Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
Lenses fall roughly into three families: a wide angle covers a big part of the scene and puts you right up against the subject, so it makes nearby things look big and puts the viewer inside the event; a normal lens gives a familiar view and forces the photographer to lean on the scene; a telephoto selects a narrow slice, simplifies the background and keeps you far away. There is no right or wrong between them; the view you want to tell chooses. Keeping faces away from the edges with a wide angle, respecting the consent of people photographed from far away with a telephoto, and choosing the background that will come behind the face on every skin are part of this choice.
Learning goal
You will be able to divide lenses into three big families, wide, normal and telephoto, and choose the view each family adds to a photo. You will know roughly which focal lengths these families correspond to; you will explain why a wide angle puts you right up against the subject and what this closeness makes look big; you will see how a wide angle can stretch faces at the edges of the frame; you will use how a telephoto builds a selective view by reducing the background to a narrow slice; and you will take into account the consent of people photographed from far away, and on every skin, the face's separation from the background.
The question
In a city square, you are photographing a street musician playing a long-necked lute and the crowd gathered around him. First you go into the crowd with a wide-angle lens: the musician's lute is huge at the front of the frame, and behind him the listeners, the square's buildings and the sky fit in; it is as if you are inside the circle too. Then you sit at a table in the café opposite and shoot with a long lens: this time only the musician's face and the fingers holding the strings are in the frame, with a wall behind whose detail has melted away.
Why does a wide angle make everything look big? And why does the same musician read so differently, in one frame as part of the crowd, in the other as a face on his own? In this lesson we will divide lenses into three families by short, medium and long focal lengths, and look at where each family places the viewer.
Context
In Lesson 12.1 we saw that focal length decides the angle of view, and that when shooting from the same place it only changes the width of the frame. In the field, though, a photographer who changes lenses usually moves their feet too. To fill the frame with a face with a short focal length, you get right up close; to fill it with the same face with a long lens, you stay far away. What gives a photo its real character is this change of place.
That is why it helps to think of lenses not only by their millimeters, but by where they force you to stand and what this stance tells the photo. The ranges below are for a full-frame sensor and are rough; the limits shift a little from photographer to photographer. What matters isn't the precision of the numbers, but the behavior of each family.
Simple explanation
What does a wide angle tell?
Lenses below roughly 35 millimeters are called wide-angle lenses, and those below 20 millimeters are often called ultra-wide. A wide angle fits a big part of the scene into the frame: a whole room, a square, a landscape. But when you want to fill the frame with a subject, you need to go very close to it. At this closeness, the thing nearest the camera looks much bigger than everything else in the frame: the musician's lute, a child's outstretched hand, a flower's petal. The feeling that a wide-angle lens makes everything big comes from here; in fact, what looks big is what is close to you.
This closeness carries a feeling too. A frame taken with a wide angle puts the viewer inside the event, in the middle of the crowd; the setting, the place and the surroundings are told together with the subject. It has a cost too: things standing close to the edges and corners of the frame stretch outward. This edge stretching can widen and reshape a face that falls at the edge, whether brown or pink. That is why, when photographing people with a wide angle, keeping faces a little in from the edges is a good habit.
What does a normal lens tell?
Lenses between roughly 40 and 60 millimeters are called normal lenses; they have a focal length close to the diagonal of a full-frame sensor. Many photographers find that the image a normal lens gives is close to what we see when we look at something from a natural distance. There is neither the exaggerated closeness of the wide angle nor the distant observation of the telephoto; the size of objects relative to each other feels familiar.
This familiarity makes the normal lens both easy and hard. It is easy, because it shows the scene without interpreting it too much. It is hard, because the lens itself doesn't add interest to the frame; the photo has to rely on what it shows, where it was taken from, and the light. That is also why many photographers love the normal lens on the street, in documentary work and when photographing daily life: it forces the photographer to lean not on the lens's effect, but on the scene.
What does a telephoto tell?
Lenses above roughly 70 millimeters are called telephoto lenses; the range from 70 to 135 millimeters is often used for portraits, and longer ones for sports, nature and distant subjects. A telephoto selects a narrow slice of the scene. This selectiveness also reduces the background to a narrow piece: instead of a whole square entering the frame as with a wide angle, with a telephoto only a piece of wall or a door behind the musician enters the frame. It is a powerful tool for simplifying what is behind the subject and gathering attention on a single thing.
A telephoto also keeps you far away. This lets you photograph a bird without scaring it, or a child without pulling them out of their game; but it can also mean photographing people from far away at a moment they don't notice. Photographing a face in close-up from far away with a telephoto can mean entering that person's privacy without their consent; on the street and in crowds, thinking about this line is the photographer's responsibility. The distant stance of a telephoto also leaves a face's proportions more familiar than a close shot; we will come back to the detail of this later when we talk about perspective.
Which one do you choose?
There is no right or wrong choice between the families; what you want to tell decides which one to use. Do you want the subject told together with its surroundings, or separated from them? Should the viewer be inside the event, or look from outside? A wide angle puts a view inside, a telephoto outside, and a normal lens between the two.
When choosing, think about skin and background together too. Because a telephoto reduces the background to a narrow slice, it makes it easier to choose what color and what brightness will come behind a face; moving dark skin in front of a bright wall, or light skin in front of a shaded doorway, can be possible by shifting two steps to the side. This is background selection with the lens. With a wide angle, on the other hand, the background is wide, and more of the work of separating the face from the background falls to the light and to positioning.
Visual evidence
You go back to the square. With the 24-millimeter lens you are inside the crowd; the musician is a dark-skinned young man with curly hair, and the body of his lute stands huge at the bottom edge of the frame. Behind him are the listeners' faces, the square's clock tower and the clouds. The face of a light-skinned woman listener falling at the right edge of the frame has stretched sideways; when you shift one step to the left and bring her inside the frame, her face returns to its usual shape.
When you shoot from the café table at 135 millimeters, the square disappears. The musician's face, his closed eyes and the fingers pressing on the strings fill the frame; behind him there is only a piece of a light-colored wall in the sun, and his dark skin comes away from this light ground by itself. Before shooting, you meet the musician's eyes, and he nods. The same musician, the same moment; in one frame a part of the square, in the other a person alone inside the music.
Common mistakes
Common mistakeThinking the wide angle itself enlarges objects.
What looks big is what is close to the camera. The fix: with a wide angle, come close to whatever you want to make look big.
Common mistakePlacing people at the edges and corners of the frame with a wide angle.
Faces at the edges can stretch and change shape. The fix: keep faces a little in from the edges.
Common mistakePhotographing people's faces in close-up from far away with a telephoto without their knowing.
This can mean entering the person's privacy. The fix: if possible, make eye contact and ask permission; respect this line on the street.
Summary
Lenses fall roughly into three families: a wide angle covers a big part of the scene and puts you right up against the subject, so it makes nearby things look big and puts the viewer inside the event; a normal lens gives a familiar view and forces the photographer to lean on the scene; a telephoto selects a narrow slice, simplifies the background and keeps you far away. There is no right or wrong between them; the view you want to tell chooses. Keeping faces away from the edges with a wide angle, respecting the consent of people photographed from far away with a telephoto, and choosing the background that will come behind the face on every skin are part of this choice.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will photograph the same subject with the three families, changing your place.
- Photograph a subject with a wide angle, getting right up to it and taking its surroundings into the frame too.
- Photograph the same subject with a normal focal length, from a distance that feels natural to you.
- Photograph the same subject with a telephoto from far away, choosing a place so that a simple background comes behind it.
- With a wide angle, photograph a friend first placed in the corner of the frame, then near the middle, and compare the shape of the face.
Check yourself
- Did each of the three frames stir a different feeling of view in you: inside, natural, from outside?
- In the frame you took with the telephoto, were you able to change the background with a few steps?
- Did the cheeks and forehead of the face you placed in the corner widen compared with its version in the middle?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Wide-angle lens | A lens below roughly 35 millimeters on full frame, covering a wide part of the scene. |
| Normal lens | A lens between roughly 40–60 millimeters on full frame, giving a familiar view. |
| Telephoto lens | A lens above roughly 70 millimeters on full frame, selecting a narrow slice of the scene. |
| Edge stretching | Things standing near the edges and corners of the frame stretching outward with a wide angle. |
| Background selection | Deciding which background will come behind the subject through the choice of place and lens. |
Mini quiz
1. In a frame taken with a wide angle, what is the real reason a nearby lute looks huge?
- A) A wide angle enlarges everything
- B) To fill the frame with the subject you came very close to it, and what is close looks big
- C) The lute is big anyway
- D) The aperture is very wide
2. On a full-frame sensor, roughly what range is a normal lens in?
- A) 10–20 millimeters
- B) 200–400 millimeters
- C) 100–135 millimeters
- D) 40–60 millimeters
3. How does a telephoto lens help simplify the background in a portrait?
- A) Because it selects a narrow slice of the scene, it reduces the area entering behind
- B) It always makes the background black
- C) It blurs the background by itself and no adjusting is needed
- D) It adds light to the background
4. In a group photo taken with a wide angle, if the face of a person falling in the corner has stretched, what do you do?
- A) Change the color of the skin
- B) Stop down the exposure
- C) Shift the person or the frame and keep the face a little in from the edges
- D) Stop the aperture down to its narrowest
Answers
- B — A wide angle requires coming close to fill the subject; what is close to the camera looks very big compared with what is far.
- D — Normal lenses are focal lengths close to the full-frame sensor's diagonal, roughly 40–60 millimeters.
- A — The narrow angle of view takes only a small piece from behind the subject into the frame; choosing the background with a few steps gets easier.
- C — Edge stretching shows at the edges and corners of the frame; bringing the face inside keeps its shape.
Summary card
- Wide (below ~35 mm): being inside, setting; what is close looks big.
- Normal (~40–60 mm): a familiar view; strength comes from the scene.
- Telephoto (above ~70 mm): selectiveness, simple background, observing from a distance.
- With a wide angle keep faces away from the edge; with a telephoto from far away, respect consent.
- On every skin, choose the background behind the face with place and lens.
Bridge to the next lesson
In this lesson we thought about the three families separately, but most bags hold zoom lenses that gather them all in a single body: you turn the ring and go from wide angle to telephoto. Still, many photographers prefer to work with lenses that can't zoom, tied to a single focal length. Why is a lens that can't zoom so loved, and why can a lens forcing you to walk be a gain? The next lesson compares prime and zoom lenses.