The posting by Jim Ludwig of Darksword of the latest pictures of figures in the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ range has brought up some interesting points about figures and photography I thought it might be useful to explore.
In figure #1 we see the difference in apparent proportions caused by different camera angles with respect to a figure. The level of the head and shoulders is the same but there is a gradual distortion as we go lower down until the hips appear to be in a quite different place. In a photo with no frame of reference it is difficult to tell the angle of the camera and how close to the figure the lens was. The effect is frequently to foreshorten the lower half of the figure without the viewer being aware of it.
The length of women’s legs is so regularly distorted in representations it is common, for men particularly, to think it normal for a woman’s legs to be a good deal more than half her height. In fact on average they are a bit less than half (see figure #2). High heeled shoes, which aid the illusion are a relatively recent invention, appearing for men in the mid 16th century (to help keep feet in stirrups) and adopted by women shortly thereafter, though in women’s case it was not to accentuate the legs, which were not exposed, but to increase overall height.
The third picture is a teaser for ser Loras.
