Focal lengths

I thought I would explore this exercise from the stock of pictures that I have, as I have an expectation of the outcome (I will go about the exercise shortly and see what if any differences I experience). My assumption here is that it is to do with perspective. Telephoto lens's have a technical feature that crushes perspective and the longer the focal length, the more telling the effect. It takes the effect of diminishing or widening the apparent distances between objects (dependant on the lens of choice) and the viewer.

12 mm lens - River and rocks155 mm lens - River and rocks

There are some obvious general things to be seen from these comparisons, such as the close-ups tend to abstract the subject from its surroundings; the subject's points of reference (which we can see because of the comparative shots). The wider angle shots provide scale, this is probably to do with having the points of reference. 

Rocks and river. the close up is what I expected from the shoot. I had jus received the 10 stop ND filter and wanted to do some comparison shots. The tripod was used and I exchanged lenses between the wide angle and the telephoto. Whilst the ND filter will affect the pictorial content considerably, generating an ethereal quality to both it is more marked in the close up. The tactile nature of the rock, with the glistening sheen and the semi-solid looking water flow with sensual curves are very evocative. The wider angle shot minimises this effect. I'm not sure if the colour has shifted to a bluer tone on the close -up and I'm also not sure that I would to leave it in at that density if I were to present the image. There are points of reference to scale both these images and the compression effect is not as tangible on these shots.

34mm lens

Potter

 64 mm

The Potter. Again the wide angle shot places the subject in the environment - this could have been much wider and it might have been better to have included some of his end produce and raw materials (I have other shots that do do this but closer in and decided not to include for this comparison, but one is shown below for information). Nevertheless in the wider shot we can see the potter at his work, with his "slip", his coat or jacket hanging on a nail top right and his wheel the centre of his attention; in this shot the wheel appears closer to him, not quite hemmed in but without a great deal of room to move. Whereas the telephoto shot actually appears to give the subject some freedom to his right. His stance on both shots is similar but the enlarged view seems to offer more space, more room to breath. The close-up is a much more personal shot; just because it is close-up? I don't necessarily think so, it is true we can see his face, his intent and focus on the job of work; the hold that he places on the pot - the wider shot has a stationary wheel and in the close-up it is turning at full tilt. I think the intimacy of the close shot comes about with the potter at one with his work, which is difficult to discern the further back the viewpoint is - diminishing emotional perspective?? Interestingly it is more apparent in the additional shot below.

12mm lens - Bridge of sighs

                                                                85mm lens

The Bridge of Sighs: ok, it's been done a few times before. I wanted to take the wider angle shot to include the frieze on the building adjacent to the bridge. I knew this would give context and add some interest, rather than have a straightforward heads on view - as per the close-up shot, even if I zoomed out a fraction to expose either some architecture or water. The wider shot has a few context realising features, the gondolier on the canal, the banks and buildings of both sides of the canal, the inner passage of the building on our left and finally the sky (albeit a flat blue Viennese summer sky). The close-up was taken with a zoom lens and is as much about the texture and tone as about it's architectural form. The relationship with it's environment was never required in this shot, but nevertheless as far as this exercise is concerned the compression of perspective and any points of reference decouples this object from any textual considerations.

12mm lens - Slats

 70mm lens

These shutters appealed initially as a wide angle composition, looking down the alley, a tumble down, derelict set of storage rooms at the back of the old government house in St John's, Antigua, soon turned into another opportunity of tones and textures on the slatted fronts. Again in the close-up, there's no context as I cropped the wall out to focus on the textures and the wider shot delivers depth, tone and texture, much as the others have done.

12 mm lens - Clock tower

85mm lens - Clock tower

This is the Samrat Yantra, an astrological monument in Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.

I had decided to take a number of shots of this, and similar, edifices in the area, focussing mainly on delivering scale. This is a tall construction, over 25 metres and all to tell the time! In the wider shot again there are a number of objects that indicate the scale of the building, the ground cover, the steps and the birds. I used the birds in the close up shot (by happenstance) and I was lucky to have one flying in the wide angle shot. The wider view gives a strong sense of size which the telephoto version cannot deliver. As one would expect the compression of perspective delivers the observation tower closer in the lower version even though the number of steps is about the same in both shots i.e. the contextual elements are consistent but the appearance of the object appears closer in the lower photograph due to reduced perspective.

I will undertake the exercise with the above in mind to collect images which either prove or disprove my understanding above