but enlarge the image until it is the same size as your first print. Except
that the picture made from the greater enlargement will be fuzzier and
grainier, it will look the same as the first picture. You can do this with
every focal length lens you have until you get tired. The result will be
the same every time.
Figure 3-11.
Perspective can be controlled by using different
focal lengths to allow you to change camera
position
d. To show how lens focal lengths allow you to modify apparent
perspective, try this experiment. Using the same lenses, take a picture of
a person in the foreground and a distinct background, such as a building.
Only now, each time you change lenses, move your camera so that your main
subject remains the same size.
If you start with your longest lens, for
example, you would move closer to your subject each time you changed to a
shorter lens. This time, when you make your prints, the apparent size of
the background, in relation to your (consistent) subject size will change.
The background in the picture taken with the long lens will appear much
larger, and therefore closer, than the same background taken with the
shorter lens.
But the difference is entirely the result of your having
moved the camera between each shot.
The lens only helped you keep your
subject's size the same in each. If lenses had no limit to their resolving
power, and if film didn't have similar limits, there would be no need to
make any telephoto effect you wanted by simply changing your camera position
and enlarging the negative as much as you needed.
Unfortunately, physics
and chemistry don't cooperate, and you're going to have to carry several
lenses if you want to control perspective in this way.
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