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#Post#: 84--------------------------------------------------
Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: mtakeda
Date: August 20, 2015, 7:30 pm
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Just finish reading the material I had one thought that on the
several photos you used wide angle lens such as 15mm and got
down low yet the image is narrow in scope with great emphasis of
the foreground. Did you crop the both side in post processing?
#Post#: 85--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: ianplant
Date: August 21, 2015, 9:37 am
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Hi Massi, no, I am not typically cropping the images. I'm just
very careful about my scene selection and composition.
#Post#: 86--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: mtakeda
Date: August 21, 2015, 2:59 pm
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Thank you. I just wonder how to accomplish narrow perspective
with ultra wide angle lens such as 15mm. I felt same way to see
Ansel Adam's Mt. Williamson. Getting closer to the rock is the
answer?
#Post#: 87--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: ianplant
Date: August 21, 2015, 3:09 pm
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Yes, getting closer is usually the answer (but not always, of
course, it depends on the scene). I like to get very close to a
foreground element, filling the lower third or half of the image
frame with that element. But you have to be careful about your
background. If you find the resulting view of the background is
too wide, then you need to back away a bit from the foreground,
and then zoom in slightly. Done correctly, this will keep the
foreground element the same size, but the background view will
be a more narrow one, making the background seem larger. With
every image it is different, you need to make a decision
regarding the relative sizes of your foreground and background.
So to summarize: zooming in will make the background look
larger, while zooming out will make the background look smaller.
The foreground will also look smaller if you zoom out, but if
you get closer to the foreground, you can make it look larger,
but the background will stay the same size. Likewise, you can
back away from the foreground and this will make it look
smaller, unless you zoom in.
#Post#: 88--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: mtakeda
Date: August 21, 2015, 6:11 pm
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I am confused. You said if I back off the background gets
smaller. I figure this means less or narrow background area so
I went out to verify it and found the the background got wider,
more area after I backed off. I confirmed this on the sheet of
paper. As the perspective angle of a given lens( I tested on
16mm of 16-35mm zoom) stays same I do not understand why the
area of the background gets narrower when zoomed out. Where am I
missing your points?
#Post#: 89--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: ianplant
Date: August 21, 2015, 6:36 pm
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No, I never said that backing off makes the background smaller.
I said that by zooming in or out, you change the size of the
background. There is one caveat to this: if, in fact, your
background is relatively close, then moving back and forth can
make it appear larger or smaller, but if your background is far
away (let's say it is a distant mountain), moving a few feet
back or forward won't change the size of the background (you'd
have to move very long distances to make a mountain that is five
miles away look bigger or smaller in the image frame). So, with
the exception of close backgrounds, changing your focal length
is how you change the size of the background. For your
foreground, because it is so close to your lens, you can easily
change its size within the image frame by either zooming in or
out, or getting closer or farther away.
To rephrase what I did say: if your background looks too small
in your shot, then you need to zoom in to make it look bigger.
But if you zoom in, your foreground gets bigger too. You may
then need to back up to reduce the size of your foreground so
that it properly fits within the image frame.
Let's put it this way: let's say you are photographing a nice
bunch of wildflowers as your foreground, with a mountain in the
background. You get in close to the flowers, filling the lower
part of the frame with the foreground using a wide-angle lens.
But then you notice that your background mountain doesn't look
very large. So what you need to do is back away from the flowers
and zoom in. This will make your background look larger. The
flowers look larger too, but by backing away from the
foreground, you can bring them back down to the proper size.
So for every near-far composition, you need to find the
combination of focal length and position relative to your
foreground that works best for your given scene. I've posted an
example in the gallery; hopefully that will help make this more
clear:
HTML http://ianplant.createaforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=73
HTML http://ianplant.createaforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=73
#Post#: 90--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: mtakeda
Date: August 21, 2015, 7:35 pm
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Thank you. So it is a combination of the camera position and
forcal length of the lens. Correct?
P.s. I watch photo related u tube daily and guess who was there.
You look like a NFL quarterback rather than photographer. Great
presentation.
#Post#: 91--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: ianplant
Date: August 21, 2015, 7:48 pm
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Yes, you are correct - it is a combination of camera distance
from your subject and your focal length.
Which presentation was it? Was it the B&H Optic presentation?
An NFL quarterback? I'm flattered! ;D
#Post#: 92--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: mtakeda
Date: August 21, 2015, 9:05 pm
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Yes, I am talking about your presentation at B & H. You have
other ?
#Post#: 93--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreground- " Get low and closer"
DIR By: ianplant
Date: August 21, 2015, 9:18 pm
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I think that's the only video of a presentation of mine.
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