Beecher's Handouts /

Focal Length / 17.5 - Volume & Background

Most photographers use focal length in only one way:

They zoom back-and-forth to compose their photographs.

A few photographers use focal length to:

1) Change the volume of a subject

2) Change the background.

Be one of the few.

Read on.

Volume

In the first pair of photographs, compare how the bush in the lower left corner, and the broken branch in the middle, look in each photograph.


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Note how the bush and branch seem to be sticking out more, in the photograph to the left.

This is because a wide-angle focal length was used.

In the right-hand photograph, using a telephoto focal length, the bush and branch are flatter.

Background

I photographed the same fallen tree from the side.

Again, study how volume is depicted with the different focal lengths.

The photograph made with a telephoto focal length is flatter, more compressed, than the wide-angle version.

And, compare the backgrounds in the two versions.

Look at how much closer the two telephone poles are in the telephoto focal length photograph, than in the wide-angle version.


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