Size Reference Object
Hand it a photograph of one thing and it puts exactly one ordinary object beside it — a coin, a hand-sized cup, a matchbox — so a viewer can read the size instead of guessing it. Two fields.
We made two examples, from two different photographs: a brass compass beside a matchbox, and a stoneware planter beside an egg. Everyone knows the size of the small object, the main one could be any size at all, and in both the size cue sits on the side the fields named, sharp, whole and not touching.
You get exactly one everyday object for scale, in the same plane as your subject, not touching it and fully in frame. Your subject keeps its size but may shift to make room: here the compass moved left so the matchbox could fit on the right. The whole picture is a claim about size, so check the proportion against the real objects before you use it rather than trusting the frame.
Generated for this library
Input
Object a round brass pocket compass
Beside it a standard matchbox, to the right and slightly behind
Photograph compass-front.png (1254 x 1254)
Returned 1 image · 1:1 · the same object, one reference
object unchanged, same place in the frame
camera size held, place not - the compass slides
left to make room for the box
beside one matchbox, sharp and whole, clear of the
compass by a finger's width
plane same surface, slightly behind, not touching
ratio the compass reads about as wide as the box is
long - palm-sized, and now obviously so
words none - no printed dimensions anywhereYou fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The object, in three or four words
- 2The thing beside it, and which side
Size Reference Object
What this makes
Hand it a photograph of one thing and it puts exactly one ordinary object beside it — a coin, a hand-sized cup, a matchbox — so a viewer can read the size instead of guessing it. Two fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Attach your photograph and paste the template in the same message.
- Replace the two FIELDS lines. Name one reference object and one side — one, because a cluster measures nothing.
- Check that the reference is sharp and complete. A cropped or blurred reference is decoration, not a measurement.
- Check the size relationship against reality before shipping. The run will place a plausible-looking object; only you know whether the ratio is right.
What you swap
- The object, in three or four words
- a round brass pocket compass
- The thing beside it, and which side
- a standard matchbox, to the right and slightly behind
Before it runs
- An actual photograph of the thing, attached to the message. There is nothing here for a description to work on.
- A genuinely known reference. A coin, a matchbox, a tennis ball, a standard mug — things a viewer already carries a size for. A 'small bowl' is another unknown, and two unknowns measure nothing.
- A reference that is not the same kind of thing. Put a teaspoon beside a fork and you have a cutlery photograph; the eye has to be able to tell which one it already knows.
- Space on one side. The reference has to be whole and clear of the object, so a subject filling the frame edge to edge has nowhere to put it.
When to reach for it
When a listing keeps getting the same question: how big is it. Small hardware, jewellery, tools, anything photographed alone against nothing. Templates in this genre answer with a printed dimension, which is a number to read rather than a size to see, and they crowd the frame with props that measure nothing.
What changes
- One photograph in, one out — the object where it was, one known thing beside it.
- Exactly one reference object, in the same plane, not touching, sharp and whole.
- The reference is something whose size nobody has to be told, so the comparison is instant.
- The camera holds, so the size relationship in the picture is the real one.
- No printed dimensions anywhere — the point is a size you can see.
Pairs with
- Customer Snapshot EffectHand it a clean product photograph and it takes the picture again as a customer would — wrong light, off-centre, a real room behind it — with the product itself unchanged. Two fields.
- In-Use Room BackgroundHand it a photograph of one thing and it builds the room that thing is actually used in behind it — out of focus, overlapping nothing — while the object and the camera stay exactly where they were. Two fields.
- Photo RelightingHand it a photograph of one thing and it relights the frame — another hour, another direction, another hardness — leaving the object, the surface and the background exactly where they were. Two fields.