I feel as though one of my jobs as a photographer is to create an artistic interpretation of my clients’ wedding day. That means using lighting, composition, and perspective-altering techniques to render a scene in a way unique to my eye.
One of my favorite techniques to capture a scene in a way a casual observer couldn’t is lens compression, which is a product of my particular lens choice. Not sure about what this means?
It’s all about perceived distance. Imagine that you’re photographing a bride and groom standing at the end of a dock with a beautiful sailboat in the background. If you’re standing right in front of them shooting them with a 24mm lens the sailboat will look very far off in the distance. If you back up to the end of the dock, perhaps, and shoot with a long lens (and I’m not talking an 85mm here!) it will look like the sailboat is directly behind the bride and groom even though it’s actually quite a distance away. This lets you create a much more intimate relationship between the subject and their environment.
Now why is that? It’s simply that by putting some distance between yourself and the bride and groom their apparent size becomes much closer to the apparent size of the far-off sailboat. It isn’t a trick of the lens! The bride and groom and the sailboat would have the same apparent size if you used a 24mm lens, they’d just all be really tiny in the frame. Using a longer lens (like a 200mm or greater) allows you to get far enough away from the couple to the make their apparent size close to that of the sailboat, but you’re still able zoom in to fill the frame with them.
Go outside with a wide angle lens and a long lens and try this – make an image where your subject takes up, say, half of the frame. Shoot that with your wide angle lens. Then shoot the same image with your long lens while having your subject take up the SAME half of the frame (you’ll have to back up a good ways!) and see what happens to the background!
If you’d like to learn more, see some hands-on demos and learn all about my lighting, posing and post-production techniques (along with those of Krystal and Matt Radlinski!) come join us in Atlanta, October 6th-7th for The f Stops Now 2-day workshop. There will be expert photography instruction. There will be live models and lighting demonstrations. There will be sweet swag from our sponsors. Visit thefstopsnow.com for more details and sign up today!
- Susan
5 Comments at "Susan Stripling on Lens Compression"
It’s really wonderful to see someone talk about lens compression, I feel like it’s the most over-looked area of photography, but it’s so important.
To me this is the most important thing to master once you get past the “basics” of composition. This is where craft is taken to it’s height and artistic interpretation can begin…
Love the lens compression! My clients love it also, the proper lens is what makes an award winning photograph WIN. I have some great samples of compression to show off. Check me out.
Chris
I agree – whilst it’s great to get in close with a wide-angle I feel that backing off, giving the couple space and shooting wide open with a long lens gives a fantastic perspective (and one that Uncle Bob)can’t really compete with!
Hmmm, is this photo 101 ? This is so basic.
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