A few weeks ago, one of my readers, Michelle, asked me about wide lenses and long lenses and what all that means. Here are two shots taken from the same vantage point moments apart, one with a wide lens and one with a long lens.

This first shot was taken with a WIDE lens. I zoomed the camera all the way out so the lens would see as much as possible in the scene. A wide lens gives you a wide field of view so the camera sees a lot in the frame. You can see that the shot looks a bit distorted. My husband’s shoulder looks very large in the frame, and the house in the background looks small in comparison. This exaggeration of proportion is a property of very wide lenses. You can also see that everything in the frame is in focus, even the objects far away in the frame.

Here is the same shot but taken with a LONG lens (otherwise known as a telephoto lens). A long lens gives you a narrow field of view so the camera sees just a slice of the scene. I zoomed in all the way to get this shot. You can see that the long lens isolates Chloe from the background and places all the attention on her and not the other stuff in the frame. The background looks much closer to her and is out of focus. Long lenses are great for portraits.

For more about lenses, check out these I Speak Film articles:

Camera Lenses 101

Depth of Field 101