Have fun!

Mercy Neumark is a freelance artist and writer
Doll Website: The Loft
Moderator of Isle of Misfit Toys which is a doll photography board, running for over two years now and Ethereal Angels Forum