R M Baumbach Photography

Zoom or Not to Zoom

This experiment shows the effects of zooming in on a subject versus moving in on a subject.

All pictures were shot with a Canon DSLR with a 18-55mm zoom lens.

The first three pictures were taken from the same spot and the zoom on the camera was changed. The top picture of the Lemont Grainery was shot with zoom wide out. The subject is competing with the annoying car on the right and the less annoying church like structure on the left. The tracks are desired as leading lines for the subject but they are actually too dominant in this case.

The second picture improves the subject quite a bit merely by eliminating the car and part of the building on the left. Note the effect of the zoom is to enlarge the scene. The subject is bigger but there is no change in the building perspective or its relationship with other elements around it. The zoom was adjusted to about mid way.

In the third picture the zoom was adjusted all the way in. Now our subject suffers from some cropping. The sign post in front actually becomes a little more prominent and we have lost the tracks completely which now lends to mystery as to what the building’s purpose is. Once again everything is just bigger.

 
ZX-Zoomed-Wide
ZX-Zoomed-Med
ZX-Zoomed-In
ZX-CU-Distance
ZX-Med-Distance

For these two pictures the zoom was set to the widest and kept at that setting and the photographer moved closer to replicate the medium and maximum zoomed pictures above. Compared to the pictures above note how there is perspective distortion on the building. Note in particular how the scale of the sign post changes to become almost as tall as the building in the picture on the left. We have still lost our tracks on the right picture but now the sign post is eliminated. Of course you could always take these images into Photoshop and correct for the perspective distortion.
BuiltWithNOF

So, what’s the best solution? Its up to you. Some people would like the distortion in the last picture because it makes the building look more dynamic because of the angular lines. The sign post is too annoying in the left image. Of all the shots, the middle shot above with the medium zoom has the least distractions and includes the information desired for the subject. The solution would be to try more angles to work with the distractions and use a combination of zoom and subject distance for the best photo.

Happy Shooting

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