Learn the best techniques for forced perspective photography.

Piquing curiosity with forced-perspective photographs.

In person, perspective is informed by human visual perception. How the eyes and brain work together gives objects the proper scale of reference based on context. It’s how you know a tall building in the distance is many stories high even if it looks smaller than a human standing next to you. Cameras use focal length to mimic this — making most photographs appear realistic. But photographers don’t always want to portray the realistic. Sometimes the goal of an image is to draw people in with wonder and leave them curious about how the photo was taken. This is where forced perspective, sometimes called false perspective, comes in. If you’ve ever seen a photo that makes it look like a person’s hand is holding the Eiffel Tower or supporting the Leaning Tower of Pisa, you’ve seen forced perspective. But this technique can be used for so much more.

Understanding how forced perspective shots work.

Forced perspective takes into account depth perception and normal perspective and challenges the viewer’s sense of size, position, scale and proportion. The Tower of Pisa example is a common one in photography, but perspective techniques can be applied to filmmaking, as well — it’s how hobbits appeared much shorter than humans in the Lord of the Rings films. 

These types of photos involve shooting and framing tricks before image capture. Forced perspective can also be very useful in post-production. Lens distortions can alter the perspective of an image, causing it to look different from what the photographer intended when they composed and shot the image. A wide-angle lens, for instance, makes subjects in the background appear smaller, while objects on the edge of the frame may appear distorted. In these scenarios, Adobe Photoshop can help you to adjust the perspective in your image and bring your true vision to life.