Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4

Distance Factors

Managing the viewer’s perception of distance—which, fundamentally, is controlled by the relative scale of objects in your scene—is yet another variable in making successful composite images. However, merely resizing an object is usually not enough to get the job done. Perspective and atmospheric effects also play an important role. They are elements we see every day, so our brains are tuned to picking out these important visual cues.

One frequently overlooked photographic characteristic is the connection between saturation and distance. Traditional media artists use this feature frequently when showing distances, especially in landscapes. As the distance between the viewer and an object increases, there is more atmosphere through ...