Perspective

D312 Control Perspective Distortion in your shots

Perspective distortion happens if you are not positioned precisely centered height- and width-wise across from the storefront or building you are photographing. Also, you need to avoid twisting and turning your camera to get a photo with no perspective distortion. It is easier and quicker for Maps users to understand your photos if you are able to control perspective distortion.

Perspective distortion should and can not always be avoided, but you should be aware and know how to minimize it.

This issue is more complex to fix than the other common mistakes Local Guides make. But you can find lots of tips on getting a good and consistent perspectives in your Google maps shots in this tutorial.

This photo is a so-called straight shot. The camera is positioned directly across from the center of the storefront. Notice how the corners of the storefront and windows are 90-degree angles. All sides of the storefront are pretty much parallel to the sides of the frame. This look is super uncomplicated and Maps users can quickly understand how the storefront looks in real life.

Here is another shot of the same restaurant. It is from a different position and the front of the camera is no longer parallel to the storefront. Maps users can not read the full name of the restaurant in this photo. That is because of the angle and position of the camera. This is an extreme example of perspective distortion. This perspective makes it difficult for Maps users to imagine what the restaurant looks like in real life. And hence harder to find.

This illustrates the nine different types of perspective. You find the straight shot in the center.

Looking at the outline of the storefronts you can see how the corners are no longer 90-degree angles. The 8 distorted perspectives are more difficult for Maps users to read. But you can argue that the distorted perspectives look is more interesting and dramatic.

On Google Maps the users only spend a fraction of a second looking at each photo. If your perspective is too difficult to read you have a harder time capturing their attention. For businesses and places on Google Maps, it is all about attracting visitors and customers. So if you want to help local businesses getting more visitors and customers you should avoid too much perspective distortion in your shots.

Here it is easier to see how the corners are distorted away from being straight corners when you are not positioned straight across from the center of the storefront.

The shapes kind of points to where the shot was taken from. The lower right perspective is shot from a low position to the right of the storefront. So if a window looks like the lower right-hand corner is "pulled out" this tells you to move in the opposite direction = left and up to reduce the perspective distortion.

Also, perspective distortion can be reduced by walking further away or zooming out.

Here is a short animation explaining how you can fix inwards leaning lines by sitting down.

And this animation explains the Zoom + Tilt + Crop trick.

These are the perspective rules developed for this tutorial. Hit the links below to learn more:

How to prevent this issue

There are plenty of examples, illustrations, text, animations, cheatsheets, videos, and quizzes to help you reduce perspective distortion in your pics if you visit Make perspectives consistent and easy to read. You can also start here for a quick overview.

This was the last (and most complicated) of the photography related issues. Next are the harder-to-spot Google Maps specific issues. The first one is about Duplicates. Just hit "Suggested next page" to get started.

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