A different perspective, on "Perspective Control"

<p>I am referring to the works of photographers Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas, (and others) during WWI.</p>

<p>They went to US military posts, assembling sometimes 10,000-20,000 officers & men on parade fields, with the men forming patriotic symbols of things like, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, etc...and then photographing the image with an 11X14 view camera, from an 80 foot tall tower.</p>

<p>Their view cameras had movements, I'm sure, but with only an eighty foot tall tower, some of the men assembled at the top of the image (the background), would be more than 1,500 feet (500m) away from the camera, and the men at the bottom of the picture.<br /> The size of the parade fields the men were assembled on would be large enough to play 12 to 16 football, (or soccer) games, simultaneously. A 1/4 of a mile, by a 1/3 of a mile in size.</p>

<p>In the link below, in the image of the Statue of Liberty for example:<br /> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MPH_56,_Human_Statue_of_Liberty.jpg</p>

<p>Length of right arm is 340 feet, w/1.200 men<br /> Length of body, base to shoulder is 150 feet, w/ 2,000 men<br /> The whole left hand measures 30 feet, while just the right thumb measures 35 feet<br /> Combined length of torch & flame is 980 feet, (remember the body is only 150 ft)<br /> with 2,800 men in the torch, and a staggering 12,000 men in the flame.</p>

<p>It would sometimes take the photographers a week to draw the proportions on the ground before the troops could be assembled for the picture. I just thought this was uniquely interesting. The next time you're frustrated while setting-up a shot, think about having to map out a drawing covering several acres, and marshal several thousand people into position. Maybe that will help you keep a better "perspective" on your task at hand.</p>

<p>http://www.hammergallery.com/images/peoplepictures/people pictures.htm<br /> I am having trouble getting the gallery link to work. So, while on the Wiki link above, scroll down to the highlighted Carl Hammer Gallery link. There, you will find a dozen more images, including the Liberty Bell, the Marine Corps Emblem, etc... The emblem of the "Eleventh Lafayette" is interesting. Much like a coin, the words at the top of the medallion, (background) may have hundreds of standing men in each letter, while the letters at the bottom of the image only consist of a few of the soldiers hats placed on the ground.</p>

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<p>Weird and wonderful, I think. Thanks for the links.</p>

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<p>While I was in Electronics school at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in 1967, we attempted to recreate the American Flag picture from 1917. The original was done on the drill field at the center of the Training Center, but ours was done at Soldiers Field in Chicago.<br>

The original was much better; ours, using students from the Training Center and recruits from the boot camp, was pretty disorganized - we didn't try to duplicate the original design, we just went for a flat representation, but it still was pretty ragged. Hey, it got us out of class for a few hours each day, and a trip down to Chicago.</p>

<p>JDM, I stumbled across these links while surfing through threads on the Scheimpflug principle.<br /> I marvel a little at the geometry involved in preparing these shots. Maybe not as involved as crop circles, definitely easier than the drawings on the Nazca Plains, in Peru.</p>

<p>But then again, these formations of men would look very strange if viewed from aloft, where crop circles and the Nazca drawings are in equal scale, when viewed aloft.</p>

<p>Amazing! - and poignant too given the heavy loss of life during WWI. Thanks for the link.</p>