The secret character of your lens – faces show it…

Fisheye lenses obviously distort - all lenses distort in some way. The distortion is less obvious with most lenses.

‘Fisheye Face’ – Fisheye lenses obviously distort – all lenses distort in some way. The distortion is less obvious with most lenses.

Learn what lenses do to a face

Broadly speaking, the camera captures a scene and reproduces it. The reality is that every lens has its own characteristics and does not reproduce the scene exactly as you see it. Some lenses create distortions deliberately. For example, wide-angle lenses tend to elongate the picture in the longest dimension of the image frame. Fish-eye lenses distort images in more than one dimension. What is not so clear is that every different model of lens has some element of distortion.
More after the jump…

Accepting that lenses distort the scene, we can get different effects with each one. Although every model has its own characteristics, lenses also vary consistently with focal length. The video below looks at a range of focal lengths and demonstrates the effects of each one on the face. It is important for a photographer to recognise the impact different lenses have on faces. As you will see from the video some lenses produce distortion effects we would want to avoid. Some lenses produce more flattering results…
Video: Published on Aug 4, 2012 by TheSlantedLens External link - opens new tab/page

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