Altering perspective is important aspect of making strong photographs. This can be done by using a very short or very long lens, by using two or more frames of film in combination in a darkroom print, using various photo compositing tools in an image editing software program or using a tripod with a panoramic head and a photo stitching software.
Wide angle lenses are traditionally used to include more in a photograph than can be captured by a regular lens.In the 1960s
Lee Friedlander,
Pete Turner and
Gary Winogrand changed the way photographers thought about lenses. Each of these photographers began using wide angle lenses in situations where longer lenses had traditionally been used to create a perspective where the distance between any 2 objects appeared to be farther apart than the way our eyes see it.
The way all lenses are designed is, as a lens gets shorter the distance between any 2 objects in the photograph appears to be farther apart. As the choice of lens wider gets this separation increases to the point that overall perspective becomes dreamlike and it is clear to the viewer that the perspective is different than the way our eyes would see the space.
Lens size can be measured in 2 ways . The traditional measurement is focal length. This gets confusing because what would be wide angle in one format might not be wide angle in another format. For instance a 65mm lens is a wide angle lens on a 4 x5 view camera, but would not be a wide angle lens on a digital SLR camera.
A second measurement is
angle of view. This is the same for all formats. The way our eyes see the distance between 2 subjects is ~ 47°. If a lens was placed on the camera with a 90° to 100° angle of view the change in distance between 2 subjects would clearly look different to any viewer. The subjects appear much farther apart.
Using long lenses can also alter perspective. As the choice of lens has a narrower angle of view this separation decreases to the point that overall perspective becomes dreamlike, but in a different way than with a wide angle lens, and it is clear to the viewer that the perspective is different than the way our eyes would see the space. The subjects appear much closer together. If a lens was placed on the camera with a 3° to 8° angle of view the change in distance between 2 subjects would clearly look different to any viewer. The subjects appear much farther apart.
A second way of creating a wide angle image is blending. Fragmented images are faster. A good example of smooth blends are the photographs of
Jerry Uelsmann. A good example of fragmented blends is
Craig Barber.
A third way is to create a panoramic photograph. One way is to buy a panoramic camera. A second way is to create one with image editing software. This requires a ball head with a panning clamp and put together to or more photographs on the computer. There are different manufacturers making different types of panoramic heads. Going this route is more expensive than buying a wide angle lens.
Perspective can be altered simply by where one chooses to stand.
Henri Cartier Bresson is proof of that. But lenses, darkroom masking and blending,Photoshop masking and compositing, panoramic cameras and panoramic heads provide more ways to do this.
© 2010 Paul Light all rights reserved
