60 PERSPECTIVE
A SOPHISTICATED CONVENTION FOR DESCRIBING THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE
Perspective is the principal convention whereby a uniformly coherent three-dimensional space can be depicted on a flat surface. It is conceived as follows: The viewer looks at a scene from a fixed point. Between the viewer and the scene is a defined flat plane. This plane corresponds to the picture and is known as the “picture plane.” Rays of light from the subject pass through this plane on their way to the viewer’s eye. If their points of passage through the plane are recorded and reproduced, the resultant image is identical to the viewer’s experience of the real scene.
A number of features immediately become evident from this approach:
• Objects that are more ...
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