How Lens Compression Works | Get better photos when you understand this!
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- Today I talk about Lens Compression and how it works. Once you understand this, you can try out a few techniques to get very different looking photos by just changing a few things when you take a photograph.
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Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Zooming in
1:04 - The Key to control compression
2:17 - Using longer focal lengths
3:00 - You don't have to move
3:43 - Sensor size and compression
4:30 - Still not getting it?
5:20 - Examples of compression
6:17 - An exercise in compression
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#boxheadmike #phototutorials - Навчання та стиль
I've seen NAT GEO photographers do this. And their images stand out. I will start implementing this.
Indeed!! It is a fun one to play with. I often shoot my landscapes with a telephoto lens and this really compresses the background with the subject.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Perfectly simple explanation 🙂 Thanks, Mike! This is so misunderstood by even professionals.
Thanks very much Jeahn! Most definitely...it's all about those relative distances!
Thanks for watching. 😁👍
I understand this topic, but if you carefully watch the words you spoke during this video, there are references to the lens focal length being the cause of the image compression when you and I both know that the focal length of the lens has zero effect on the apparent compression of the perspective. Instead, it is always only the subject-lens distance, and the proprtions of the subject-lens distance relative to the backround-lens distance. The use of the 85mm lens is not what is causing the background to compress toward the subject and appear to be closer to the subject. Instead, it is simply the fact that at the further subject-lens distance used with the 85mm lens, the distance between the backround and the subject became proportionally smaller relative to the greater subject-lens distance. And this difference in the proportional distances is what is causing the background to appear closer to the subject when using an 85mm lens at a greater distance to the subject than when a 28mm lens is used at a closer distance to the subject. So it is always distance and relative distance, and never the focal length itself that is changing the "look" of the photograph.@@mikesphotography
@@joansmith7649 thanks for your in-depth reply.
I make these videos to try and help people understand things I'm photography better, in my spare time, I might not get the wording absolutely correct, but from reading most of the comments... it has helped.
I'm sorry that some of the nuances in my words don't fit your criteria perfectly, but after all, we're all human and not robots... but by the looks of it AI will be making most videos here in the near future, so they will hopefully be grammatically perfect...
I appreciate your response and I am glad that you and other photographers are helping others with their photography. I am always open to learning new things, so I routinely watch videos on photography. And I have seen so so so many videos that leave photographers wondering about the root cause of perspective effects, that I do feel compelled to leave comments. But that being said, I am grateful for the videos. Thank you.@@mikesphotography
*The easiest way I've found to explain compression is:* "When you stand further back, you need to "crop/zoom" the entire scene for the object to remain the same size. This makes a smaller part of the background fill the frame, making it look bigger and closer."
Absolutely brilliant video
Brilliantly explained!
Very clear explanation, will try this out next time I get out with the camera.
Great to hear it was clear...it's definitely worth trying when you're out and about with the camera. 😁👍
Thank you for this accessible tutorial
This video is heaven sent.
That's great to hear! I'm glad it has helped.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography would definitely watch more.
Thanks again, Mike.
No worries, thanks for watching 😁👍
This was so helpful! Thanks!
Thanks so much Diego! 😁👍
Great video Mike. Very clear about a concept not always evident
Very simple...once you explained it. Thanks Mike
Thanks so much! 😁👍
Excellent explanation, thank you!
No worries, thanks for watching 😁👍
Incredible explanation
Thanks very much Abhra! 😁👍
Excellent and very helpful tutorial!
Thanks so much! 😁👍
This was incredibly useful. Thank you Mike.
That's great to hear Melvin, thanks for watching 😁👍
Thank you
Excellent explanation Mike.
Thanks David. 😁👍
Good examples. Thanks!
Thanks very much. 😁👍
Thanks for the explanation! 👍👍
And thanks for watching! 😁👍
Thanks for a great explanation.
No worries, thanks for watching Ken. 😁👍
very well explained thanks for posting
Thanks very much! 😁👍
Thanks for this video. Quite useful!
No worries, thanks for watching 😁👍
Excellent explanation
Thanks very much! 😁👍
It’s been a while since I watched one of your videos Mike (my bad), but I’m instantly remembering why I liked them. Such clear explanation! Thank you.
No worries dude, sometimes life gets in the way...and sometimes the algorithm sends other things your way! Glad to have you back! 😁👍
I knew about the distortion/compression factor but watched to learn something new, or another angle on the same subject. Your explanation is superb. Thank you.
Thanks very much David. It is a very interesting one, I use this so much in my photography to get different perspectives of the same subject. Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great stuff as usual Mike!
No worries, I hope it has helped! Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great explanation as usual.
Thanks very much! 😁👍
This was ground breaking for me. Been shooting for years but what I had in mind was Longer focal length = compression.
So often I said "oh I need the tele for that awesome compression"
But the real thing is perspective. You could get the same compression by using something likw a 30mm and crop in all the way until it matches like a 200mm, of course that inly works theoretically cause youd normally wouldn't have enough megapixel, but it still changes the way I'll shoot in the future. For example you'd could go with a wuper high megapixel camera and crop in from an 85 instead of bringing that 70-200. I always was under the impression, that 200 would have a different "compression"
This is also destroys the idea of a "full frame" look. It's also a myth
Great job Mike. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks so much! A lot more to come! 😁👍
I love you ❤❤❤. U made the topic crystal clear ❤❤
Lol, well great to hear I could help!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Amazing amazing video!
Thanks very much!
Thank you so much. I finaly can put a name on this effect and know how to use it
No worries, Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks Mike! This is a fantastic video. I had the concept and have practiced it, but the explanation and demo of the train taken at two different focal lengths was a revelation! Then the demo of the building out your window, well that just blew my mind! Thank you very much!
Great to hear Jamie! It's really worth getting out with a zoom on your camera and then just trying to shoot the same subject in different ways...another one is at a sporting event where the cars/people/bikes/horses are moving around a course or track, then you can just perch up in one spot and then try different lenses at different focal lengths, telephoto lenses for when they are far away and a wide angel when they are closer...my favourite setup for shooting events is a two camera setup, with the 16-35mm and the 70-200mm f2.8 lenses...(way too expensive to buy as I only do a few events every now and then so I just rent those two when I need them 😆).
Glad to hear the building in the window example helped! 👍
Thanks for watching. 😁
Thanks Mike, that was the clearest explanation I’ve seen. A real lightbulb moment 👍
Great to hear it has helped Garry!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thanks bro, I kept hearing this in different videos and I had no freaking clue what they were talking about. Well done.
Glad I could help Campbell! 😁👍
What a brilliant and simple explanation. Subscribed immediately. Thank you.
Thanks so much!! Great to hear you liked it!!
...and thanks for subscribing, much appreciated! 😁👍
Thank you very much for this comprehensible explanation, I'm glad that I found it.
And thank you for watching Thorsten! 😁👍
This was a great video, you did an awesome job at explaining everything! Thank you!!
Great to hear you liked it!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Very informative. Thank you, Mike.
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching! 😁👍
Great video
Hey Mike .. very nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
And thanks for watching Anil! 😁👍
You came to my city. Your explanations are always precise and concise, easy to understand. Grateful to you.
Great explanation. I knew what it was, but had a hard time describing it to others. You filled in some gaps and I will be trying it out.
That's great to hear I could help!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Mostly new. Thanks Mike! I enjoy the information sharing.
And thank you for watching Brandon. 😁👍
Hands down the best best explanation on YT. Thank you sooo much.❤️
Thanks very much and thanks for watching Abdulla 😁👍
@@mikesphotography and I just had to subscribe 🙇🏿
This is new to me and this great
Great to hear I could help Scott. 😁👍
Love this tutorial, Mike!!! This shows that zooming with your feet is not the same as zooming with a lens …..
No worries, and you're right ... zooming with your feet is a way to get a different image and it is very different to using a zoom and standing in the same place.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great video, I didn’t know about this.
Completely new to me. This is gonna be fun. 😁👌
This was great.Mike. I do know about compression and use it, but your explanation really makes it easy to understand. I always heard about how crowded and busy Bangkok is, but there you are in the park without a soul around. Glad to see you are out and about taking photos. Things have been busy here with work and I am itching for some free time to get out and shoot. Take care, brother. I hope you and your wife are doing well.
Thanks dude! It was good to get out...and now the temperature has dropped a bit I can last a while longer out there!! 😆 Hopefully more to come outdoors!!
It's pretty chaotic here but in the park there are a few quiet spots...
Work has a way of sneaking up on you like that sometimes, and then all of a sudden, you're doing all of the hours under the sun! ... hopefully you'll get out soon with the camera.
We're all good thanks, I hope you and the family are doing well too! 👍
I had an idea about compression but this is really a detailed tutorial, thank you!
Thanks very much Sammy! 😁👍
I will try this, on the weekend here in Anchorage Alaska
Excellent! Enjoy Anchorage! 😁👍
Could never wrap my head around this before. Thanks for the great explanation!
No worries Nathan, great to hear I could help.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
*This is something New to me, as I can use this to help me in my videography for my Videos. Thanks, VERY helpful info*
Glad to hear it has helped! Most definitely, it's as useful to video as it is to photography and you can get some really great looking clips by using this technique.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Very skilled explanation and examples of lens compression. It's an abstract idea but you really made it clear. Thank you so much?
Great to hear it has helped!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
You’re a genius. Thank you. Great explanation. 👌
Thanks so much!! 😁👍
Thanks for this, I am hoping to get an image of the sun looking huge, so this tutorial really helped in increasing my understanding 💗
Great to hear I could help. Thanks for watching 😁👍
It’s just nice to see you getting outside. Your new setup was getting rather claustrophobic compared to your setup in Dubai.
Thanks very much! I have a few more outdoor videos planned...and it definitely does feel quite liberating getting out and talking to camera! 👍
I'm still working on the studio talking to camera piece...but it's a slow development...and a tiny room 😆...hopefully I can get it looking slightly less claustrophobic soon...
Thanks for watching and thanks for your thoughts...it's always good to get peoples opinion of my setup so I can make it better in the future...😁👍
Best explanation tonight 👏 I’m here bcz someone posted a picture of the blood moon the other day and it was huge like wow type of moon and the person said it wasn’t photoshopped so curious as I am I wanted to see if the moon was actually that big in Australia then someone comment on a video that is a cam technique now it makes more sense thank you!! 🤗
Thanks very much Mirabel! Yes, sometimes it can looked photoshopped when the moon is huge in the frame. You just need a really really long telephoto lens. 600mm on a full frame camera will get it quite big in the frame, but something like an 800-1000mm works even better without cropping the final photo.
Out of curiosity, do you have a link to the photo you saw? Sometimes people say it is one photo, but they do photoshop them ... so it would be interesting to see it as the blood moon can be tricky to shoot in one shot.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Cogent explanation w/instructive graphics atop side by side photos👍. Had general understanding but only in terms of focal length. OK, now for the “fun” part: Thought “lens compression” is what you were illustrating at start of vid when you were standing on your camera bag - smushed lenses inside. “Relative distance” is about keeping mooching relatives at bay😁. Kidding aside, will have to experiment with distance factor. Crowd compression you illustrated has been used in news clips to exagerate protest crowd sizes.
Thanks very much Paul! Haha!! Yep, gotta keep that camera bag close by...and also use it as a reference point so I know where to stand!! 😆
That's a prime example of how this is used to tell a certain story...many groups of people can be shown to be huge by shooting at a low angle on a long lens, or by shooting wide, and making the place look more sparse...like smaller crowds in-front of the Whitehouse 4 years ago!! 😆😆😆
It's well worth going out and experimenting with a zoom lens with different subjects.
As always thanks for watching and commenting dude, much appreciated. 😁👍
I use this technique at race meetings by zooming as the cars are coming round a bend you can make them appear closer than they really are which gives a more dramatic effect to your images
Yesss! That's a perfect example of using this technique to add drama to your photos! I love shooting at race tracks, so much fun and so many tings to photograph!!
Thanks for sharing Philip! 😁👍
Great explanation, Make. Thank you. Following already :)
Thanks so much!! 😁👍
I have basic to intermediate knowledge on lens compression but a video based on how much further you should place your camera from your subject to get a natural result without getting any distortion would be really helpful, for an example if you're at 24mm on a full frame camera you should keep X distance from your subject to get the natural result without having too much distortion and so on. Thank you.
Thanks for the tip for a future video, I'll make a note of that.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Thank you, Mike, for correctly explaining this. As a math nerd I hated when people would not take into account the distance they moved. I can tell the people who understood their Maths homework and those who just copied others. Stay safe and sane.
No worries Lance, it would always annoy me as well when people would say things like there is no such thing as lens compression...there is, it's just a case of knowing how it actually works...like you say, some people clearly didn't do their maths homework!! 😆😆😆
As always, thanks for watching and commenting, much appreciated. I hope things are getting back to normal for you guys in Japan. 😁👍
Awesome video and explanation mike! a have a question, if you are shooting a subject at 70mm, would the image look identical using 24-70mm and a 70-200mm? based on your video, i'm assuming yes as the distance remains the same as you arent changing the focal length nor distance to subject.
Great understanding of compression!
(Maybe it was worth mentioning that this has nothing to do with the jpeg or video compression algorithms.)
I just put a 100-400mm on my wishlist for aps-c (it would act as 150-600mm on a full frame, if I calculated correctly), so I can achieve greater compression amounts. And also to not scare the distant birds. 🐦
Haha!! Good point...😆
The 100-400mm is a fantastic focal range...got it on my wishlist as well...which one were you thinking of, the sony or the sigma?
@@mikesphotography The Fujifilm one, because I'm on their X mount (the cost is somewhere between sigma and sony). So I don't have to spend time weighting my decision 😁
Haha! Excellent. They're all good these days, and like you said, no need to debate which one to get. 😁👍
Very well explained Mike, are you still in Bangkok? We were due to go today but have had to put it off for another year, we love Thailand. Thanks for the video
Thanks so much Michael! Yes we are living here for the time being. The outdoor parts were in Lumphini Park.
Ah that's annoying...covid has really messed up everyones plans for 2020...let's hope it gets back to normal soon.
Hopefully I'll have some more videos out and about so you can soak up some of the Thailand vibes in future videos.
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Great video and good to see some emphasis on the technical “basics”. Out of interest when was it shot ? I have lived in Bangkok for the past 20 years !
Thanks so much Philip! This was in Lumphini Park...right in the middle to get away from the traffic as much as possible! 😆
Thanks for watching 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Thwre are some fascinating locations here
Thanks skyview! 😁👍
Great video! I was so confused! Was…
Great to hear I could help!!
Thanks for watching 😁👍
Hi Mike, thank’s for this great video. I know most people say that the compression effect is distance related and not a matter of focal length. But I have a question: When I compare your shot with the 17 mm lens (0:22) to that with the 85 mm lens (0:26), the latter one seems compressed to me although you didn’t change the camera to subject distance. In the 85 mm shot I have the impression that you are nearer to me as the viewer, also the tree in the background seems nearer tot he viewer and also the distance from you to the tree seems shorter (compared tot he 17 mm shot). As said, you didn’t change the distance you only changed focal length to get this compression. So in my opinion there is indeed a direct causal link to focal length, independant of distance. What do you think?
Is lens compression the same as cropping using an editing software?
No.
Compression is created by changing your relative position in relation to the subject and the distance to the background.
Cropping does not change any of these distances.
compression at 50mm at the crop is equal to compression at 75mm at a full frame, if you shoot from one place?
Yes, that is correct. If you shoot from one location with any lens and crop in to the same framing, the compression won't change. 👍
@@mikesphotography ok, tnx
2:50- even makes you look like a different person, imo.
Most definitely...it's amazing how different you can make someone look with different focal lengths. 👍
At 3:33 isn't it more proper to say the train on the left is actually "compressed" (since it takes only small part in the center of the frame) and on the right it looks "stretched out" (since its taking the whole frame) ?
almosrt everywhere you were filming in this vedio was in Bangkok I can see haha.... I am Thai
Haha! Yes indeed. My wife and I lived in Thailand for two years, from 2020 until 2022. 😁👍
@@mikesphotography Oh I am surprised. What did you do there for 2 years May i ask?
My wife is a teacher and she worked at one of the schools there ... I did photography, but COVID meant not much work, so I kept working on my channel. 😁👍
Are there any lens for my phone to capture nebulas?
The best way to do that would be to buy a telescope and an adapter that would accommodate your phone. 😁👍
@@mikesphotography so theres no lens for it?
@@mikesphotography so theres no lens for it?
I don't know what phone you have...
@@mikesphotography i only have a realme 6
not only it changes background it also change the shape of u r face too... isn't it?
Yes, definitely! I do talk about that later in the video.
Thanks for watching. 👍
Great Vid, sorry for the thumbs down, I don't want YT's algorithm to inundate me with like vids.
Haha! Are you trying to manipulate the algorithm? 😆 No worries; thumbs down, thumbs up, it doesn't really matter as youtube sees it as an interaction which is all good! 😁
Thank you for the great vid but I still don't get it!
Basically when you use a telephoto lens, if you step back to get the same framing of a person after taking the first shot with a wider lens....because of your different distance to your subject, the background will look different between the two different shots.
You face was heavily distorted when you compared 17mm to 85.
Yep, that's one of my points in this video. When you move away from your subject and use a longer focal length, you compress the features of the face, but when you come closer and use a wide angle lens, it stretches out the features, and at that extreme focal length, it distorts...
Thanks for watching 😁👍
the backgroung is not compressed, you are just closer to the background. Zero compression. just your imagination.
Thank you
No worries, Thanks for watching 😁👍