Show the True Size of Objects

I've talked in previous posts about the importance of using objects of known size to show scale in landscape photos. But it's just as important to show the true scale of unusually large or small objects by including other objects that we can use as measuring sticks.

As with landscapes, among the best subjects to use as scale indicators (at least for large subjects) are people. People not only add some human interest to photos, but we're all pretty familiar with the size of another human being.

Getting a person in the shot usually isn't very difficult (especially if you have kids or friends with you), though it's funny how hard it can be to find one when you need them (and how hard it is to get rid of them when you don't). I shot this photo (at the annual Rhode Island Air Show) of a C5 Galaxy Transport plane well after the throngs of people had left and while there had been literally tens of thousands of people surrounding this plane earlier, I actually had to wait several minutes for this man and his kids to walk into the shot. The lone little grouping of people seemed to exaggerate the size of the plane more than a mass of people swirling around it.

I think the real sense of scale in the shot though comes from two other things: the truck that is parked under it's wing (with lots of room above it to spare) and the cluster of tiny human figures under it's wings. The plane is huge (it can carry more people than a 747--or transport 20 helicopters) and the tail section is so tall that I had to use the widest lens I had with me (an 18-70mm Nikkor) to get both the tail section and the nearby people in the same frame--and I still had to stay back quite a bit.

Scale comes in handy with small objects too--like photographing a bug sitting on a thimble or a tiny seashell in the palm of a child's hand. Come to think about it, showing the scale of small objects is a good idea for a future posting!

Use Treetops to Give Clouds Scale

I love photographing clouds; they're beautiful and come in endless varieties and, like snowflakes, you'll never see two exactly alike. In fact, I've often thought of putting together a book of nothing but cloud photos. (But who would buy the book when all you have to do is look up and see the show for free?)

Shooting clouds is pretty easy and all you really have to do is expose for the sky (not the clouds) and you'll usually get a good exposure. When you're shooting clouds though, you have a lot of visual references around you that reveal the true scale and drama of the clouds--trees, telephone poles, rooftops. If you take away those references and shoot just the clouds, they begin to lose their drama. As I've talked about with landscapes and other subjects, without including an object of known size, it's kind of hard to judge the size of clouds and so they lose a lot of their impact.

When I was photographing these clouds I shot a ton of pictures of the clouds alone but there was something missing. In reviewing the photos on the LCD I realized that without some "earth reference" of some kind the clouds lacked all of the drama and impact that I was seeing in person. In one of the early shots though I had included some nearby treetops and that was the frame that really stood out and revealed the real power of the clouds. So I shot several more frames (including this one) with the trees and they are by far the strongest images.

By the way, clouds (like sunsets) always get more intense just before and after a storm, so when the rain starts to let up and the clouds start to break up, start looking up. The cool thing about shooting clouds is that you can do it almost anywhere--it doesn't matter if you're on a beautiful island or in a mall parking lot, clouds are clouds and they're all pretty.

Compare Sizes to Show Scale

I've written at least one earlier posting about using objects of a known size (like a person) in a landscape photograph to reveal the true scale of a landscape. Without a sense of scale it's impossible to tell the true vastness of certain kinds of landscapes--mountains, deserts, etc. But you can also use objects of known size as comparisons to help reveal the scale of other kinds of scenes.

In this shot of the Costa Allegra cruise ship that I shot near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for example, I used the two smaller boats to help reveal the size of the ship. You don't have to know the precise size of the smaller boats to appreciate just how big the cruise ship is because we're all fairly familiar with the approximate size of a fishing boat or small yacht.
If I had included a rowboat or kayak in the shot, however, you would have had an even better idea of all the sizes of all the boats (and if you look closely at the small boat on the left, you can see people sitting up in the bridge and they provide yet another level of scale). Still, just seeing the two smaller boats helps to give you a handle on the scale of the scene. The funny thing is that this is a relatively small cruise ship and if you saw it next to an aircraft carrier, for example, it would look as small as the yachts look in this shot. All sizes are relative! And that's the point of including objects of familiar size--they help you to make quick visual size comparisons.

Establish a Sense of Scale

There is no place on earth I'd rather spend time taking pictures than the American southwest. The spaces are so vast there that, unless you've actually experienced them, they are hard to fathom. And that lack of universal familiarity can be a problem when it comes to trying to share the sense of incredible space and distance in a landscape photo. You must include something of known size--a visual common denominator--in order for your viewers to grasp the enormity of the places you've photographed. Probably the most familiar (and available) scale indicator is another human being. Within a few inches, we all know the approximate size of another person and that immediately gives us a visual point of reference to the overall scale in a particular landscape. In the scene here I included my on-call scale model Lynne and had her walk into the immense openness of this spectacular Mexican Hat, Utah landscape. Without having her as a visual measuring stick it's almost impossible to grasp the enormity of the setting.