Visual Plane
every picture states the point it is correct from
Concept

cone of vision — where it appears

The taught rule that a subject be kept inside about sixty degrees, which is a constraint on the viewer's distance in disguise. Measured, it is a statement about the reader rather than about the subject — it holds the picture's own correct viewing distance above a comfortable fraction of the picture's width.

Named by 3 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

051050100150field of view the picture was rendered at — degreeshow many times the depicted depth is stretchedthe screen subtends 49.3°100° → depth ×2.6027-inch monitor at 650 mmsubtends 49.3°

A wide field on a small screen

A picture rendered at a hundred degrees and shown on a screen that subtends forty-nine is being read from two and a half times its own station distance, so the depicted space is two and a half times too deep. The stretch at the edges everybody complains about is correct; the complaint is really that nobody is sitting where it would be invisible.

screen · Screenfov drawn: 1.309 : 1subtended at the station point: 1.000000000 : 1the faint circle is the mean radius, for comparisonthe drawn centre sits 3.42 px from the axis's own mark

The sixty-degree cone of vision

Every book says keep the subject inside a 60° cone. Measured, the marginal stretch the rule is nominally about is exactly zero from the station point — 1.000000000000 to 1, over 720 sampled points. The rule is a statement about the reader, and books do not obey it.

wrong · Cone 0.6× the page48 mm×8.3 at 4000.8× the page64 mm×6.3 at 4001.0× the page80 mm×5.0 at 4001.4× the page112 mm×3.6 at 4002.0× the page160 mm×2.5 at 4003.0× the page240 mm×1.7 at 4004.5× the page360 mm×1.1 at 4007.0× the page560 mm×0.7 at 400distance the picture is correct from, shown 160 mm widea rule about the paperwhich is a rule about the reader

Both vanishing points on the paper

Putting the two vanishing points on the sheet is presented as a composition rule. It is a statement about the reader: with the two points one page-width apart the picture is a 90° view, correct from 80 mm, and a reader holding it at arm's length is shown a room five times as deep as the one drawn. The layout that is honest at arm's length puts both points four and a half pages off the sheet.

wrong · Station

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

field of viewStation pointViewing distanceMarginal distortionCompositionDemonstrationDepth compressionDepth scalingEdge stretchFocal lengthPicture planePrincipal point

All concepts