The Shape of Change

[James Lemon]

 

[Jerome Marot]

I think that you have overcorrected the perspective a little bit. That gives the impression that the buildings are falling toward us. Is that what you wanted?

 

[James Lemon]

I think that you have overcorrected the perspective a little bit. That gives the impression that the buildings are falling toward us. Is that what you wanted?

Not sure what you are looking at ?

 

[Jerome Marot]

Vertical lines on the left building and on the right-hand side of the tower should be parallel to the sides of the frame. When one takes a picture with the camera looking up, they will go to the inside of the frame when looking up, as the sides of the letter A. Here they have been corrected, perhaps automatically, to go to the outside when following them up, as the sides of the letter V.

 

[James Lemon]

Vertical lines on the left building and on the right-hand side of the tower should be parallel to the sides of the frame. When one takes a picture with the camera looking up, they will go to the inside of the frame when looking up, as the sides of the letter A. Here they have been corrected, perhaps automatically, to go to the outside when following them up, as the sides of the letter V.

The vertical lines are straight . The slight sensation of tilt is more a consequence of visual psychology than an actual perspective problem.
What you're describing is a classic architectural perception effect.

The tower has several features that can create the impression of leaning even when it is actually vertical:

• The curved glass section draws the eye upward.
• The projecting balconies create repeating horizontal elements that are not perfectly symmetrical.
• The upper setbacks make the building appear narrower toward the top.
• The tower is surrounded by buildings with very strong rectangular 90° geometry.
• The beige low-rise in the foreground establishes a very stable visual reference frame.

When you place a tower with:

• curves,
• setbacks,
• projecting balconies,

next to a building that is mostly:

• straight lines,
• right angles,
• flat facades,

your brain starts comparing them. The more rectilinear building feels "true vertical," and the tower can appear to drift slightly even when it doesn't.

 

[James Lemon]

Vertical lines on the left building and on the right-hand side of the tower should be parallel to the sides of the frame. When one takes a picture with the camera looking up, they will go to the inside of the frame when looking up, as the sides of the letter A. Here they have been corrected, perhaps automatically, to go to the outside when following them up, as the sides of the letter V.

The left-hand building isn't a simple rectangular box. It has:

• multiple facade planes
• stepped setbacks
• different materials
• projecting elements
• varying window alignments
• architectural layers added at different times

So there is no single obvious vertical reference line running from bottom to top and those cues don't all agree with each other.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

James, Jérôme,

There is in fact a very slight convergence upward on the image of what are certainly vertical lines on the building to the right.

But I suspect that the "sense" we may have that the vertical lines on the buildings significantly converge on the image is in fact an illusion, probably caused by the fact that we are used to seeing such lines coverage in our human sight, and we subconsciously "expect" that.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Ted Cousins]

Trying to understand the context ...

was this image shot with the camera at eye-level and focused at the same level across the street, thereby making all verticals vertical?

Or, was it shot conventionally, focused somewhere up the building(s) and "corrected" in post?

I assume no tilt/shifting involved.

... sorry James, I didn't get the title.

rgds,

Ted