4 ms·

The further a lens is away from the film plane or sensor (this is what 50mm or 135mm refers to), the larger the background appears for the equivalent foreground

• mortenjorck 10y ago
  Yep. It may seem counterintuitive that the moon could somehow be "zoomed further," yet because of its vastly greater distance, that is effectively what happens. In the example above, the woman is standing the same distance from the Starbucks, while the photographer moves further and further back with a longer lens. As the woman recedes into the distance, the longer lenses are picking a smaller and smaller angle out of the field of view, which makes the Starbucks appear ever bigger behind her. The same thing happens, at a much larger scale, with the moon.
  • drcongo 10y ago
    In movies this technique is known as a contrazoom or dolly zoom, most famously used in Jaws [1], but most effectively used in Goodfellas [2] where it's done incredibly slowly to give a terrible feeling of claustrophobia. One of my favourite shots of all time. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDWcQnaMMlM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDWcQnaMMlM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgF6hNoCRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udgF6hNoCRE