I notice that the top and bottom of that picture are blurred. This gives the appearance of a limited depth of field. However, the bench top is at about the same distance as the bench seat, yet it is much more strongly blurred. Therefore I think this is the effect of post processing, as explained
here.
Jerome,
Thank you very much! I must say you're eagle-eyed. I missed that important added flair to the picture, and just savored the return of another friend! I was just distracted by the idea of an invisible man, leaning back, centered on the bench, arms outstretched, and taking in the vast open field before him. This was the view of explorers, the early humans that reached over the next set of hills to view one more living and hunting place for their next adventure. I am so absent minded sometimes, it's scary!
Now if a person walks by me in a supermarket and light reflects of a 3 mm pearly ring in the inner corner of an eye, or the tip of the nose, I will, (to my wife's constant embarrassment), ask to look up close and then refer them to get the tiny skin cancer treated promptly! So, I too have the ability to see things that are significant.
I should have noticed edits like the effect you point out as it's admirable craftsmanship! Obviously then, this photography is not merely "snapping" great pictures of well observed scenes, but also getting his fingerprints into the final result. Thanks for making us stop and think about this as, the approach is exemplary!
I never knew anything about that miniaturization effect! I use blurring routinely and rarely sharpen an entire picture or, (fully), any obvious edges, relying on more subtle sharpening of textures and select features like veins on a hand or eyes.
So did Leonardo use, "miniaturization"? Or is it that, Leonardo, "the painter", stops to "adjust" the rank of everything, as in a painting! I think it's posdible, (since he's an accomplished painter on canvas), he works "backwards", so to speak, undoing some of what camera sees too clearly.
Asher