Dan^ Mold24 DIGITAL CAMERA^ MARCH 2020
Flatten your
perspective
Use a telephoto lens to ‘compress’ your
cityscapes, with Simeon MeinemaW
5 | CITYSCAPESe all have our own
perspective on the
world, and camera
lenses aim to replicate
these optical viewpoints as
faithfully as possible. To record in
a photograph what we see with our
eyes, we choose the appropriate
lens for the job, whether it has
a fixed or adjustable focal range.
But you can also use specific
lenses to move away from simply
reproducing a scene, instead
flattening or ‘compressing’ it.
And one of the best ways to
achieve a flattened perspective
for effective creative results
is to use a telephoto lens.
Here’s the technical bit. Flattened
perspective is achieved when the
visual depth between subjects is
reduced; the relative subjects
in the image will therefore
appear closer to one another
than they are in reality.
Distances now become more
important when you are shooting:
the further away you are from the
subject, the more enhanced the
flattening effect will be. You will
need to adapt to a new way of
aligning your composition, asthere is a greater distance for
all the subjects you want to
portray to be included.
When you use a telephoto lens,
make the most of high vantage
points within the environment to
experiment with the technique.
Shooting in my home town of
Bristol, I utilised Cabot Tower in
Brandon Hill Park, which looks
over the majority of the city.
The project from which this photo
comes is a mixture of handheld
shots and tripod-mounted ones.
Taking out a tripod is not essential,
but if lighting conditions are poor,
mounting the camera on a tripod
will allow you to shoot at slower
shutter speeds – which will be
useful as you’ll be using narrower
apertures to get everything in
focus. Plus, a telephoto lens will
be bigger and heavier than a
standard zoom lens, so a tripod
will just make your life easier.
It also helps to have an open
mind when you’re hunting for
locations. The more successful
images for this project came from
exploring different areas and
finding viewpoints that hadn’t
been considered beforehand.