Joe McNally: How To Achieve Scale In Photography

On this Adorama video, pro photographer Joe McNally talks about demonstrating cale in an image.

Showing how big or small an object is in a an image isn’t as simple as you might think. If the purpose is just to demonstrate the size you can always use any familiar object with a known size that will help the viewer estimate the relative size of the object photographed. However, when shooting a carefully planned image which also needs to demonstrate scale – it is not always so simple.

McNally shows a few examples of how he was able to create the feeling of scale in some of his images without subtracting from their artistic look (hint: think about where you would like your relative sized object to be, what object will you use and how it is related to your main subject).

You can find many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on and LensVid. You can also check all of Joe McNally previous videos here on the site on this link.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.