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This is the kind of "technically correct" that is "usefully wrong". The concept of "lens compression" is understood to include composing the subject to the sam
by moron4hire 6y ago
This is the kind of "technically correct" that is "usefully wrong".
The concept of "lens compression" is understood to include composing the subject to the same apparent size with the different lenses. Yes, of course standing in one place and compositing multiple telephoto shots will create the same image as a single wide angle shot. That's not how people shoot. You're not going to compose a 3/4ths portrait shot with a telephoto, swap lenses, and just stand there. You're going to walk in on the subject and recompose to a 3/4ths portrait.
- kzrdude 6y agoIt's an explanation that helps the photographer understand how it actually works - greater understanding that generalizes better.
- bonoboTP 6y agoThe problem is, people do misunderstand it, especially more artistic photographers, who are not as engineering minded as people here. Many actually think it is some kind of lens distortion, comparable to radial distortion or some kind of artifact or noise caused by the lens doing some lens magic. But the same effect persists with a pinhole camera too, the lens is a red herring. Not technically but fundamentally.
- rozab 6y agoBut in the real world, it is the choice of lens that determines the level of distortion. Nobody's digitally cropping their photos to 1/16th the size.
- bonoboTP 6y agoNo, it is just the distance. If you switch to a lens with higher magnification, that's an indirect reason. It may or may not make you move farther away. But the distortion/appearance is due to the distance. Also, you may crop photos (ie digital zoom) or use a different sensor size or sensor distance. At the end of the day, the necessary and sufficient condition for the change in appearance is the distance.the lens is neither sufficient nor necessary.