Perspective
from two lenses: 35mm and 85mm
by
Al Smith
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a friend about this article
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PERSPECTIVE CHANGES FROM TWO LENSES: 35MM
AND 85MM
At this
thread, the person asking the question as to "which
lens to get next?" was offered many opinions. One
possible answer to this recurrent question was a lens pairing with lenses a bit wider and
narrower than a 50mm lens. The 35mm and 85mm combination came up
as a good pair to start with.
.

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| 35mm
f/2D AF and 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkors |
As a long time prime lens user, I
have been using lens pairs for many years, and often will add a
single lens to the pair depending on what or where I will be
shooting.
For
those that might be interested on what you can do with a couple of
lenses like the 35mm and 85mm (or any similarly spaced pair), here
is an example of how to shoot the same subject with both and to get
an completely different effect in perspective.
This
is not simply a matter of changing lenses, but changing lenses AND
moving to play with the way the foreground and background relate to
each other. The same technique can be used with a zoom, but not if
you stand in one spot and zoom... you have to move.
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At
right, a comparison showing how two lenses render the same
subject when part of that subject is kept at the same
magnification.
In this case, I shot two images of this parked car, one with
a 35mm lens and the other with a 85mm lens.
For both shots,
I moved to keep the side-view mirror the same scale. On the
35mm shot (bottom), the car is elongated and the background
is reduced in prominence. The 85mm shot crunches the car
into a more boxy shape and also compresses the car into the
background, which is huge in comparison.
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These shots show how versatile the simple two-lens kit can be if
used with your feet, as opposed to standing in one place and
changing lenses or zooming which only changes scale but not
perspective. This same effect / technique can just as easily be
accomplished with a zoom if you move first and then zoom to frame.
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