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Gear

Lenses For Landscapes

Looking for the perfect lens for your scenics? Check out the options and see what some top OP pros have to say about their favorite choices.

This Article Features Photo Zoom

At heart, the choice of lens for any photo is based on the photographer’s vision, on how he or she “sees” the subject and the final image. Wide-angle lenses take in a vast angle of view, and individual elements of the scene are relatively tiny. Telephotos zero in on a small, distant portion of the scene, compressing the elements, and individual elements are much larger in the image.

Perspective
The choice of lens has a definite effect on the perspective of a photo, but indirectly. Perspective—the relative sizes of subjects at different distances from the camera, and how close together or far apart they appear—is actually a function of camera-to-subject distance, not focal length. Move closer, and near subjects become larger relative to more distant ones, and near and far subjects appear farther apart (“wide-angle expansion”). Move farther away, and near and far subjects differ less in apparent size and seem closer together (“telephoto compression”).

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm ƒ/2.8-4.0 SWD

Nikkor 17-55mm ƒ/2.8 G ED

Why do we intuitively think that wide-angle lenses expand perspective and telephotos compress it? Because we generally move closer to the subject with wide-angle lenses and use telephotos to shoot more distant subjects.

You can prove that changing focal length doesn’t change perspective for yourself. Mount your camera on a tripod, and make a shot with a telephoto lens. Then, remove the telephoto lens, attach a wide-angle lens, and make another shot. The two shots will look quite different, the tele shot showing “telephoto compression” and the wide-angle shot showing “wide-angle expansion,” right?

Sigma 10-20mm ƒ/4.5-5.6 G ED

Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II VC LD

Now, blow up the wide-angle image and crop it so it shows the same area as the telephoto shot, and compare the perspective. It will be identical to that of the telephoto shot. Why? Because the two images were made from the same distance; the camera-to-subject distance didn’t change, thus the perspective didn’t change.

The wide-angle lens takes in more of the scene and produces less magnification, while the telephoto lens takes in less of the scene and produces greater magnification, but neither changes the perspective—the relative sizes of and apparent distances between objects in the scene.

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