This sequence explores how long focal lengths isolate a subject from its surroundings and wide angles place a subject in the background.
This is a sister to the chess sequence. The chess sequence is about opening up interior spaces, while this one is about subject-background isolation and distortion.
Bottom Line 1: A long lens can isolate the subject from the background; a wide-angle shows more background and can distort the subject.
Bottom Line 2: Long and wide-angle lenses tend to have a distinct "look"; in-between lenses tend not to add their personality to an image.
All the shots were taken at about f16 at 1/1000 at ISO 1600. The light was changing, and I had to adjust exposures. This would have been easier to shoot in a studio, but most studios are too small to contain even a small lake.
*We actually started with an 800mm, but it didn't look different enough from the 400 to use it.
Left
Right
At 400mm, Nicole is so isolated — by geometry and by focus — from the background that we can't even see that it is a lake.
400mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f19, 1/750
At 200mm, there starts to be some detail in the background, which might be waves in water, but not enough to make you reach for your inner tube.
200mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f13, 1/1500
At 100mm, the near and far shorelines appear, and now we know Nicole is near a lake. The shape of her face is changing, but the difference from 400 and 200 is still subtle.
100mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f13, 1/1000
At 50mm we see more of the lakeshore, sky, and her Nicole's starts to change — a lot compared to the 400mm. Neither is necessarily better or worse, but clearly different.
50mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f11, 1/1500
At 24mm we have passed into wide-angle land. The increase in depth of field allows for much detail in the water and shoreline, and Nicole is starting to look a bit distorted — you might not notice the distortion if you didn't compare this image with the longer photo lengths.
24mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f19, 1/750
15mm is extremely wide angle — we see even more of the surroundings, but Nicole has gone comic on us. Because her cheek is closest to us, as opposed to her nose, the distortion is still more subtle. If her nose was straight towards us - this would be a lot goofier. (Check out the closeness sequences.)
24mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f11, 1/1500
15mm fisheye. This is Canon's "sort-of" fisheye lens — distorted, but not nutso, like the 8mm Sigma lens in the last panel. We see more background, and Nicole looks even more weird.
15mm, Canon 15 fisheye, f11, 1/2000
The 8mm fisheye, with the round part cropped out. The front of the lens was about one inch from Nicole's cheek. That is one of the key's to wider and crazy-wide lenses: you get SO close that the perpective is not at all normal. But this is what you look like to a cat, when it is about to rub against your schnozzle.
8mm, Sigma 8mm fisheye, f9.5, 1/2000
At 400mm, Nicole is so isolated — by geometry and by focus — from the background that we can't even see that it is a lake.
400mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f19, 1/750
At 200mm, there starts to be some detail in the background, which might be waves in water, but not enough to make you reach for your inner tube.
200mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f13, 1/1500
At 100mm, the near and far shorelines appear, and now we know Nicole is near a lake. The shape of her face is changing, but the difference from 400 and 200 is still subtle.
100mm, Canon 100-400 zoom, f13, 1/1000
At 50mm we see more of the lakeshore, sky, and her Nicole's starts to change — a lot compared to the 400mm. Neither is necessarily better or worse, but clearly different.
50mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f11, 1/1500
At 24mm we have passed into wide-angle land. The increase in depth of field allows for much detail in the water and shoreline, and Nicole is starting to look a bit distorted — you might not notice the distortion if you didn't compare this image with the longer photo lengths.
24mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f19, 1/750
15mm is extremely wide angle — we see even more of the surroundings, but Nicole has gone comic on us. Because her cheek is closest to us, as opposed to her nose, the distortion is still more subtle. If her nose was straight towards us - this would be a lot goofier. (Check out the closeness sequences.)
24mm, Canon 24-105 zoom, f11, 1/1500
15mm fisheye. This is Canon's "sort-of" fisheye lens — distorted, but not nutso, like the 8mm Sigma lens in the last panel. We see more background, and Nicole looks even more weird.
15mm, Canon 15 fisheye, f11, 1/2000
The 8mm fisheye, with the round part cropped out. The front of the lens was about one inch from Nicole's cheek. That is one of the key's to wider and crazy-wide lenses: you get SO close that the perpective is not at all normal. But this is what you look like to a cat, when it is about to rub against your schnozzle.
