Forced Perspective - Outside

'Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture.'

There are many aspects to taking a photo so your doll looks in scale, like it belongs in a human-size world. Mostly it's about paying attention to the distance from the background, and at what height you take your photo. Some of these things have already been touched on in previous tips, but are worth repeating. To make your dolls look like they fit into the real world behind them, you need to take the photo at the doll's eye level. Which means either raising the doll up to your eye level, or getting down to their's. Taking a photo when you are looking down at the doll just makes them look like 'dolls'. For example, the photo on the left was taken from above, whereas the one on the right was taken at the doll's eye level.....

Getting down on the doll's level often means laying down flat on the ground. For example, I first tried taking a photo of Isar while sitting...so it's still a bit from above....

Not too bad, but then I got down even lower.....

The higher you can position your doll's head against the horizon, the more 'real' they will look in their environment.    Same thing happened with Asa and Byuri on the beach in Bandon, Oregon. 
The sand was wet, so I was reluctant to lay down, so sat on a towel for the first picture......

They still look like 'dolls on a beach', so I laid down to try again....for a much better picture...

Some places it's not possible to get down to the doll's eye level...such as in a parking lot....so that's where an assistant becomes necessary to hold the doll up high enough....

Of course, if you want the whole doll in the photo, then it means raising the dolls up so the background is lower behind them. On the left they are standing on a fence surrounding the parking lot, and on the right they are sitting high on a dune. Both times their heads are either above or at the horizon level.

In cities it's especially important to look around to see if there's a place to stand your dolls so they are elevated some, and the background is far enough behind them to look the correct scale. Then shoot at the doll's eye level. For this shot of my dolls 'shopping' in Santa Fe.....

..the three dolls were posed on the stone surround of a large sculpture in the park, and I got down to their level and took the photo so the dolls filled the frame. Another shot, taken further back...

Exact same location, but by paying attention to shooting at the doll's eye level, and getting in closer, it can make the difference between a photo of 'dolls in a park', or a 'mother and daughters shopping'.  *Note this was one time I couldn't hide the doll's bases, so had to get rid of them afterwards in Photoshop. The bases still show in the bottom photo.