1
Ask a friend to stand
about 60 feet away.
2
Position the object on
the ground in front of
you, a few feet away. (If it’s
too close, it won’t be in
focus.)
3
Crouch or lie down on the
ground to look at the
object on your screen from
a low angle.
4
Ask your friend to stand
still or pose, like she’s
trying to balance on one
foot. (But don’t move!)
5
Line up the object on the
camera screen so the
object is right underneath
your friend’s foot. Try to
focus both of them together.
(On many smartphones, you
can tap the screen to set the
focus.)
6
Take the photo—it will
look like your friend is a
tiny person standing on top
of a huge object!
WHAT’S
GOING ON?
This type of trick photography
is sometimes called forced
perspective because how you see
things in a photo is not how they
would appear in the real world.
Here’s how it works: Focus your
eyes on a faraway object while
holding your hand up in front of
you. Your hand will look blurry. But
if you focus on your hand instead,
the faraway object will look blurry.
This tells your brain that the two
objects must be far apart.
But when both objects are in
focus, as they are when you take a
photo, your brain is fooled. It thinks
the two objects are the same
distance away—but with very
strange sizes!
Tiny people “sitting” in someone’s hand or on someone’s head
A tiny friend being chased by a huge dinosaur or robot (actually a normal-size toy)
A bottle pouring water onto tiny people
A miniature person in giant shoes
Someone “picking up” a famous building or mountain, or even the moon!
An ice-cream cone with a cloud instead of ice cream
W
H
AT
Y
O
U
’L
L^
DO
TRY^ T
HESE!
CHECK
OUT
THE
BOOK!
MIKE ATKINSON / TWISTY FOCUS (PHOTOS, ALL); MIJATMIJATOVIC / SHUTTERSTOCK (BRAIN ILLUSTRATION)
MAY 2022 • NAT GEO KIDS (^29)