How to choose your perspective in relation to the subject?
Behind this enigmatic title hides something that I have particularly noticed these days by taking a lot of architectural photos, and having at my disposal many different focal lengths. And which in reality affects all styles of photography.
Perspective is influenced by the distance to the subject , and not by the focal length. That said, if you want an entire monument, and you get closer, you will have to go to the wide-angle (decrease the focal length, zoom out). Conversely, if you move away, you will have to go towards the telephoto lens (increase the focal length, zoom in).
Indeed, your photos will be really very different depending on the choices you make in this area . In this article, I'll take the example of architectural photography because that's where it's most obvious, and that's how I got the idea for this article. But this is valid in all areas, perhaps just less common to see it.
1. Make the image (and the choices) in your head
I repeat it often, but first an image is formed in the head . You need to know in advance what you want to get, see the image in your head before you capture it with the camera. Obviously, when you are a beginner you will not have sufficient intuitive knowledge to know it exactly, but you have to have a general idea at least.
Regarding this subject (the distance to the subject + the focal length), you need to know 2 things:
The perspective you want to give to your image: do you want to reinforce the size differences between objects, show how big something is (= increase perspective), or on the contrary “crush” the perspectives and look a bit more “Flat” (= decrease the perspective), which is not necessarily negative, especially in portraiture.
The part of the subject that you want to see in your image: whole, a detail, just a part (such tower of the castle, or just the bust of the person).
Here, I am at the same place, at the same distance from the subject on the 2 images (my choice of perspective remains the same), but I change the part of the subject that I want to see (I therefore change the focal length). The impression that the perspective is more important in the photo taken at the wide-angle is due to the guidelines formed by the trees, which guide the gaze. But the perspective in the sense of “relative size of objects” has not changed.
In general, the 2nd choice is easy: if you are looking to represent a monument as a whole, you will be reluctant to change your mind on this subject. But the mistake would be to see the monument, stay where you are, and choose the right focal length (zoom in or out), take the picture and go. Because depending on the distance, this perspective will change.
And maybe you would have had a much better shot by going 50m forward, or backward.
Having said that, I realize that the prospect is difficult to choose mentally. I manage to do it now because I am more or less aware of what it will look like with experience, but it is not easy. So if you don't know how to choose, I advise you to try several things.
2. Experiment
If you know you want an entire monument, try to see what it looks like if you get close enough that it is fully framed at 18mm, or if you pull away enough so that it is 50mm. And stop on the way to try out different distances (and therefore focal lengths, since you want to keep the same framing).
You will see that it changes much more than what you think! Sometimes you go 10m, and the point of view is much better!
On these 2 images, I stand closer and closer to the Taj Mahal, and we see that the perspective (the impression of grandeur of the mausoleum) increases, while it is more or less the same part which is framed.
It's a great way to learn how perspective works , and one that can only be done with a zoom. But you absolutely have to do it, because otherwise you will quickly develop people-with-a-zoom syndrome : you will have your feet glued to the ground , and your photos will be taken from a random point of view.
You will see that after a while (for me it came in 10 days of intensive architecture photography: P), you will proceed in this order:
What perspective do I want to represent this monument?
→ Choose the distance accordingly
→ Choice of focal length to have the entire monument (or not)
Over time, you will even be able to guess the focal length to use in advance, depending on the distance and the size of the monument (useful for changing lenses in advance if necessary).
Obviously, it is also necessary to understand that a small focal length (wide-angle), it is a larger viewing angle, therefore more elements in the frame , while a large focal length (telephoto), it is a smaller viewing angle, so fewer elements in the frame . But that's another story.
There you go, I think doing this exercise of using the change of focus AND the change of distance to the subject simultaneously will tell you a lot about this part of the photograph. This is very important if you are interested in architecture, but if you are more of a portrait painter like me, you will understand why the so-called “ideal” focal lengths are around 85-135mm (24x36mm equivalent).
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