I used a different camera for these exercises. As I was on holiday for a few days in Venice I did not take my DSLR but used a compact camera with integral zoom lens and shooting modes including aperture, exposure and full manual as well as automatic. The images are shot in RAW and edited in Lightroom. I have done minimal post processing, only minor adjustments of exposure in places, and slight cropping.
The focal length of the zoom is indicated in the caption to the image.
I took a number of images during my brief visit to Venice – the ones that relate to this exercise are shown in the contact sheets at.
exercises 2-1 & 2-2 Contacts
Exercise 2.1 Find a scene that has depth. From a fixed position, take a sequence of five or six shots at different focal lengths without changing your viewpoint… Which shot in the sequence feels closest to the angle of view of your normal vision?
The images show a busy bridge over a small canal. At wide angle the people on the bridge dominate the image and it feels bustling and busy, whereas the at maximum zoom the image seems tranquil and peaceful. The middle one is closest to normal vision. Although in this setting it is difficult to determine what is normal, as one’s attention can be focussed in life to small details and ignore the bustle.
Exercise 2.2 Select your longest focal length and compose a portrait shot fairly tightly within the frame in front of a background with depth. Take one photograph. Then walk towards your subject while zooming out to your shortest focal length. Take care to frame the subject in precisely the same way in the viewfinder and take a second shot.
These images are not a portrait, but show a tourist taking a picture of a detail in the columns near San Marco. Far away from the subject and using a zoom, we concentrate on the subject and his attention; he could be anywhere in any mediaeval colonnade. Whereas closer with a wider angle lens we can see his surroundings, and at the widest angle iconic buildings are included indicating this is an image of Venice. We concentrate on that and the photographer is just another tourist.
As I indicated above, I took many other images while in Venice. All of these are in the contact sheets below.
Of these images I have used this effect of the altered perspective afforded by the use of wide-angle or telephoto focal length to compose the image I sought for my “holiday pictures”.
This shows the use of a wide angle to show the whole of the foreground gondola while putting it into a context with a wide background shot of other gondolas and the buildings in the middle and far distance.
In this image I have used a longer focal length to flatten the perspective and make the receding line of the bows of the gondolas all appear a similar size to make the pattern I sought.
Andrew Procter 