How Focal Length Affects Your Background

On this video tutorial photographer Gavin Hoey takes a look at the subject of focal length and how it affects your background.

The idea Hoey is trying to convey in this video is that angle of view changes the background compression at different shooting distances – you really need to understand this concept (you can try it yourself with almost any zoom lens and see what happens).

Now there are many other aspects of focal length on your image – one of them you can easily see in this video and that is how much background blur you will get at a specific focal length/aperture with the same distance between you and your subject (and your subject and the background), but this is a topic for a different video.

Talking about different videos, we have looked at the affects of the lens focal length several times in the past including videos by Larry Becker and a more in-depth look on Joe Brady’s extensive video.

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on ourPhotography tips section and check out some of Gavin Hoey’s other videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.