Making Sense of Focal Lengths

For this tutorial, I’m going to go over the use of focal lengths beyond the convenience of zooming in and out, and how to choose the appropriate focal length. In portrait photography, the focal length you shoot at not only affects your distance from the subject, but also the manner you interact with the subject and the level of distortion in the image.

Image Distortion

There are three types of focal lengths; wide, normal and telephoto. Wide lenses distort an image to fit more in a frame. Normal lenses try and replicate the focal lengths of our eyes. Telephoto lens, as you probably guessed by now, bring the frame closer to you. Any lens under 35mm is considered a wide angle and 70mm and up is telephoto. The focal lengths in between 35-70 can be considered the “normal” range.

Important Notes

  • Wide: Distorts or stretches an image. Distortion becomes more noticeable as you get closer to the edges.
  • Normal: Nothing special
  • Telephoto: Compresses an image. This causes the subject as well as the background to appear closer than they are

In portrait photography, the compression provided by telephoto lenses is usually a good thing. Because of this, portraits, especially head shots are usually shot in the 70-200mm range. Can you imagine shooting a full length portrait of someone with a wide angle lens? You would throw off perception of your subject’s height and/or weight depending on your position. As for close ups, facial features would become distorted or magnified.

Below are two uncropped shots to show the difference in compression from 17mm and 35mm. The most obvious difference between the two is the body size of the subject. A closer look will bring up some other differences however. The “forward lean” of the subject is emphasized more in the 17mm shot and you can see a slight difference in facial structure between the two shots.

17mm Uncropped

35mm Uncropped

Subject Interaction

Image distortion isn’t the only thing to keep in mind with specific focal lengths. You should also take into consideration how you plan to use the lens. Wide angle lenses will require you to get closer to your subject, while a telephoto allows you to stand further back. These are things you should consider as they affect your shooting style.

For instance, I like to shoot at 17mm when covering parties because the focal length requires me to get close to my subject. This allows me to interact better with my subject in this shooting situation.

There are times however when I don’t want to get close to my subject. With portraiture, I may need to distance myself to make the subject feel more comfortable, or if I’m doing candid street photography, the distance makes shooting strangers in a natural, unposed environment a little less awkward.

Important Notes

  • Short focal lengths: Short focal lengths let you get in close and interact with your subject.
  • Long focal lengths: Long focal lengths require you to distance yourself from the subject to fit them in the frame. This distance can make it easier to catch a candid, natural shot, or help a model/subject feel less intimidated by being directly in front of a camera.


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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Behind The Scenes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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