When taking pictures of scenery, many people like to use wide-angle lenses to expand their field of vision and include more scenery in the picture; some people like to use standard lenses because it has a natural perspective and can “restore what you see in front of you”.
In fact, telephoto lenses also have some unique advantages in shooting landscapes, which are worth understanding and applying.
What I want to introduce to you today is some unique advantages and related applications of telephoto lenses in landscape photography, which will definitely let you know more about telephoto lenses, and you will be able to use and love telephoto lenses!
1. Shoot distant scenery
When shooting with a short focal length lens, the proportion of the scene will be very small when the scene is a little farther away; while the telephoto lens allows you to take a close-up of a distant scene with a proper proportion of the subject.
“I can take pictures when I get closer!” Having said that, isn’t it troublesome? You have to walk a lot. And, sometimes, you simply can’t “get close enough to shoot”.
For example, shooting distant scenery on the plank road, on the edge of a cliff, or by a lake or river; or, if you want to shoot some scary “shy” wild animals, you can only shoot with a telephoto lens.
If you bring a telephoto lens, or a zoom lens with a telephoto end, your creation will have many more possibilities.
2. Focus on local areas and improve composition
Compared with wide-angle lenses, telephoto lenses have a much smaller field of view, but this is not entirely a bad thing: you can better focus on interesting parts and eliminate unnecessary distracting scenes.
Some people say, “I can do this by cropping in post”-come on, this will affect the quality, and the more cropped parts, the greater the loss of quality.
In addition, often use telephoto and get used to the angle of view of telephoto lens, your “photography eye” will be sharper and good at finding interesting parts from chaotic scenes.
3. Powerful blur effect
The longer the focal length of the lens, the stronger the blurring ability. Ordinary telephoto lenses can easily blur objects that are very close to the subject, and take photos of “the foreground and background are blurred, and only the subject is clear”.
And if you want to take the same photo with a medium and short focal length lens, it is estimated that you have to use those “high-end products” with super large apertures.
4. “Space Compression” special effect
The biggest feature of the telephoto lens is “space compression”: contrary to the wide-angle lens that can “create a sense of depth”, the telephoto lens has small deformation and weak perspective effect, which can greatly shorten the distance between the foreground and the background.
Because of this characteristic, telephoto lenses can create some unique visual effects:
Enhance the connection between foreground and background
The “space compression” ability of the telephoto lens can make the foreground scene more “blend into the background”. You can keep both the subject in the foreground and the distant background in proportion and presence.
For example, in the same scene, take two photos with long and short focal length lenses, keeping roughly the same subject ratio, the shooting effect is as follows:
It can be seen that in the photos taken with the wide-angle lens, the background elements (mountains) appear very small; while in the photos taken with the telephoto lens, the background elements are very present.
In addition, “space compression” also makes the distance between the foreground and the background appear very close, and the feeling of connection and interaction between the subject and the background is stronger.
It is precisely because of this characteristic of the telephoto lens that many routines have been derived, such as shooting “mountains/buildings/sky surrounded by flowers/green leaves”:
You can also use straight and straight scenery such as roads and railings as guiding lines to draw the audience’s attention to the subject in the depth of the picture:
Taking landscape portraits with extremely distant scenery as the background also requires a telephoto lens to “bring people into the scene”:
Scale Up, Emphasize Differences
When shooting a large number of similar scenes and need to emphasize the quantity and scale of the subject matter (such as rolling mountains, dense forests, large flower fields, etc.), the telephoto lens is undoubtedly the most suitable.
Adjust the shooting angle to let more similar scenes into the mirror. The “space compression” effect of the telephoto lens will make these scenes with different distances feel “on the same plane”, appearing more in number and larger in scale.
On the contrary, when there are many different scenes in the picture, you can also “pull” them into the same plane, emphasizing their diversity and difference.
For example, when shooting a high mountain, you can use a telephoto lens to “pull” mountains of different distances and heights onto the same plane to show “the difference in scenery at different altitudes”.
When shooting flowers of different colors and types, you can also “pull” them into the same plane to emphasize the diversity of colors and types.
The above is all the content that I want to introduce to you in this issue, thank you for watching, and see you in the next issue.
