Portrait photography tricks: how to play with perspective and blow people’s minds
With this really cool portrait idea we’ll show you one of the oldest photography tricks in the book… how to play with perspective and make the viewer question what they see.
Ypu can get fun and creative results by playing around with perspective and composition, and by combining images. For this project we’re going to draw the outline of some steps on the ground, then get two models to lie on the ground to create the illusion that they’re running up the steps, and paste in a shot of the sky to enhance the effect.
If you want to try this project yourself you can copy our setup, or come up with your own variations – you could have a person jumping between two ‘rooftops’ for example.
Ask your subjects to dress in bold, bright colours to enhance the surreal look of your image, and use balloons or other colourful props. You’ll need to find a suitable location to set up your shoot: we used a large open space beneath a flyover, out of the way of passers-by.
So get your creative head on and head outdoors – you’ll be amazed at what you can trick the eye into seeing using a few sneaky shooting and editing techniques!
Photography tricks: shooting your mind-altering portrait
01 Set up your shoot
Set your camera up on a tripod above your ‘set’; the higher the vantage point the better – you want your subjects to look as if they were shot side-on. Switch to Live View mode, and compose the scene so there are no distracting objects at the edges.
Set your camera up on a tripod above your ‘set’; the higher the vantage point the better – you want your subjects to look as if they were shot side-on. Switch to Live View mode, and compose the scene so there are no distracting objects at the edges.
02 Draw in the steps
Roughly mark out the boundaries of the frame on the ground, and draw your steps within this area; you may need to fine-tune the composition after doing this. Get your subjects to lie on the floor and pose in an exaggerated fashion as if they’re running up the steps. To add to the cartoon-like feel we fixed balloons to sticks, so it looked like our models were holding them.
Roughly mark out the boundaries of the frame on the ground, and draw your steps within this area; you may need to fine-tune the composition after doing this. Get your subjects to lie on the floor and pose in an exaggerated fashion as if they’re running up the steps. To add to the cartoon-like feel we fixed balloons to sticks, so it looked like our models were holding them.
03 Camera settings
Set your camera to Aperture Priority (Av) mode, and set the aperture to around f/8. Because our scene was in the shade we increased the ISO to 400, which gave us a shutter speed of 1/25 sec. Start shooting, and get your models to strike a few different poses – they’ll need to keep perfectly still if you’re using longer shutter speeds.
Set your camera to Aperture Priority (Av) mode, and set the aperture to around f/8. Because our scene was in the shade we increased the ISO to 400, which gave us a shutter speed of 1/25 sec. Start shooting, and get your models to strike a few different poses – they’ll need to keep perfectly still if you’re using longer shutter speeds.
04 Shoot the sky
You’ll also need to photography the sky to use as a backdrop. A blue sky with some fluffy white clouds will look best, so you may need to shoot this on another day. You want to keep plenty of detail and texture in the clouds, to take care not to overexpose them – check the histogram as you’re shooting.
You’ll also need to photography the sky to use as a backdrop. A blue sky with some fluffy white clouds will look best, so you may need to shoot this on another day. You want to keep plenty of detail and texture in the clouds, to take care not to overexpose them – check the histogram as you’re shooting.
How to edit your forced perspective portrait
01 Open in Adobe Camera Raw
Download our start files and follow along! Go to File > Open and select perspective_start_1.dng in Camera Raw. Select the Crop tool, and crop away some of the empty edge areas for a stronger composition. We’re now going to make a couple of tweaks to boost the colour and contrast – if you’ve shot your own images you can make similar adjustments.
Download our start files and follow along! Go to File > Open and select perspective_start_1.dng in Camera Raw. Select the Crop tool, and crop away some of the empty edge areas for a stronger composition. We’re now going to make a couple of tweaks to boost the colour and contrast – if you’ve shot your own images you can make similar adjustments.
02 Adobe Camera Raw tweaks
Set Exposure to +0.20 to lighten the image overall. Set Contrast to +20, and set Highlights to -30 to pull back some of the detail and colour in the green balloon. Set Clarity to +10 to enhance the local contrast and bring out detail, and set Saturation to +15 to boost the colours. To correct the slight green colour cast set the Tint slider to +10 to add magenta. Click Open Image to open the image in Elements.
Set Exposure to +0.20 to lighten the image overall. Set Contrast to +20, and set Highlights to -30 to pull back some of the detail and colour in the green balloon. Set Clarity to +10 to enhance the local contrast and bring out detail, and set Saturation to +15 to boost the colours. To correct the slight green colour cast set the Tint slider to +10 to add magenta. Click Open Image to open the image in Elements.
03 Add the sky
Open perspective_start_2.jpg in Elements, take the Move tool, and drag the image onto the perspective_start_1 image to add it as a new layer. You can hide this image for the time being – click the layer’s eye icon to do this. Now we need to select all of the concrete backdrop above the outline of the steps, so that we can hide it and reveal the sky.
Open perspective_start_2.jpg in Elements, take the Move tool, and drag the image onto the perspective_start_1 image to add it as a new layer. You can hide this image for the time being – click the layer’s eye icon to do this. Now we need to select all of the concrete backdrop above the outline of the steps, so that we can hide it and reveal the sky.
04 Select the backdrop
Target the ‘Background’ layer, take the Quick Selection tool, and click-and-drag over the backdrop to ‘paint’ a selection. Use a large brush for the main part of the backdrop, and reduce the brush size for the more detailed areas. If you go wrong, hold down Alt and paint to deselect areas. This initial selection doesn’t have to be perfect, as we’ll refine both the selection and the mask, once we’ve created it.
Target the ‘Background’ layer, take the Quick Selection tool, and click-and-drag over the backdrop to ‘paint’ a selection. Use a large brush for the main part of the backdrop, and reduce the brush size for the more detailed areas. If you go wrong, hold down Alt and paint to deselect areas. This initial selection doesn’t have to be perfect, as we’ll refine both the selection and the mask, once we’ve created it.
05 Refine the selection
When you’ve made a rough selection, zoom in and use the Selection Brush tool (see Phrase Book) to fine-tune the edges. Next click Refine Edge, set Feather to 2.9 pixels and Smooth to 10, and choose New Layer with Layer Mask from the Output To menu. Click the mask, and press Ctrl+I to invert it so the steps and figures are revealed and the backdrop is hidden.
When you’ve made a rough selection, zoom in and use the Selection Brush tool (see Phrase Book) to fine-tune the edges. Next click Refine Edge, set Feather to 2.9 pixels and Smooth to 10, and choose New Layer with Layer Mask from the Output To menu. Click the mask, and press Ctrl+I to invert it so the steps and figures are revealed and the backdrop is hidden.
06 Tidy up the mask
Drag the masked layer above the sky layer, then make the sky layer visible by clicking the eye icon’s box again. Select the Move tool, click Show Bounding Box and move and resize the sky. Target the mask, select the Brush tool and tidy up the mask, using a white brush to reveal parts of the top layer, and a black brush to hide areas and reveal the sky layer.
Drag the masked layer above the sky layer, then make the sky layer visible by clicking the eye icon’s box again. Select the Move tool, click Show Bounding Box and move and resize the sky. Target the mask, select the Brush tool and tidy up the mask, using a white brush to reveal parts of the top layer, and a black brush to hide areas and reveal the sky layer.
07 Paint in the steps
Click the top layer, and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a merged layer. To make the outline of the steps more prominent, select the Brush tool and select the Hard Charcoal Edge brush from the Brush picker. Set the foreground colour to white, the brush size to 9 pixels and the opacity to 65%, and paint along the outline. Use a small, hard-edged white brush to paint in the balloon strings.
Click the top layer, and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a merged layer. To make the outline of the steps more prominent, select the Brush tool and select the Hard Charcoal Edge brush from the Brush picker. Set the foreground colour to white, the brush size to 9 pixels and the opacity to 65%, and paint along the outline. Use a small, hard-edged white brush to paint in the balloon strings.
08 Cloning and contrast
Use the Clone Stamp tool to clean up the concrete steps: Alt-click to sample ‘clean’ areas, then click-and-drag to clone these over the blemishes. Finally, to boost the contrast of the image, add a Levels adjustment layer, and set the Shadows slider to 18 and the Midtones slider to 1.14.
Use the Clone Stamp tool to clean up the concrete steps: Alt-click to sample ‘clean’ areas, then click-and-drag to clone these over the blemishes. Finally, to boost the contrast of the image, add a Levels adjustment layer, and set the Shadows slider to 18 and the Midtones slider to 1.14.
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