set up some wooden lettered blocks, like children (and LF photographers) play with endlessly, and build walls and towers. now, try several camera configurations to see how best to bring them into focus. once you have learned the fundamental movements, just think about it as distance and angles from subject, lens, and film plane.

in the opposite sense of a carnival mirror, or as in Kertesz's distortion essay, we can contort the light path to facilitate our focusing requirements. it is those initial movements that set you down the path, and should become very intuitive. stray off the path through guesswork, and you will find it very difficult to get back on track without taking Scheimpflug's name in vain.