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<\/a><\/p>\nBut in order to keep my model (The amazing model Fern Meave<\/a> ) the same size I had to increase my shooting distance as I zoomed in and it\u2019s that increase in distance that causes the background to compress. Let me say that again… To prove the point. Take a look at the photos below. For the one on the right\u00a0I used\u00a0a 200mm lens, the one on the left is a from a shot taken with my 24mm lens and the middle image is a tight crop from the centre.<\/p>\n The distance from myself and the model was the same<\/em> in each shot, only the focal length changed. Spot the difference? \u00a0Ignore the the depth of field difference between the two shots, that’s a side effect of the different focal lengths and I’ll save that for\u00a0a future blog post. There really is no difference in\u00a0compression and perspective distortion when you change lens focal length.<\/p>\n So if background compression isn\u2019t caused simply by zooming in, do wide angle lenses increase perspective distortion? No they don\u2019t (excluding exotic lenses such as fisheye\u2019s). With a wide angle lens you often\u00a0go close to fill the frame and that increases the distortion. In theory you could take a wide angle shot using a 200mm lens, you\u2019d just need to take lots and lots of images and join them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Search Google for Gigapans<\/a> to see this in action.<\/p>\n Still not convinced? Here\u2019s a simple test to try, no camera required\u2026 next time you\u2019re in front of the bathroom mirror, get your head really, REALLY close. Close one eye and\u00a0look around at your refection. Your nose will look huge, your ears will look small and all because you’re close to the mirror. Step back and your face will appear as normal as it was before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are many reasons for choosing one lens over another and which one you shoot with can have a massive impact on the final photo. Like many photographers I love the flexibility of zoom lenses and often have to make the choice of shooting with a wide angle and short telephoto lens. At first glance … Continue reading How Focal Length Affects Your Background<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[76,45,70,23,36,37,24,3,186,185],"class_list":["post-4744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-adorama","tag-camera","tag-canon","tag-featured","tag-photography","tag-portrait","tag-spotlight","tag-video","tag-wide-angle","tag-zoom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4744"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4757,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions\/4757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIncreasing your focal length does NOT compress your shot, increasing your distance from the subject does. Unless you want your subject to be small, once backed up you have to zoom in to maintain the composition and that’s why so many photographers will tell you telephone lenses compress your shot.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n