Cineversity

I have a cabinet in a perspective view that doesn’t look realistic. Can someone help me with the view? I would like the camera at the same height as the top of the cabinet facing down but when I rotate the camera downwards the cabinet becomes tapered and unrealistic. How do I get the vertical objects/edges of the cabinet to stay vertical and not look like they are on an angle?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5muqxignycopiv/97.1183.c4d?dl=0

Thanks
Mike

This is because of perspective. The wider angle (small Focal length) your camera lens has, the more exaggerated the perspective is.
To fix this make your lens a “zoom” lens by increasing your “Focal length” parameter in your camera attributes. You will have to move your camera away from your object to frame the whole object (or press “O” on your keyboard to frame Selected Object).
If you’re using the default camera (no icon in the Object manager) then do the following:
Without anything selected, go to the Attributes manager and in the “Mode” menu select “Camera”. Set the “Focal length” there. Try 200 mm to begin with and adjust as needed.

Hi Mike,

To add what was said so far, the type of photography that you are looking for is used normally in architectural photography. It is called Shift Lens Photography. [Tilt-Shift is mostly available with these lenses]. A good balanced perspective allows for a spatial “read-abilty” without given it an amateurish look. It is a fine balance, I agree with you - based on your question.

This is possible in C4D!

As Athanasios mentioned, a 200mm can be used to get this initial request established, but the down side is, that a longer lens “compresses” the depth and with it the feeling of 3D, it becomes more 2D. But perhaps, that is you target. :o)  [Note: To be clear, lenses do not compress images, but since the distance to object is typically longer with longer lenses, it is common praxis to say it that way. Compression means only that the reproduced size differences of similar sized objects is minimized. This is not based on the lens, it is based on the distance of the camera to the objects, and the distance of the objects in relation to it.]

You have used a 36mm lens equivalent, with a sensor size of a full-frame camera. This is considered already a wide angle lens, and those lenses dramatize the parts closer to it, hence the stronger perspective. As a side effect, 3D is very straight lined with the representation of it [e.g., lines], no lens distortion by default. But we are used to have that in our own representation/cognition of the world around us. So, with no lens-distortion it looks CGish.

Typically with full-frame—a 50mm is considered the closest to our perception, perhaps start there. Example is attached.

My suggestion would be, to back the camera a little bit off, and if needed go to 85mm, with an eventually Shift Y value that allows to compensate for the otherwise un-wanted effect of the “falling lines” [Camera>>Attribute Manager>Object>Film-Offset X/Y]

With the change of the focal length, the distance has to change to stay in a similar size of the object, and with that the perspective representation changes. Otherwise—with the same “point of view” only the magnification changes, not the perspective.

Let me know if there is something else :o)

I do photography in my fourth decade and happy to share.

All the best

Scene File [click through the cameras, to find your favorite]
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/CiGbuCiQ8xKb6FWedS3nZWJZFr6TQNrpMleksDCVCEA?ref_=cd_share_link_copy