Depending on the lenses you own, you can achieve different effects in image perspective through the focal length you choose. The lens focal length is measured in millimeters (mm) and on a zoom lens the focal length is adjustable. The lower the focal length, the more “wide angle” the field of view. Higher focal lengths are said to be in the “telephoto” range.
One aspect about your choice of focal length that is worthy of mentioning is how your choice affects perspective and compression of depth as you go to the longer focal lengths.
A wide angle lens tends to make the foreground elements look more enlarged and the background appears more distant and smaller. Telephoto lens do just the opposite. They tend to make elements in the background appear large. The longer the focal length, the more exaggerated the effect is.
Take, for example, this image shot with a very long focal length telephoto lens (400mm). Note how the mountains look enormous! The mountains are big, but the choice of a powerful telephoto lens really emphasizes the majesty of the mountains.
Or in this shot below, taken with a moderately wide angle lens (24mm), the foreground is featured more and the mountains appear more distant and smaller.
Focal length is an important consideration with portraits also. A portrait shot with a wide angle lens will look different from a shot taken with a telephoto lens. Generally speaking most portraits are best done in the 50mm to 150mm range (take into your camera sensor’s crop factor).
I love having a variety of focal lengths available to me so I can achieve the effect I desire, so I virtually always along both wide angle and telephoto lenses in my photography.
Happy Picture Taking!
Kevin Gourley
