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Articles Table of Contents   Page 1: Keep and Use Classic Lenses For an Unusual Look Page 2: Shoot One and Only One Subject Page 3: Shoot One Lens, and Not a Zoom Page 4: Choosing a Lens by Focal Length Page 5: Fast Lenses—Shutter Speeds / Background Blur (Bokeh) Page 6: Shoot a Fast Lens at Dusk or Dawn Page 7: Blur Can Be Beautiful Page 8: Making Sharp Photos Handheld Page 9: Shoot Another Format (Size or Aspect Ratio) Page 10: Use Manual Exposure for Perfect Results Page 11: White Balance Tools Page 12: Understand Perspective and Size Variance Page 13: Look For Natural Patterns Page 14: Depth of Field Is Oh-So-Shallow Page 15: Depth of Field—How Far To Stop Down Page 16: Depth of Field and Megapixels Page 17: Never Go Traveling Without a Backup Camera Page 18: Don’t Assume a New Lens is Good! Page 19: Infinity Focus Requires Care! Page 20: How to Carry Large and Heavy Lenses Page 21: Shooting Tip: Use Mirror Lockup Page 22: Shooting Tip: Aurora Borealis Page 23: Shooting Tip: Grizzly Bear vs Black Bear Scat Page 24: A brief glossary of photographic terms

Understand Perspective and Size Variance

Perspective (the relative size of objects in relation to each other) is governed only by the distance to the subject.

The image of my mailbox below is not deformed, it’s just the result of honest rendering of its optical size front-to-back relative to the camera, a reality equation our brain largely hides from us with the size invariance principle: things stay about the same size within a relatively wide range of distances. Visual cues matter; this is (mostly) why the moon looks huge on the horizon.

In this case, the front of the mailbox is about twice as close to the lens as the rear, which it means its image really is about four times as large (2X2). Hint: most women don’t like their faces be photographed up close with an 18mm lens (though other body parts might benefit for some).

I’ve always found extreme wide angles to be a challenge to shoot; there’s lots of space to fill! A longer focal length makes it much easier to isolate the subject without distracting elements.