Photo Tutorial: Distance Between Objects

Just as the sun came out this afternoon, lazy little Scooter laid in a sunny spot on the bed and I pulled out my camera. I thought I'd show you what I meant about the focal length of a lens affecting the way objects look in relation to each other in a photograph.

For each of these photos, the distance between Scooter and the glass lamp didn't change. (Like she would even think of getting up. Surely she'll still be lying there in a few hours.) What changed were the focal length of the lens and my position to Scooter.

55mm

35mm

18mm

The first shot is most zoomed in and makes Scooter and the lamp appear closer together. The last shot, the wide-angle shot, makes the lamp look tiny and distant. You can also see that with a shorter focal length more of the scene is captured, like the sun coming through the window, which didn't appear in the other two photos.

I hope these little tutorials are helpful. I'm making them partly as a reminder to myself of the things I'm learning and partly because I'm hoping they'll help you. If they do, leave me a little note. I am by no means an expert, just a lover of photography. I know many of you are too.

And, if I haven't said it recently, thanks for reading.