Like many of you I am fascinated by much in this world around me, from the colossal to the minute. Usually when we examine something we can understand the size of it by using something in the surroundings to give it scale, for example a human, a house and so on.  

Some Common Mistakes That Are Made  

  Some years ago I was studying a scientific textbook and there was a chapter on the Giant Sequoia tree. The point was made that the biggest trees in the world come from some of the smallest seed. Two images were then shown, one of the tree and one of the seed from which it came. The photograph of the seed was shown in a way to demonstrate scale whereas the tree was not. The impact that the images should have had was thus lost!  

  

This is my own re-creation of what i saw in the textbook. Notice that the seed shows scale but the tree doesn't! The first image is from pixabay.com and the second is from here.

Look at The Difference When The Giant Sequoia is Given Scale!

Here is a picture of my sister-in-law when she visited the States. Notice how this picture shows scale.. and how!

Another Example Where Scale is Needed

These are the leaves of the giant  Gunnera Manicata  which is of the rhubarb family. How do we know it's giant? Photo credit pixabay.com

The same leaf with a human to give it scale. That's better! Image source

What Are Some Tiny Examples Right Here on Steemit?

One of our members @oceansoul13 was running a contest called the Tiny Art Challenge in which she was asking for just that, tiny art.

Here is an entry by @airmatti who is one of our Italian speaking Steemers and the designer of our Steemit Trading Cards.

Here are some cool Star Wars sketches that @airmatti did but how do we know that they're tiny? Why give then scale of course!

Now that's more like it! We can really see how tiny these portraits are!

Here's another example from the same contest. Notice how the coin makes the size of the drawing not only instantly recognizable by all the more impresive! The picture is by Lorraine Loots. 

What do You Think?

• Do you see the importance of giving some photographs scale?
• Can you see how the Giant Sequoia tree shown in the textbook was ineffective?
• What photos have you taken that show scale?

I hope that you enjoyed this article about not forgetting to give your photographs scale!

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)