Camera Distortion and Perspective
featuring Skip Whitcomb
This a very important topic for aspiring painters, especially landscaping. As landscape painters, we often see this ubiquitous use of our phone cameras. Skip has an iPhone with three lenses on it. The biggest lens is called the “telephoto” and is the best one to use if you are recording information about what you are or will be painting. BUT, most phone cameras have wide-angle lenses and this really distorts the image.
iPhone 14 with Telephoto Lens
The wide-angle lenses give us too much distortion. The only way to fix this is through experience. We need to understand that we have a basic cone of vision. When we are looking at something, this cone is about 60 degrees. The easiest way to understand what this means is to hold your arms straight out in front of you, and spread your palms a little wider than your shoulders. This will be the edge of what you see as your subject. You can do this vertically too. You can turn around and look in different directions, but this 60 degrees is what you’ll see and what you will paint. That is true perspective.
The camera sees way more than this 60 degrees, which is where the distortion comes in. Skip sees many paintings from his students where they buy into the distortion the camera created For instance, a painting of a stream will be painted so it looks like a waterfall. It looks like the stream is falling off the bottom of the camera. Really, the only way Skip knows how to correct this is to be aware of what each camera does. The best way to do it is to train your eye while spending time outdoors. Many aspiring landscape painters don’t spend much time outdoors to their detriment. Even if you do nothing more than go out to draw, try to get in the habit of drawing what is out in front of you. This will begin to train your eye to see and register true perspective.
Key take aways
1. **Topic Importance**: The text emphasizes the importance of understanding camera distortion and perspective for aspiring landscape painters.
2. **Common Usage**: Landscape painters frequently use phone cameras, but these can often distort the image.
3. **Skip Whitcomb’s Equipment**: Skip Whitcomb uses an iPhone with three lenses, and he recommends using the telephoto lens for recording painting references.
4. **Issue with Wide-Angle Lenses**: Most phone cameras have wide-angle lenses, which can significantly distort the image.
5. **Cone of Vision**: Humans have a basic cone of vision of around 60 degrees, which can be visualized by holding your arms out in front of you.
6. **Camera vs. Human Vision**: Cameras can capture more than this 60-degree field, leading to potential distortion in the captured image.
7. **Distortion Effects**: The distortion can alter the appearance of subjects in a painting, such as making a stream look like a waterfall.
8. **Awareness and Experience**: Correcting distortion requires awareness of how different cameras affect images and gaining experience in observing real landscapes.
9. **Outdoor Time**: Aspiring landscape painters are encouraged to spend more time outdoors to develop a true understanding of perspective.
10. **Practice through Drawing**: Regular drawing from real-life subjects is recommended as a practice to train the eye for true perspective.
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