How to make small things appear big... opposite of T/S miniaturization

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Originally Posted by holmburgers

This I believe. I was just getting frustrated because it seemed as though Q.G. had the secret.

However, riddle me this, wouldn't focus-stacking effectively achieve this goal? It seems to me that the only real difference between imaging something that is big and little is the inherent qualities of lenses and the focusing of visible light.

For instance, electron microscopy doesn't appear "small", because DOF is so deep.

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Focus stacking will only solve the DoF problem.
Not the i'm floating somewhere above, looking down on reality problem.

They used to use boroscopes with very short focal length lenses, move them along models at the proper level and the proper distance to the model, to create more or less convincing images. That really is something you should pursue, if (!) you're aim is to make the images look like they are of real-life-scale thingies, and not a model.

(Used to use, because now everything that used to be done with models is modelled in computer graphics).

Yeah, but you could certainly be up in a tower, or in a hot air balloon...

This issue of perspective seems self-evident. I guess I am wondering how we can overcome the limitations of lenses. Alas.....

Borescope, Light Pipe, carefully placed first surface mirror, any/all of these effects will help you to realize your goal. Focus stacking, as Q.G. pointed out only helps with the DOF issue, and should be the last consideration after point of view and realization of that point of view.

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Originally Posted by holmburgers

Yeah, but you could certainly be up in a tower, or in a hot air balloon...

This issue of perspective seems self-evident. I guess I am wondering how we can overcome the limitations of lenses. Alas.....

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Don't use a lens at all, use a pinhole.

If you are talking about the guy who does mockups of 1950's Main Street small town scenes and then photos them, he uses nothing more than a compact digital camera.

Perspective can be an issue for sure - people pick up on these clues/cues unconsciously or even consciously if it's bad enough - if you have miniatures then to achieve normality the camera and everything related to it should be miniature also (even the grain). Not possible, so special periscope 'snorkel' lens systems have been made to fit big cameras into small areas...

http://www.camerasystems.com/images/...ge/snorkel.jpg

http://www.camerasystems.com/images/...rkminature.jpg

The periodical Cinefex although it deal a heap with CGI nowadays has lots of articles on this kind of carry on - you can order back issues of most of your favourite films

As for what you can do with your equipment is just think the opposite way around - whatever tilt faking requires just flip the thinking on it's head - and yes, one of the aspects that make that tilt faking work is using higher perspectives...

Pretty good example here: http://vimeo.com/9679622

to quote:

"I was lucky to have friends, contacts and a some helpful people I'd never met but asked nicely allow me access to rooftops and balconies" ;)

I know you're after the opposite - but it just serves to prove the point I guess. For examples of what you're after just watch any effects heavy film from the 70's and 80's (they've been doing it since day one almost, but this particular era is the most laden) - and chuck in Kubricks 2001 for sure

Many of those T/S pictures that look miniature look that way because of vantage point. That is, a shot from a building down to an intersection looks miniature because in real life, depth of field should be much greater than that portrayed. On those types of shots the perspective is right; that is, the T/S pictures are taken from a naturally occurring perspective. So I think perspective as referred to here is not always part of the answer. It certainly is when realistic shots are wanted from the perspective of someone within the scene. But when an image shows a scene of naturally deep DoF, as would be seen looking down from say, a 12th story balcony, then the T/S effect will give that "model" look by unnaturally portraying DoF as if the object were very close.
So in converse, a miniature taken from that "same" perspective will rely mostly on DoF to eliminate the look of it being a miniature. The angle is realistic for a 12th floor balcony shot. The challenge is to render DoF realistically.

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Originally Posted by lxdude

The challenge is to render DoF realistically.

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Yes.
And when we assume that DoF has been fixed, the challence is to get perspective right. ;)

The OP's question are two questions.
We do not need to decide which of the two answers to these two questions is the right one (singular). Both are.

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Originally Posted by holmburgers

Hey all,

So I was thinking, if you wanted to make a miniature look life-sized, what could you do to achieve this?

Obviously, everyone is familiar with how to miniaturize a photo using tilt/shift, but how about the opposite?

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Use tilt-shift. ;)

Does anyone remember the movie "Team America"? For this movie they used puppets about 1/3 of normal human size, yet achieved rather realistic looking sceneries ... One could certainly look at the camera angles and perspective used in this flick.