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Changing Field of View
Jun. 2nd, 2015 11:59 pmMade another Wichita Run this weekend, and stopped on the way back at what's becoming a regular photo vantage for me. Got what might be the closest yet to the picture I've been striving for, capturing the prairie rolling off into infinity... but managed it by the reverse of what you'd think, a lens that actually zooms in on the scene, instead of pulling back to see the wide view. Here's three shots of a particular view, using three different lenses:
This is the fisheye lens, which gives the very widest view... and it's by far the furthest from what I'm trying to achieve. The problem is, at that field of view, the scene compresses to a flat view at the horizon, so you really don't get any variation to convey a sense of depth. (It does give a great view of the cloudy sky, though!)
This one does better; it's the mildly wide-angle lens I've been using the most up till now. You can at least see there's a valley running off into the distance, and a set of hills 'way back at the horizon, but it still feels pretty flat... again, there isn't a whole lot to show an obvious scale.
Finally, there's the 45mm lens. I'd avoided it up 'till now, because it's actually a significant telephoto length commonly used for portraits, to isolate the subject from the background. Not at all what I thought I wanted... but it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Because when you zoom in that far, the valley takes up much more of the frame, drawing your eye off into the distance - and at higher magnification, you can actually see and recognize details in that distance, giving you the reference points you need for scale.
This is the fisheye lens, which gives the very widest view... and it's by far the furthest from what I'm trying to achieve. The problem is, at that field of view, the scene compresses to a flat view at the horizon, so you really don't get any variation to convey a sense of depth. (It does give a great view of the cloudy sky, though!)
This one does better; it's the mildly wide-angle lens I've been using the most up till now. You can at least see there's a valley running off into the distance, and a set of hills 'way back at the horizon, but it still feels pretty flat... again, there isn't a whole lot to show an obvious scale.
Finally, there's the 45mm lens. I'd avoided it up 'till now, because it's actually a significant telephoto length commonly used for portraits, to isolate the subject from the background. Not at all what I thought I wanted... but it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Because when you zoom in that far, the valley takes up much more of the frame, drawing your eye off into the distance - and at higher magnification, you can actually see and recognize details in that distance, giving you the reference points you need for scale.
