In pictures: It's a mini adventure on film

Published on 27/09/2010 17:44

A STUDY into the phenomena of "tilt-shift miniaturisation", whereby objects are set in a blurred background to make them appear tiny, has been carried out by researchers at the University of St Andrews.

• People marching in a parade with a giant American flag in Indianapolis resemble a toy-town model Picture: Getty

It is the first piece of research to report an important link between retinal blur and the perception of size and distance.

Psychologist Dr Dhanraj Vishwanath said: "When we look out into the world, we have a pretty good sense of the distance of objects because the brain has lots of pieces of information it can put together to calculate it."

However, Dr Vishwanath has found that when looking at a photograph, it's an entirely different matter.

He said: "It is only because we 'recognise' objects in a picture, such as a football player on a pitch, that we mentally guess how far away and how big everything else is.

"Our study explains a phenomenon in photography that has been in popular use in the media

"The effects of blur also have very important implications for how the brain constructs our perception of 3D space, how we interact with it and why we see depth when we look at a flat picture."

• More images

Bodybuilders look like tiny action figures much loved by children.

Miniature England cricketers during The Ashes in 2006.

The strange effect is evident in this picture of male gymnasts warming up at the Youth Olympics.

• A surreal take on the action at Wimbledon.