What do we mean when we say the best zoom lens is often your feet? Sometimes simply moving physically closer to (or away from) a subject will dramatically change how your image looks.
In this handy video tutorial, Mike Browne explains how once you know in what way different focal lengths (or zooms) will affect your images, you can then begin choosing a zoom setting because of creative reasons rather than simply zooming in and out hoping it’ll look good.
As you increase focal length, magnification makes everything come closer – and this is where your feet come in, Mike says.
He explains that as you increase focal length you may have to move back depending on what the subject of your image is, and demonstrates the effect by shooting the same portrait at different focal lengths, starting at 10mm going up to 500mm in increments.
Making sure he composes the portrait identically each time, Mike also changes his focal length.
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