scale | Onelargeprawn

Space is huge and the planets that occupy the solar system are pretty gosh darn big aren’t they? There have been quite a few images on the Internet that compare the relative sizes of these planets, and artist Brad Goodspeed adds his perspective to it in his creative video entitled Scale.

After watching a lunar eclipse, Goodspeed wondered how large the Earth would look like it were there in place of the moon. He shows this in his video along with all the other planets, as if they orbited our world as the moon does. There are reportedly some small errors with Goodspeed’s calculations (you boffins can read that here) but that doesn’t take away from the sense of scale he is trying to show in the video. Check it out below.

[via Ufunk]

Tilt-shift photography is a technique where you manipulate a camera so that a photo of a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model. By shooting the locations from a high angle, it will create the illusion of looking down at a scale model. The example of Nice, France below by Flickr user therealjasonruff shows the technique off well.

There are a few ways for you to create tilt-shift photos:

The Traditional, Possibly Expensive Method

This method involves obtaining a decent camera, a tilt-shift lens, and reading up on the details HERE, HERE, and HERE. Not recommended for people with ADD or those feeling monetary problems.

The “Keeping it Real Fake” Method

This method involves using a graphics editor like Photoshop or GIMP to alter the focus of the photograph to simulate a shallow depth of field that would normally be encountered when using macro lenses. This will make the scene seem much smaller than it really is. By increasing the color saturation and contrast, you can simulate the bright paint often found on scale models.

To make your own tilt-shift photographs with Photoshop click HERE for a tutorial.

The Easy as Pie” Method

TiltShiftMaker is an online site that does all the hard work for you in 3 simple steps. Upload your standard photo (jpeg format, 4MB limit), select the focus size, and get the tilt-shift equivalent.

Use TiltShiftMaker HERE and check out the Flickr TiltShiftMaker pool HERE.