The recipe #17- Long focal lenth

[Bill Crawford]

This is a shot of Mt. Stuart behind the ridge South of SR 970, East of Cle Elum. I took this shot to see how a 400mm would compress the distance between the two. When I looked at the photo on my monitor, I was amazed.

To me, Mt. Stuart looks to be less than 5 miles behind the ridge. I measured the distance with Goggle Earth at over 20 miles!

 

[JimFox]

Awesome Bill! I like this compression very much.

When Kyle posted this contest I had envisioned some photos like this where the long lens really shows how it can compress a scene. Good one.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice example of depth compression.

 

[Jeffrey]

The lens is doing nothing of the sort. This is the longest running myth in photography. What you are seeing is the effect of camera to subject distance. It is the same look no matter what lens you use. Differences in closeness to your subject affect the perspective of the image. The lens only provides a particular angle of view. I know this is shocking to people that have believed in 'long lens compression' for so long. There is no such thing.