I used a cactus garden for this exercise because it provided a range of shapes and sizes at different depths and I was able to vary the distance from which I photographed it. I took the shots in a hotel garden while on holiday. I used fixed focal length Pentax Limited lenses primarily because they were light and easy to travel with; the focal lengths were 21mm (wide angle), 40mm (standard) and 70mm (medium telephoto). The camera was set on aperture priority and I selected f16 to maximise depth of field. I took the first shot with the 70mm lens, filling the frame, then I took more shots from the same spot using the 40mm and 70mm lenses. These three shots were analysed for the effect of the different lenses on the width of the angle of view. I then walked forward until I could fill the frame with the 40mm lens and did the same again with the 21mm lens. These two shots were compared with the initial shot taken with the 70mm lens and analysed for the impact of the different lenses on depth of view within the subject (perspective). The images were not cropped during the editing process.
1)- 70mm lens
2)- 40mm lens from the same position as (1)
3)- 21mm lens from the same position as (1)
Images 1 to 3 illustrate the point made in the course materials that using a smaller focal length not only reduces the apparent size of the objects but increases the angle of view as well. This clearly provides additional compositional possibilities with more elements in the foreground and background. In addition, in image 3, the wide-angle 21mm lens is beginning to show a "fish-eye" effect by slightly bending the lamp-post in the foreground.
4)- 40 mm lens having walked towards the cactus garden until it fills the frame as in 1
5)- as 4 with a 21mm lens
Looking at images 4 and 5 alongside 1, it can clearly be seen that lengthening the focal length of the lens has the effect of flattening the perspective. Image 5 has considerably more depth than image 1 even though they were composed in the same way.
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