A "Which Lens" Rule Of Thumb

[Exodies]

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stand and take 3 pics, wide, normal , & tele. If you magnify the first two appropriately, it will overlay the tele shot perfectly. Teles do not compress and wides do not expand.

 

If, instead of taking three different pics from the same spot with your wide, normal and tele, you take the same pic (in the sense that the main subject is the same size) with those lenses, then each lens will display different perspective. Perspective is determined by viewpoint and viewpoint is determined by focal length.

[frankwaller]

With thanks to op for sharing mo - but always feel naked without the holy trinity of 28/50/90 on my shoulder and heaven forbid return to base be unlikely before the location transmutes from day to night... then best have a fast prime to hand… or the party is over.

 

Presently having fun with just an M9/lux 50 pre asph v2 over my shoulder… going 'commando' on crutches… the simple life, enjoy.

[brusby]

The one on the camera when the light is right.

[BerndReini]

Perspective is determined by viewpoint and viewpoint is determined by focal length.

 

Sorry, but I think this is a misleading criticism of Toby's post. Yes, perspective is determined by viewpoint, but I would absolutely hope that you don't let your viewpoint be determined by focal length. Viewpoint is the strongest choice you make in photography because it will determine the relationship of all the elements in the frame to each other. After making this decision, you choose your focal length, or if you don't want to change lenses, you determine what to include in the frame and what to exclude. That is the huge advantage of the rangefinder, otherwise we would all be better off with a zoom.

 

I don't want this to come across wrong, I am sure you know these concepts, but saying that "viewpoint is determined by focal length" is not accurate.

[Exodies]

Thank you BerndReini. This is what I was thinking of:

There's a row of houses and you have three lenses with you. You want to take a picture of one house. Not the street, not a front door, the house. For each of your focal lengths there is a viewpoint which will accomplish this. So yes, you choose one of the three viewpoints depending on the perspective you prefer, but each viewpoint is determined by a focal length.

If you only have one lens, then the viewpoint is chosen for you.

If you have a zoom, then you have a free choice of viewpoint within a range.

 

Your choices of viewpoint (for a particular picture), and hence the perspective, is dependent on the focal lengths available.

 

I understand from other commentators that this issue can be a hobbyhorse and they like to bellow the mantra that different focal lengths don't have different perspectives; I think we have a difference of opinion of cause and effect rather than optics.

 

Another point of view (ho ho) is that the photographer knows exactly what pixels he wants where. This person will go home and fetch the lens with the correct focal length for the viewpoint for his chosen perspective.

 

I like to go out with only one of my three lenses (35 hmm; 50 yes!; 90 chore) which I suppose is why I feel that viewpoint is a given. I try to give each lens its day out; this works ok in my home town, a bit limiting when traveling. I use the term "limiting" loosely; I always have more pictures than I can consume.

[lct]

Linear perspective depends only upon subject distance per se.

Our colleague Lindolfi explains this well here:

Perspective, focal length and camera position

[Exodies]

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Lindolfi says this:

 

"The changing perspective is brought about by stepping away from the object when choosing a telephoto lens or getting closer when using a wide angle lens."

 

That is, different focal length demands different position thus giving rise to different perspective.

[BerndReini]

I actually think this was a very informative and nice discussion without anyone insulting anybody. Way to go!

 

Sometimes people ask me why I like shooting with primes and a rangefinder, and I tell them that the restriction of one focal length in combination with seeing what is outside the frame forces me to come up with more creative ways of framing things in a lot of instances.

 

For example when shooting a portrait, I will find my viewpoint where the foreground and background line up nicely with the person (eg. no trees "growing out of their head etc.), then I frame up my portrait. Prior to shooting with a rangefinder, I might have been tempted to just zoom into a head and shoulder portrait, whereas now I may include more of the surroundings simply out of necessity and because I can see what presents itself outside the frame lines.