Project 0 · Cameras & Perspective

Becoming Friends with Every Pixel

Perspective, focal length, and the center of projection, explored with my own camera.

Lorraine Xu · lorraine_xu@berkeley.edu

01

The Selfie: The Wrong Way vs. The Right Way

Same face, same framing, but one shot was taken inches away with a wide lens, and the other from several feet back, zoomed in to match the framing. The difference is entirely about how close the camera's center of projection sits to the subject.

Close-up selfie taken from a short distance, showing typical wide-angle facial distortion
Wrong way · camera inches from the face, no zoom
Portrait taken from several feet away with the lens zoomed in to match the framing
Right way · camera several feet back, zoomed in to match
02

Architectural Perspective Compression

The same idea, run in reverse on a building facade: one photo taken with a long zoom from far away, the other taken up close with no zoom, matched so the facade is roughly the same size in both frames.

Building facade photographed from far away with the lens zoomed in
Zoomed, far away · flattened / compressed
Same building facade photographed up close with no zoom
No zoom, up close · exaggerated depth
03

The Dolly Zoom

The "Vertigo shot": the camera physically moves back while the lens zooms in, timed so the subject stays the same size throughout, while the background warps dramatically around it.

Animated GIF of a dolly zoom effect, subject staying constant size while the background perspective shifts