Art of Photography: Project 10

This project was more interesting than the last one. The idea was to take a photograph of something filling the frame with a long focal length to achieve a telephoto perspective, and then to walk forwards in a straight line and take the same photograph with a short focal length/wide angle and study the results to see the different perspectives this produces.


The first image was taken at 300mm with the telephoto lens using a tripod. This is the sort of image I am used to seeing and was what I expected. f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO-400.

I then walked in a straight line towards the building until the same scene filled the frame at 18mm.


This image was taken of the same scene but at 18mm. I was surprised by how different the perspective was. In the first image the building appears quite 'flat' and 'compacted' where as here it seems to have much more presence, depth and weight. f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO-250.

Before starting this project I was unsure as to what the difference would be. I had read about how different focal lengths and lenses produced differing results and particularly how telephoto lenses 'compacted' perspectives but I didn't have first hand experience of it. Although I had a 18-55mm lens I rarely used it and always stuck to the 70-300 so I was very used to how images looked at these focal lengths and found it hard to imagine how it might look different. For these reasons I enjoyed doing this project and now feel I will have more consideration for using shorter focal lengths/wide angle lenses, and more of an idea as to the results they may help me produce.