Exercise 9 - Focal lengths

Off to the beach again for this exercise, using the D300s with the Nikkor 18 - 200 mm and the Sigma 10 – 20 mm lenses. The camera was tripod mounted.

 This was taken at 200 mm focal length, using the lighthouses as the main subject. At this length the distance is compressed and detail to the sides and particularly the sky is missed.

 At 170 mm the beach is getting bigger and there’s an inkling of detail in the sky.

 

At 135 mm the beach looks bigger again, but it looks less busy. The piers are looking longer and there’s a bit more action in the sky, but the lighthouses are still the main point of interest.

 With the lens at 95 mm the effects are accentuated. The points of interest are still the lighthouses, but other distractions are starting to creep in. In this image the beach seems to be getting busier, although the images were taken within seconds of each other.

At 50 mm the lighthouses are losing their centre of attention status as the scaffolding at the end of the piers and the boat entering the harbour become more interesting. The main feature is becoming the sky, which explains why people are pretty well clothed (apart from the ones who are at the seaside and dress for that of course!!

As the image gets a wider view (now at 35 mm) the attention is taken by other elements – the wind break, children playing and the spa complex on the cliff are now becoming the main points of interest, with the lighthouses becoming more of a point of reference. The sky is now looking much more threatening.

 

Still at 35 mm, but panned to the right slightly the lighthouses are insignificant compared to the colours in the beach chalets.

At 20 mm the clouds are starting to become more important as they seem to have a convergence towards the centre of the lens. The lines of the beach chalets, the yellow safety line and the tapering walkway all lead to the spa complex which seems to be seems to be trying to be the main point of the image.

 

I now change lenses, from the 18 – 200 mm to the 10 – 20 mm.

At 16 mm the converging effect has increased. The spa and the piers are now losing their prominence as the chalets and sky take centre stage. The perceived distance in the image is increasing as the lens setting gets wider.

 At 10 mm the ‘zoom’ effect is what makes the image, rather than what’s in it. Though the lighthouses are still there, they are immaterial as far as the image is concerned.

This image is cropped from the centre of the image taken at focal length 10 mm. Apart from the difference in clarity, the image closely resembles the one taken at 200 mm (below)

This exercise has shown that the different focal lengths can change the image to the point that the main point of interest can be changed (sometimes for the better) to the degree that the original idea can be lost.