“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” —Ansel Adams
In this photo in Stanley Basin, ID, I moved close to the hay rake and fence and used a 24mm wide angle focal length. The mountains appear far away and inconsequential to the scene.
For this shot I moved back several feet and switched to a 100mm focal length. I kept the hay rake the same size as in the first picture. The Sawtooth Mountains in the background appear closer and more dramatic. The 100mm focal length compressed the perspective.
Back in the olden days, I had to carry numerous fixed focal length lenses for my medium format Hasselblads. Zoom lens technology was still evolving, and these multi-focal length lenses were primarily for 35mm cameras, not medium format. Because I was limited to fixed focal lengths, I learned the perspective characteristics of each—how telephoto lenses compressed perspective and how ultra-wide lenses expanded it in dramatic ways if used correctly. Today, zoom lenses are the norm. Nonetheless, the same principles and characteristics of lens perspective apply—even though we are sometimes less aware of them.
The dictionary gives two definitions of perspective:
1. The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.
2. A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.
The emphasis in photography is normally on the final impact of the picture (perspective compression with telephoto; great depth of field and expanded perspective with wide angle). But the second definition, regarding the point of view, is also important. Too often, we take all our photographs from eye level while standing. Changing your viewpoint will give a different perspective and often create more impact.
By varying both distance and focal length, dramatic perspectives can be captured. An ultra-wide lens used close to a primary subject gives an expanded perspective, showing not only the primary subject but also a great deal of background. A longer focal length lens compresses that perspective; while showing the primary subject, the background will also be magnified and made more dramatic. Your choice may depend on the elements you wish to emphasize in the photograph.
The optical versatility of zoom lenses gives us great opportunities for varying our approach to capturing subjects with visual impact. There are some optical pitfalls, however, that have to do with depth of field (DOF). We need to make some educated choices that balance the desire to eliminate distracting elements with the need for overall sharpness on the primary subject.
The photo on the left was made with a 20mm ultra-wide lens close to the flowers. The photo on the right was made with a 100mm lens farther back. Note that each maintains the cluster of flowers at nearly the same size, but the background is drastically different and each has a different sense of place. This is the wild Salmon River in Idaho’s Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area.
The first shot of a marine iguana and a sea lion basking in the sun of the Galapagos Islands was made standing with my camera at eye level. Boring! Hunkering down for a lower point of view made for a photo with a bit more interest and impact. However, I don’t suggest working this close to a grizzly bear.
DOF is dependent on three things:
1. The distance of the lens to the subject,
2. The focal length of the lens, and
3. The lens aperture (or f-stop).
Keep in mind that DOF does not begin or end abruptly; rather, there is a gradual transition from sharpness to unsharpness (or vice versa). Controlling DOF becomes especially important when you wish to isolate your (sharp) subject from its (blurred) background—or, conversely, when you wish to relate a subject to its background by keeping both elements sharp.
The next two photos (below) are examples of isolating a primary subject from the background. In both cases the lens focal length was 100mm—a medium telephoto. In the first, an aperture of f/11 was used and you can see that the background, while not sharp, is apparent and distracting. The second photo was made with an aperture of f/4 and the juniper tree now stands out quite nicely from its background in an almost 3-D effect. In both cases, I wanted to maintain a sense of place, in the canyon country of Utah.
“Your point of focus is just as important as the aperture setting when it comed to controlling the DOF.”
This juniper tree was photographed with a 100mm lens and an aperture of f/11. The depth of field is not large enough to make the background sharp, but it is sufficient to make it a distraction.
In this photo, I chose a larger aperture (f/4) to make the depth of field shallower. Notice how the tree now stands out against the background and that background is less distracting.
Out of focus foregrounds are very distracting, whereas out-of-focus backgrounds are less so.
A ground level view with an ultra wide angle lens (16mm) on my DSLR gave me a good perspective to show the relationship of people and wildlife in the Galapagos Islands. This Galapagos albatross seemed undisturbed by visitors walking by (and by me while making this photograph).
Your point of focus is just as important as the aperture setting when it comes to controlling the DOF. In some cases, you may not have sufficient DOF to include all the elements in sharp focus. Check out the shots above, showing a mountain wall and snowfield with tundra flowers in the foreground. I used a telephoto perspective to make the background more dramatic, but even stopping down to the smallest aperture did not make it possible to keep both the flowers and the mountain wall sharp. So which to choose? The obvious choice is to have the flowers in focus. Otherwise, they just became meaningless yellow blobs. While this meant that the mountain wall and snowfield were not sharp, they were sufficiently identifiable to give a sense of place.
For many conservation issues, your point of view and choice of focal length can be important in telling your story.
In the Galapagos National Park, there has been growing concern about human impact as the number of visitors increases. As a result, strict rules have been put in place requiring all visitors to have trained guides and stay on designated trails. In telling part of this story, I photographed a wave albatross (also called a Galapagos albatross) that chose to nest close to one of those trails (previous page). It was undisturbed by the people walking by and, from my observations over the years of coming here, the guides do a good job of keeping people on those trails. As in many instances of documenting the interaction of people and wildlife at this park, I chose a low angle of view to better show the interaction. In addition, I used a 16mm (ultra-wide) focal length on the zoom lens on my DSLR.
Here’s the same plant but from a far different perspective. In this case, I got down on the ground low enough to shoot from underneath the leaf—a snake’s eye view. The backlighting made the leaf glow brightly against the darkness of the spruce forest and blue sky.
This straight-down shot, showing a leaf of sticky geranium on the floor of a Rocky Mountain forest, is okay—and the soft, overcast lighting brings out the bright autumn color. But it’s not really an attention grabber.
I often like to look for different ways of capturing familiar subjects. Before shooting, take some time to examine the scene or subject and see if there is an angle of view that is different enough to attract attention.
These are important lens selection considerations in conservation photography. Use them to help tell your story more effectively.
1. What perspective do you want, wide or compressed?
2. How do the picture elements relate or interact?
3. Should you choose a high point of view? Or low? What’s the impact?
4. Shooting a variety of perspectives gives you more choices later for the best impact.