If you want to shoot the INSIDE of a space — you want to see the bottom, the sides, and the top — you need to shoot with a wide-angle lens.
We understand at some level that you need a lens that can "see" upwards, downwards, left, and right all at the same time to take a picture of an interior, but knowing that does not prepare you for the magic of seeing spaces with a wide-angle lens.
On the other hand, the telephoto lens creates an entirely different feel, and photographers are continually thrilled by what a long lens can do in terms of isolating a subject from its background and changing perspective.
Bottom Line: The wide-angle lens reveals interior spaces; the telephoto lens isolates subjects with less reference to their environment.
(Why, you might ask, would we choose to shoot outdoors to demonstrate an effect that is more clearly seen inside a building. I needed to get about 50 feet away to get the 400mm shot, and I needed a space that was also interesting to see with a wide-angle lens. So I chose the chessboard as the "floor" of the space and the rock and trees on my deck as the "walls.")
Left
Right
8mm, true fisheye. (Had to be a Sigma, as Canon did not at the time make true round-image fisheye lenses.) You can see Nicole's feet, trees and sky, and her faithful pooch Bell under her right hand.
(Point-and-shoot cameras don't have fish-eye lenses, but the point here is still valid.)
8mm Sigma fisheye, f8, 1/250th
15mm fisheye. Canon makes a full-frame "fisheye" that does not produce the round look that we think of with fisheye lenses. But it sure does distort like crazy. The curve of the chess board is not a defect when you are shooting with a fisheye - it can become a design element.
15mm Canon fisheye, f8, 1/250th
15mm — which is considered VERY wide angle, often too much for certain subjects, such as Nicole's head — since we are now very close, her forehead is much closer than her chin, so it appears rather large, and her chin very tiny.
(There is some distortion of the chess board at the bottom, which I don't like. I would normally remove the distortion. I think the distortion should either be strong - design element - or not there at all.)
16mm, Canon16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
24mm — the chess board is about half the photo. (And the chess board is starting to curve more, due to the distortion that, sadly, nearly all wide angle lens provide.)
24mm, Canon 24-105mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
At 50mm, the chess board takes up twice as much space as it did at 100mm, and it starting to become an equal subject to Nicole. And notice how straight across the board is now — no more lens distortion.
50mm, Canon 16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
Here at 100mm, again, half the distance from the 200mm photo, and the chess board is about twice the depth. (Math-wise this all adds up, but doesn't really give you a feel for how it feels.)
100mm, Canon 16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
Dropping to 200mm at half the distance from the 400mm photo put the chess board in plain site. Now the photo starts to take on the "compressed" look of a telephoto shot.
200mm, Canon 100-400mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
With a 400mm lens at about 45 feet, the chess board is almost seen edge-on. (In this shot, the white pieces should have been in front, so they would stand out from Nicole's blouse, but in the wide shots we wanted the black ones in front to stand out from the chess board.)
400mm, Canon 100-400mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
8mm, true fisheye. (Had to be a Sigma, as Canon did not at the time make true round-image fisheye lenses.) You can see Nicole's feet, trees and sky, and her faithful pooch Bell under her right hand.
(Point-and-shoot cameras don't have fish-eye lenses, but the point here is still valid.)
8mm Sigma fisheye, f8, 1/250th
15mm fisheye. Canon makes a full-frame "fisheye" that does not produce the round look that we think of with fisheye lenses. But it sure does distort like crazy. The curve of the chess board is not a defect when you are shooting with a fisheye - it can become a design element.
15mm Canon fisheye, f8, 1/250th
15mm — which is considered VERY wide angle, often too much for certain subjects, such as Nicole's head — since we are now very close, her forehead is much closer than her chin, so it appears rather large, and her chin very tiny.
(There is some distortion of the chess board at the bottom, which I don't like. I would normally remove the distortion. I think the distortion should either be strong - design element - or not there at all.)
16mm, Canon16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
24mm — the chess board is about half the photo. (And the chess board is starting to curve more, due to the distortion that, sadly, nearly all wide angle lens provide.)
24mm, Canon 24-105mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
At 50mm, the chess board takes up twice as much space as it did at 100mm, and it starting to become an equal subject to Nicole. And notice how straight across the board is now — no more lens distortion.
50mm, Canon 16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
Here at 100mm, again, half the distance from the 200mm photo, and the chess board is about twice the depth. (Math-wise this all adds up, but doesn't really give you a feel for how it feels.)
100mm, Canon 16-35mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
Dropping to 200mm at half the distance from the 400mm photo put the chess board in plain site. Now the photo starts to take on the "compressed" look of a telephoto shot.
200mm, Canon 100-400mm zoom, f8, 1/250th
With a 400mm lens at about 45 feet, the chess board is almost seen edge-on. (In this shot, the white pieces should have been in front, so they would stand out from Nicole's blouse, but in the wide shots we wanted the black ones in front to stand out from the chess board.)
