Focal Length

My husband kindly took a break from his guitar playing today to help with my ‘distorted face’ exercise. I already had a fair idea of the effects of different focal lengths on the face but wasn’t quite prepared for the extremity of the distortion.

The first image, taken at 18mm brings a banana like curvature to the face, which is not at all flattering. Adrian looks like he has an enormous nose and tiny ears as objects, which are closer to the lens, appear much larger.

At 24mm, the distortion is less extreme but still noticeable.

The 50mm setting shows Adrian’s face almost as he looks in real life. I mainly use a 50mm prime lens for close up portraits for this very reason.

Moving on to 80mm, the face is starting to look a little chubby.

A 200mm focal length creates a more compressed image. The nose now appears much smaller in comparison to the ears and the face looks flatter and wider. This may be a flattering look for someone who desires a smaller nose or flatter features, however it does not represent reality.

Having seen just how extreme the distortion can be, I will be much more careful with focal length when taking portraits, especially with close up shots.