Photo Tutorial: Lenses and Faces

After nap time, I bribed Lily into sitting still (sort of) while I snapped a few photos. But, boy, can that girl move. I gave her crackers, but the excitement of sitting on Mommy and Daddy's bed was too much. So the focus here is as good as it can be with a wiggly little toddler.

I thought I'd point out the difference a wide angle lens can make in faces. A wide angle lens (one with the least magnification) also skews the photograph slightly. Remember that a wide angle lens captures the widest angle, not necessarily the most accurate one. It distorts the subject, as you can see here.

18mm55mm

See how much narrower Lily's face looks in the first photo? The second photo, at 55mm, is a more accurate reflection of what her face looks like in real life. (Again, a 50mm lens is the closest to what the human eye actually sees.)

And here's where I turned the camera on myself. (Yikes!) See how much narrower my face looks in the first photo compared to the second?

18mm

55mm

It's interesting to me, too, the change in colors from the first photographs to the second, even though I didn't change the settings on the camera. Also, my self portrait is only as good as I could reach my arm, which is why my face fills the frame of the second photo better than the first. It's a testament to the magnification from 18 to 55mm.

At any rate, the second photographs of both Lily and me definitely look better than the first. And, wiggly as she is, following Lily through the lens of my camera is always time well spent (as long as she doesn't fall off the bed -- which she didn't!).