First of all I would like to thank you for participating in the Guessing Game. I can’t even begin to express my gratitude and I can’t thank you enough. As promised, today I shall unveil to you the secrets behind the Guessing Game; how it came about, it’s intended purpose, and how it was done.
It originally started as a feature article on photography that I was writing for the company I used to work for. I wanted to write about DOF at first, so I asked Albert to bring his Transformers to the office because I would bring my Gundam and we could use them to make various sample shots for my article. I was very lucky to have Albert with me because he’s also taken quite an interest into digital photography and we’re both pretty enthusiastic about conducting experiments.
During one of the shots, an idea sparked in my mind.
We discussed and exchanged ideas regarding the basic theories of perspective and image depth. Hence came the idea to try to make a small subject appear larger or about the same size as another subject, which is of course, bigger. So now, let me introduce you the stars of our show;
Alright. Now, here comes the technical part. I initiated the Guessing Game as a little project to keep myself occupied during the dull holidays. The entire contest encompasses two different experiments. I ran it on my blog so that to expose it to a decent sample space; regular common people. Unfortunately, I don’t have a control group, so I can’t make any comparative measures between results. Which suits me enough, as I just wanted to see if I could execute certain things and get the expected results. The two experiments are:
a] Perspective Optical Illusion
b] Reverse Psychology
I will explain experiment [a] first, simply because it’s fun. Alright. On the contest, i mentioned that I printed some straight lines on a piece of A4 paper. Of course, you would assume that I would be printing this;
I did not lie when I said that I was printing straight lines. But I didn’t say that the lines were parallel. That’s right. I printed straight lines that converge at one end. Like this one.
Lines like that are easy to make with photoshop. Well, I printed that, and I set up a simple white background using the white sides of two posters, like so;
At that point it’s just a matter of trying different subject positioning and shooting angles, and one of my attempts can be seen in the image below.
The illusion works by establing a false sense of distance, and this is achieved by using the straight lines I printed. Okay, picture this. A series of parallel lines would seem to meet at one point due to perspective, right? And the further it is, the closer those lines come together. Basing on this, I used the set of converging lines, to create an extra distance because the already small gaps between the lines will close even smaller, thus creating the illusory distance.
Due to perspective, you were tricked into thinking that the lines are parallel, and that’s why they seem converge at the furthest point. To further strengthen this illusion, I placed Jazz in front, where the lines diverge, and Freedom at the back, where the lines converge. I also spread Freedom’s legs and wings a bit, so that it looks as though it takes up more space on the ground, due to the number of lines it covers.
Again, due to the illusory distanece, and that you perceive those lines as parallel, I tried to trick you into using the lines as reference to comparatively measure the sizes of both subjects. Jazz seems to cover less lines than Freedom, and this would attempt trick you into calculating that Jazz is smaller.
Now, allow me to explain the second part of the Game, the reverse psychology that I attempted. Take note on how I did the whole write-up;
Due to perspective, the Gundam may look smaller than the Transformers, but is that really the case? The Transformers looks bigger, but maybe because it’s in front? Or maybe it’s the same size? Is Gundam bigger? Or is the Transformers bigger? You might want to consider that the Gundam is leaning forward with its knees bent as well.
In the write-up I tried to make you doubt any initial thoughts that Jazz is bigger than Freedom. I wrote it so it looks as though I’m hinting that Freedom is bigger. This style of writing is something I have been experimenting for quite a while, just to see if different approaches to exposing information would bring any different results.
Just for extra fun, I gave you an extra hint in the Last Call entry. The bus and gargoyle are borrowed, so I didn’t get the chance to take a comparative shot, but I assure you that the bus is the smaller of the two. I also used the same set of lines, just that I put the converging end in front and the diverging end at the back. Since straight lines come closer together at a distance, the diverging lines come together nicely to form what looks like a set of parallel lines, once again tricking your perception.
At the end of seven days, I received about 20 replies, on the contest page, MSN and Yahoo. The results were very amusing, as 90% of the participants got it wrong. 3 people thought that both are of the same size, while the other 15 said that Freedom is bigger. Since this itself is an illusion, I really wish to reward the ones who would be able to see through it.
And today, the Guessing Game draws to a close, and I am happy to declare it as a succesful event. A big thanks to Albert for some shots behind the scenes and for being a great help to make the experiments work. But more importantly, thank YOU for taking part and contributing to the success!
I can’t promise much, but whenever a new idea rolls in, and when I have extra cash, I might run another contest like this. Once again, thank you!
