A Question of Scale - Architecture


	People in pictures provide clear clues as to the size and scale of buildings. Imagine the shot of Glastonbury Tor without the figures - there would be no scale to refer to. It even works with interiors, with people craning their necks to take in the full lofty heights of the ceiling at Kings College Chapel.

We've all taken those comic pictures on holiday - that hilarious snap where some bright spark is apparently helping support the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Or they have a hand both above and below a distant skyscraper, so that the grinning subject becomes in effect a Colossus. Sure, we know in reality that the person and the buildings are separated by a considerable distance, but by lining things up perfectly it shows how easy it is to trick the eye from the camera position. What all these shots do is make a mockery of scale.

So what is scale, and why is it so important? Without scale as a reference, a baby could appear as big as a giant, a single brick might seem as large as a house, and a mouse as massive as an elephant. It is only when we put one object alongside one or more others, the dimensions of which we know approximately, that the size of the first object can be gauged. That's why coins are often included as a size reference in scientific and forensic photography - we all know exactly how big a 50p piece or a £1 coin is.

The same kind of rules apply to buildings and other structures. The Empire State Building appears extremely tall, simply because it is surrounded by other skyscrapers which are not quite as high. Take all those nearby buildings all away and it would be very difficult to judge how incredibly high the Empire State is, because there would be nothing to compare it with. Similarly, a suspension bridge that stretches away into the distance begins to lose scale, and you cannot gauge how long the span is. Only when you spot a lorry starting to cross the bridge from the far side, and it looks so teeny, do you know this is one huge bridge. That's because embedded in our memories is the fact that a typical lorry is about twelve feet high, eight feet wide and thirty feet long. In other words, it brings scale to the main subject.


	A formal garden laid out in front of this stately home, together with adjoining buildings at either side, provide plenty of information about the size and scale of the main subject.

That's why it is often a neat idea to include other objects in the composition as well as your main subject. People are a good case in point - we know for sure that a typical human being is about five to six feet tall when standing or walking along, so if you incorporate pedestrians on a pavement in front of your building, this gives an immediate reference as to its size. The only disclaimer to this rule is when an extreme wideangle is used, and your subject is much closer to the camera position than the structure. Because of distortion, the person will appear much larger in the frame and the rule of scale is broken.


This abbey appears surrounded by woodland in a tight shot, but a wider view shows a very different scene with lots of open country.



The scale of an element in a composition has a direct effect on its importance

Using different lenses and alternative viewpoints allows a photographer to tell the story they want, rather than the whole truth. Part and parcel of this set of tools is the control of scale. Take the two images of the old abbey, for instance. Both pictures are taken from exactly the same viewpoint, and the powerful telephoto image makes it appear as if the abbey is totally surrounded by woodland that seems to be encircling the crumbling building and gradually recapturing the land. However pulling back with the zoom reveals a quite different picture - the abbey is actually in a fairly open area and only on the edge of woodland. It's a lesson that scale can paint different pictures, depending upon how you use it.

The size of a subject in the frame also affects how we perceive its importance. Take the two shots of the coastline - in the broader scene we are first aware of nearby buildings, exotic trees and lovely blue sea. We hardly notice the distant headland jutting out into the water. But in the second image - taken with a long telephoto from the same spot - the headland is much magnified and dots of buildings upon it have suddenly taken on much greater significance. The scale of these elements is larger, and so is their importance to the scene. Simultaneously the sea and trees - so important in the first shot - have now been consigned to supporting roles.

You can control what weight is given to particular elements in a composition by careful selection of lens and viewpoint. What you are doing by altering these variables is adjusting the scale of elements in relation to each other, and raising or lowering their value. I've included some shots of a cottage scene to illustrate the point. The first shot was taken with a 50mm standard lens, and gives a perspective similar to that seen by the human eye. My distance to the gate was about 5 to 6 yards.

For the second shot, I fitted a wideangle lens and took a few paces forward. Though I've kept the scale of the cottage itself similar to the first shot, it seems much further away from the gate - almost as if the garden area has expanded. The gate looks larger and the hedge looms higher too, underlining the point that foreground elements have been given greater emphasis with the wide lens. As a picture, the scale of the elements is quite different to the first shot.

A similar change of scale takes place in the third image, taken with a short telephoto a few paces back from the original viewpoint. Now the space between the now small gate and the cottage has shrunk to almost nothing, revealing the compressive effects of longer focal lengths. Now the cottage appears much higher than the hedge and gate - the exact opposite of the wideangle lens shot.

It's a clear illustration of how you can control the scale of objects within the image and, of course, alter their importance. So the next time you are about to shoot an architectural image, remember that scale matters - big time.


				Three images which reveal how focal length and viewpoint can be used to govern the scale and size of foreground and background elements.