Focal Lengths and Different Viewpoints

I visited a nearby lawn cemetery in order to experiment with perspective. I chose this particular location as I thought the rows of gravestones would clearly show the effect of depth-compression in the scene.

55mm, f/5.6, 1/320, ISO 800

I was hand-holding the camera at this point, and needed to bump up the ISO to get a sufficient shutter speed. In the image you can clearly see the entire row of gravestones contained within the frame, and a white tree trunk at the far left.

18mm, f/4, 1/1600, ISO 800

I then changed to a wider focal length, and physically moved forward until the scene in the viewfinder approximated the first image. Here, you can still see the entire row of gravestones, with the white tree at the far end. The perspective however has changed in two ways:

Elements within the scene: The gaps between each stone now seems much wider, as does the gap between this row of stones, and the row behind. The distance between the closest gravestone and the tree at the end of the row seems much further in the second image.

The viewer and the scene: As the viewer, I seem to be further away from everything in the second image. In the first image, objects that appear only a few steps away, seem to be far into the distance in the second. In the nearest gravestones you can see that they appear wider in this image than the first.

The longer focal length has 'compressed' all of the objects in the first image. Everything appears bunched together, and altogether it looks like a packed landscape. This focal length would be useful if you wanted a view to look busy, or full.

The wider focal length in the second image has done the opposite, creating lots of space between the individual elements in the scene. It appears to be a vast landscape, and this focal length would be useful if you wanted to create the impression of space, and distance.

Focal Lengths

My interpretation of this exercise was slightly different to the example in the course materials. At the longer focal lengths I focused on details of the subject rather than the subject as a whole. Back home, I converted the images to black and white. The reason for this is purely a personal choice for this scene, and not relevant to the exercise at hand.

10mm, f/13, 1/25, ISO 200

My subject for this exercise was Moseley Old Hall, a National Trust property built in 1600. This first image was with my wide-angle lens, at its widest focal length. This image is good at putting the Hall in context with its surroundings, and the road is creating a leading line through the image.

15mm, f/13, 1/20, ISO 200

With the same lens, I used a slightly shorter, but still wide focal length which I feel compacts the scene, and removes a lot of extraneous detail from the first image. We still have context, but the Hall is now more prominent within the frame.

20mm, f/13, 1/13, ISO 200

This is the longest focal length that my wide-angle lens is capable of. Is has brought the Hall even more to the fore, the entrance gates now also taking more importance in the frame. Unfortunately in this image we have lost the road's leading line.

70mm, f/13, 1/20, ISO 200

I then switched to my telephoto lens, and decided to concentrate on a single part of the hall. This part of the building drew my eye as it has the wonderful lines of the tree branches, but you are still able to see the hall due to this branches being bare at this time of the year. It wasn't possible to appreciate this effect in the earlier, wider shots.

110mm, f/13, 1/25, ISO 200

In this image I used an even longer focal length, closing in on mostly the two upper windows, and the chimney stacks. This focal length would be excellent for showing detail that you just wouldn't get with a wider view.

There is plainly a big difference between the widest (10mm) and longest (110mm) focal lengths used in this series. A choice of focal lengths gives many opportunities to get the image you require. In the final image below I have put side-by-side the first image, and the last image. I have magnified the first image so that the elements in the scene have the same proportions as the second image. It can clearly be seen that the relationship between different objects or parts of the scene are identical: