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Re: [OM] Re: everybody loves a shift lens...

Subject: Re: [OM] Re: everybody loves a shift lens...
From: Andrew Dacey <frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:38:48 -0300
On 6/11/03 2:33 PM, "Walt Wayman" <hiwayman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I know I'm the resident contrarian, but twisting the zoom ring
> doesn't change perspective one whit.  It's just in-camera
> cropping, merely making the exact same perspective larger or
> smaller on film.
> 
> Walt

Strictly speaking, yes the perspective does not change. However, our
perception of the perspective does. A wide angle lens increases our
perception of perspective while a tele diminishes (or compresses) that sense
of perspective.

I wrote up a page talking about framing with a zoom lens a few years ago
(sorry, this was during my pre-OM days so there's no OM content) that
illustrates this, http://www.tildefrugal.net/photo/zoom.html. Not completely
identical shots because I switched to a vertical framing for the 2nd, but
other than that, they were taken at the same spot just at different extremes
of my zoom lens. I think that the 1st shot has a much stronger sense of
perspective (although a weaker composition) than the 2nd.

This is simply because of the way our brains process perspective
information. Long converging lines (like you tend to get with a wide angle
lens) gives us the sense of a deep perspective. Limited (or a complete lack
of) converging lines gives us the sense of a shallow perspective.

A good example of this is when you tilt your lens up at a building. If you
took 2 shots at the same position but with different lenses, the wide shot
would exhibit much more of the "building falling over" look than with the
tele. This is simply because the wider lens shows more converging lines on
the building and then increases the sense that the top of the building is
receding.

It also bears mentioning that we see these same converging lines when we
look up at a building in real life. It's just that our brains have been
conditioned to understand that when you're looking up the perspective
recedes UP, not BACK. When you look at the photograph taken in the same
position, it's removed from that context and your brain doesn't make the
same adjustments.

-- 
Andrew "Frugal" Dacey
frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tildefrugal.net/


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