Neat photo trick: Tiny people against a giant moon

Monday, September 8, 2014, 2:16 PM - It's a common device in fiction, science or otherwise, to portray the moon as larger than it actually is.

Mark Gee, a photographer based in Wellington, New Zealand, shows us how it's done, using perspective and a lot of patience.

The video up above, featured on Gee's Vimeo page and selected as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, was shot in real time as the full moon rose over Mount Victoria in Wellington on January 28, 2013, in what would have been peak summer in New Zealand.

"People had gathered up there this night to get the best view possible of the moon rising," Gee writes. "I captured the video from 2.1 km away on the other side of the city. It's something that I've been wanting to photograph for a long time now, and a lot of planning and failed attempts had taken place."

He has a whole write-up on his photography website, explaining the perspective trick that made the shot possible.

"If I was to move closer to the subjects, say only 1 km away, they would have looked twice as big," Gee writes. "The moon would have still been the same size in frame, but because the people look larger and you can use them as a point of scale reference, then the moon would have looked smaller in scale, even though it’s not."

He says he didn't fiddle with the final result in any way: What you see is what came off his memory card, set to that lovely soundtrack from musician Dan Phillipson.

Gee's Facebook page and photo website are worth checking out.

GHOSTLY VISIONS: Check out the Hungarian photographer that managed to shoot a spectre in the skies above his town.