The perceptual basis of common photographic practice

• Published in: Journal of vision (Charlottesville, Va.) Vol. 12; no. 5; p. 8
• Main Authors: Cooper, Emily A, Piazza, Elise A, Banks, Martin S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 25.05.2012
• Subjects: Depth Perception - physiology; Distance Perception - physiology; Humans; Learning - physiology; Photic Stimulation; Photography; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1534-7362; 1534-7362
• DOI: 10.1167/12.5.8

Photographers, cinematographers, and computer-graphics engineers use certain techniques to create striking pictorial effects. By using lenses of different focal lengths, they can make a scene look compressed or expanded in depth, make a familiar object look natural or distorted, or make a person look smarter, more attractive, or more neurotic. We asked why pictures taken with a certain focal length look natural, while those taken with other focal lengths look distorted. We found that people's preferred viewing distance when looking at pictures leads them to view long-focal-length pictures from too near and short-focal-length pictures from too far. Perceptual distortions occur because people do not take their incorrect viewing distances into account. By following the rule of thumb of using a 50-mm lens, photographers greatly increase the odds of a viewer looking at a photograph from the correct distance, where the percept will be undistorted. Our theory leads to new guidelines for creating pictorial effects that are more effective than conventional guidelines.