Telephoto Distortion and Perspective and How It Affects Your Images

Guest blog post from Christopher Fisher – my husband and occasional second shooter for large groups and weddings :).

Telephoto Distortion and zooming with your feet

Photographers often talk about “zooming with their feet”. If they are using a fixed lens or their telephoto lens and it cannot capture the size of subject they desire, they just move [with their feet] closer or further away from their subject.  To the new photographer, they may not realize that zooming with their feet might compromise the composition of their photo.  While the subject might be brought to size, the background will look significantly different.

This difference is due to an effect called telephoto distortion. A human eye (or a camera) is a small fixed point to which an image is projected. This can be visualized in the below diagram:

While a tree may be several times the size of a person, the image of a tree is focused into a single point:  the human eye or camera lens. If the person walks closer to the tree, the subject appears larger. If the human being walks away from the tree, the subject appears smaller.

Look at the different figures. In the first figure, only a small section of the tree is visible. In the second figure, the entire height of the tree and more can be seen. Let’s see what each figure will see from the eye’s perspective.

Now let’s add a second subject:

-Post by Christopher Fisher

-Christine Ann Photography
Duluth MN Photographer Website
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Importance of Understanding How to Take Photos with Manual Settings.

After posting “Why Photographers Hate the Words “Your Camera Takes Such Nice Photos” yesterday I thought I would do another version of it today. Yesterday’s blog was a reference to choosing the angle and background etc, today I want to refer to understanding camera settings. You can do so much in camera! I have a billion examples of auto vs manual and things you can do in M that you cannot do in auto. For example you can capture the slight movement of a dog’s tail to show that it is wagging. You can prevent a photo from blurring when the people in it are moving. You can have a better chance at photos in low lighting. You can insert artistic twists to things by “blowing out” (giving it a really washed out/white look which is fun to do sometimes) or enhancing colors or whatever it is you want to do. In auto mode you just have to hope it works out. In Manual you know you can make it work out! Here is a photo example of auto vs manual. I am not saying the manual version is better (I personally think it is but not everyone would agree.. just a matter of taste) but what I am saying is that you can gain a lot by spending some one on one time with your camera and some tutorials to ensure you get the images to look the way you want them to! Neither of these photos are edited.. both are right out of the camera.

-Christine Ann
Duluth Minnesota Photographer
http://www.christineannphotos.com
“like” me on Facebook 🙂 ! https://www.facebook.com/christineannphotos

Why Photographers Hate the Words “Your Camera Takes Nice Photos”.

Today I was photographing some flowers and my kids asked me why I was taking them in the spot I was. The reason was because it put greenery in the background and the lighting was hitting the spot nicely. I considered the background, how the light hit it and caused reflections, I set my camera settings manually to what I thought would capture the image best. I kept the flowers far enough ahead of the background to cause a nice blur. I decided which camera and lens to use for the shot. I applied knowledge about composition and which rules I would want to follow and not follow (and why). I positioned myself at the right angle to hit it in the right direction. After my kids asked me about why I was photographing at that spot I decided to try a shot at a spot I wouldn’t usually choose to illustrate that yes you may have a nice camera that helps you take nice images but you are still responsible for a large portion of how the image turns out.

The photo I took using my knowledge:

The photo I shot in a spot I wouldn’t choose with the knowledge I have, though I did manually set the settings to good settings which gave it any nice quality it does have as far as the coloring and vibrance goes:

Both images are right out of the camera and unedited.

This is why photographers hate the words “your camera takes such nice photos”. If you’ve developed an eye for the “right” spots, you can get great images off less nice cameras.. if you have not developed an eye for the right spots, a nice camera isn’t going to help you much, at least not consistently/predictably 🙂 .

-Christine Ann
Hermantown Minnesota Photographer

http://www.christineannphotos.com/
www.facebook.com/christineannphotos