Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]><< I was taught a long time ago that 'Wide angle lenses are not very >flattering > because of the apparent fore-shortening of the face >> > > >Note that distortion of this type is a function of distance, not lens focal >length. It is a common misconception that short focal length lenses produce >such distortion. This is not true. It is the short distance between the film >plane and the subject that results in this look. > > >Tom Shea I certainly agree with Tom, and would offer the following additional explanation (the figures are for illustration purposes and perhaps not 100% correct): If you use a 90 mm lens and want to make a portrait, then the face will fill the negative if the person is about 1 metre (40 inches) from the lens. However, if you use a 21 mm lens, the subject to lens distance will be 25 centimetres (10 inches) if you fill the frame with the face. Shooting at 40 inches, the nose to lens distance will be approx 90% of the ear to lens distance, and that is the relationship you are used to when talking to people. The size of the nose in relation to the size of the ears will be what you are used to in real life. You tend to find such pictures undistorted. Stooting at 10 inches, the nose to lens distance will be approx 75% of the ear to lens distance, and evidently this will make the nose look 'too large' in relation to the ears and the picture thus 'distorted'. (If you always kept you friends, collegaues etc at 10 inches distance, you would not find pictures shot at 10 inches distance distorted, but rather those shot at 40 inches.) If you always shoot at 40 inches, whether you use a 21 mm or a 90 mm lens, the distortion would always be the same (you may call it nil), but the images from the 21 mm lens would probably be grainer than those from the 90 mm if you blow them up so that the face have the same size whether enlarged from 21 mm or 90 mm lens negatives. BTW somebody guessed Jean Louis Sieff was a Rodinal user. Not quite. He uses Tri-X developed in D-76 - -- christer almqvist eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440 14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58