One of the handy features of shooting with a telephoto lens is that perspective is flattened. This can be used for creative purposes in flattening scenery into semi-abstract patterns.
Most shooters automatically reach for a telephoto focal length lens when shooting a distant subject. But Robert Keeley says this focal option can be used more creatively.
When something is too far away, most photographers reach for their telephoto lens. That might include the telephoto end of a versatile zoom (fixed to the camera or via changing to another lens on a DSLR), or even fixed aperture telephoto lens or zoom (which high-end amateurs or pro shooters can usually only afford). Whichever type of lens you use, telephotos present some great possibilities. They allow you to do more creatively than simply dragging a subject closer, handy as that is. Here are few things to think about when you reach for a telephoto lens option.
1. SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD
The particular optical characteristics of telephoto lenses mean they can offer a very shallow depth of field. Elements like subject matter, movement, camera-to-subject distance, you chosen focal length, the aperture or f number, format size and the so-called ‘circle of confusion’ also influence when shallow focus becomes more noticeable. But the important idea here is that you can use shallow depth of field to focus the attention of the viewer on to a particular element in your image by blurring both foreground and background elements in a composition. It’s a great creative option when you switch to telephoto.
The shallow depth of field created when shooting distant subjects can be used to good effect in the right circumstances. Here I wanted to separate the standing group in this sporting crowd, whilst blurring those in the foreground and background.
2. FLATTENING PERSPECTIVE
As the distance-to-subject increases, a telephoto lens will also offer a flattened perspective. This can be really useful with the right type of scene. The images seen here illustrate the point. Distant hills can combine to look like compressed sheets, and the same effect can apply to man-made structures as well. This effect works best when there are obvious distinctive layers or objects present in any given scene.
Telephoto lenses are great for flattening perspective in scenes like this. The various folds in the landscape are compressed into layers.
The same principle will work when shooting distant urban settings. Here the different buildings can be compressed together to form a semi-abstract pattern.
If you are shooting a scene with strong interest both close to your shooting position, and a long distance away, you won’t be able to include all this information and achieve this layered (or flattened perspective) effect very easily. Telephoto won’t be the way to go. But if you want to isolate something within that scenario, a telephoto focal length can help you achieve that.
3. ISOLATING THE SUBJECT
As mentioned above, with a telephoto lens you can effectively isolate your subject. This is variation on the shallow depth of field, but it can be particularly useful for candid portraits and ‘street’ photography. By relying on the fact that a telephoto lens will offer very shallow depth of field, you can find individuals and effectively separate them from their surrounds. This is highly advantageous when you have very few distractions both in front of, and/or behind, your subject, but interestingly it will also work in a busy or crowded environment, where there are lots of distractions. As long as you can throw these elements out of focus on either side of your subject this is a handy technique to use.
Telephoto lenses are great for street photography when you need to isolate a subject in an environmental portrait.
It's worth noting that this isolation of a subject can work in a crowded environment by blurring surrounding distractions.
4. CROPPING
Finally, one last option to consider is another method by which you can use the same idea of focusing on and isolating your subject. Cropping in on any given scene effectively produces the similar end result as using a high powered zoom. There’s nothing wrong with this approach (it has been used by photographers since the beginning of the craft), but if you decide to crop with a digital file, you must make sure you’ve shot a big enough file size so that you can safely discard pixels and still have an image big enough to use!
If you want to crop your image, make sure that at a minimum you’re shooting with a large JPEG file format because you are “throwing pixels away” when you crop. There’s nothing worse than shooting a ‘winning’ shot, then cropping an already small file and realising you’ve ended up a ‘postage stamp’ sized picture, which might only be suitable for the web – or perhaps not even that!
With some subjects it will be difficult or impossible to get really close. At this sailing race organisers kept photographers away from competitors.
Without a really high-powered telephoto lens, I got around the restrictions by cropping in on the image. To do this effectively you need to be shooting with a large JPEG or a hi-res image, so that as you crop the scene (and thus lose pixels) you'll still retain a useable size of file.
One of the handy features of shooting with a telephoto lens is that perspective is flattened. This can be used for creative purposes in flattening scenery into semi-abstract patterns.
