This reminds me of a technique in filming that when creating filming scenes, the designer would put smaller stuff in the background and bigger stuff in the foreground to create the illusion that stuff in the back are far away. For example, people would make windows on the same building smaller as they are farther away from the scene.
Staffjamesfong1
(Seed for discussion)
As the photographer increases the focal length of the camera, they also walk further away from the subject. Curiously, the background buildings end up looking closer and closer! Why might this be?
Staffjamesfong1
@TinnaLiu Interesting! In that case, we are picking up on the familiar size cue to (incorrectly) infer that the smaller things are farther away.
madssnake
The background buildings end up looking closer as the focal length of the camera increases because the angle of what is captured is narrower (e.g. as seen on slide 104). When the focal length is smaller, a wider part of the background is captured and must fit in the image. But since both images have the same width, the wider background is "squished" and I'd guess our brains assume that is farther since it is smaller (like @jamesfong1's point on familiar cue size). These images also make me think of how phones these days have multiple cameras with different focal lengths for all your photography needs
jonathanlu31
why does the background blur with increasing focal length?
Staffjamesfobrien
@ TinnaLiu I think the term often used for that is "forced perspective". The Hobbit/LoTR movies used this often to make the hobbits look small.
reinaw1012
This reminds me of the Dolly Zoom! Where changing focal length of the camera while walking closer/away from the subject changes background sizes. See: https://youtu.be/u5JBlwlnJX0
hukellyy
In my experience with photography, the relative size of objects in the frame is determined by their distance from the camera. The closer an object is to the camera, the larger it will appear in the frame, while objects that are further away will appear smaller. With a longer focal length lens, you can effectively "compress" this apparent distance between foreground and background elements, making the background appear closer to the subject and creating a more tightly integrated composition.
This reminds me of a technique in filming that when creating filming scenes, the designer would put smaller stuff in the background and bigger stuff in the foreground to create the illusion that stuff in the back are far away. For example, people would make windows on the same building smaller as they are farther away from the scene.
(Seed for discussion)
As the photographer increases the focal length of the camera, they also walk further away from the subject. Curiously, the background buildings end up looking closer and closer! Why might this be?
@TinnaLiu Interesting! In that case, we are picking up on the familiar size cue to (incorrectly) infer that the smaller things are farther away.
The background buildings end up looking closer as the focal length of the camera increases because the angle of what is captured is narrower (e.g. as seen on slide 104). When the focal length is smaller, a wider part of the background is captured and must fit in the image. But since both images have the same width, the wider background is "squished" and I'd guess our brains assume that is farther since it is smaller (like @jamesfong1's point on familiar cue size). These images also make me think of how phones these days have multiple cameras with different focal lengths for all your photography needs
why does the background blur with increasing focal length?
@ TinnaLiu I think the term often used for that is "forced perspective". The Hobbit/LoTR movies used this often to make the hobbits look small.
This reminds me of the Dolly Zoom! Where changing focal length of the camera while walking closer/away from the subject changes background sizes. See: https://youtu.be/u5JBlwlnJX0
In my experience with photography, the relative size of objects in the frame is determined by their distance from the camera. The closer an object is to the camera, the larger it will appear in the frame, while objects that are further away will appear smaller. With a longer focal length lens, you can effectively "compress" this apparent distance between foreground and background elements, making the background appear closer to the subject and creating a more tightly integrated composition.