http://www.digitalcameraworld.com AUGUST 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^57
CAMERA COLLEGEPerspective and focal length
Why the lens you choose doesn’t really change the perspective in your shot
It is the distance that you
shoot from rather than
the focal length that determines
the perspective
effect in a photo.
When you’re using a
long focal length, you have to stand
further away from the subject in
order to frame it in the same way
as you would when standing close
with a short lens. If you were to
stand at the same distance when
using both lenses, the perspective
will be the same even though
the subject fills more of the
frame with the longer lens.
Standing further away with a
long lens creates ‘compression
distortion’, where objects in the
background appear much closer
to the subject. This is due to the
narrow angle of view of the long
lens; it records a much smaller
area of the background, which
fills the picture.To record the subject at the same size with
a short focal length, the camera needs to
be much closer. Although the subject is
captured at relatively the same size, a much
larger sweep of background is included. This
lets you add context – such as capturing a
person’s surroundings in an environmental
portrait. Because background details
are smaller, they look further away.THE SUBJECT AND BACKGROUND
The subject and background are
the same distance from each
other as they are in the shot
taken with the wider lens.ANGLE OF VIEW
A full-frame lens with a focal
length less than 50mm (or
the equivalent for a camera
with a cropped sensor)
has a wide angle of view.The longer the focal length, the further
back from the subject you’ll need to
stand. Notice how the narrow angle
of view captures a proportionally
smaller section of the backdrop.Wide-angle lens
Telephoto lens
Where you
stand is key
Subject
Background150mm35mmYou can get a ‘compressed’
perspective even if you don’t have
a long lens, by simply cropping an image
that’s been shot with a shorter focal length
from the same distance as you would
if shooting with a telephoto.
In this example, the crop taken from the
wide shot shares a perspective that is the
same as the image taken with a telephoto
from the same spot. There are some
differences in the depth of field andcropping the shot has slashed the
resolution, but the end result is near-
identical. Perspective really is all about
where you stand, and not the lens!35mm
(cropped)