General Lens Distortion

[Bossy]

I'm posting here because I don't want to thread jack any more than I already was

Ok, so because I'd never noticed distortion, I took 3, similar as possible shots of my 4 year olds face with a 100mm, 35mm and 28mm. Of the 3, the 35 was the closest resembling her face. The 100mm her face was wide, and the 28 just looked goofy <3

I'm not even sure what I'm asking. Or what the point of this post is. I guess, as far as primes go, does 50mm make that much of a difference? Is there only distortion when your up really close?

 

[cgipson1]

Wide angle distortion is most pronounced at close subject distances.....

the wider the lens, the greater the distortion, and the closer you are to the subject, the greater the distortion....

 

[Bossy]

So why do I get distortion on a 100mm lens?

 

[cgipson1]

So why do I get distortion on a 100mm lens?

please post examples.. with shot data... distance.. etc...

 

[Bossy]

Hah ugh. ok. I'm not shooting to impress though, I literally took these 10 minutes ago just to see. Let me upload them-
in the meantime, this Beyond the obvious: Beware of wide-angle distortion in portrait photography
Says "One of the greatest photojournalist portrait photographers in the world, Steve McCurry uses a few prime lenses, the widest is a 28mm and the longest is 105mm. Many of his famous portraits were shot on a standard 50mm lens (a 35mm gives you approximately the same focal length on a digital camera with a crop sensor)"
Which would mean...that my 35 has equal distortion as a 50mm on full frame?

 

[MTVision]

http://nofilmschool.com/2011/11/lens-choice-affects-subjects-appearance/

I think there is a video - I didn't watch it - but the comments seem to explain it pretty well.

 

[Bossy]

Sorry, I'm not a big fan of having my kiddos on the interwebz, she was just my only available model at the time

 

[Bossy]

How Your Lens Choice Affects Your Subject&#8217;s Appearance - NoFilmSchool

I think there is a video - I didn't watch it - but the comments seem to explain it pretty well.

I'm watching the video, but he's talking about a full frame camera, not a crop sensor, like I have.

 

[MTVision]

I'm watching the video, but he's talking about a full frame camera, not a crop sensor, like I have.

I didn't watch the video. The comments are about a cropped sensor

 

[Bossy]

The comments keep arguing about who is right :/

 

[480sparky]

I'm watching the video, but he's talking about a full frame camera, not a crop sensor, like I have.

A crop sensor won't affect the distortion. It only affects the FOV

 

[Rephargotohp]

I'm not sure how you are seeing more distortions on the 100mm than the 35mm, I don't see it.
I think it may just be you like her look better in that image and it's too bad she wasn't position equaly in ever shot.

You can see the distortions by, comparing the size of her head to bidy as you go up in focal length. the 100mm shows good proportions,

What you will see on a full fram camaera, is distrtions at the wide end up to about 50mm, after that, the distortion mostly stop but what you will the see is a difference in perspective of the background. The longer the lens the less background will be in the image and the closer the background will appear relative to the subject even though the distance has not changed (from subject to background)

 

[MTVision]

The comments keep arguing about who is right :/

Yeah but you can kind of figure it out yourself from what they are all saying......

 

[Bossy]

I can look at her face next to the computer, it looks more like the 35mm than the 100mm. Her face is wider in the 100mm. I know she's different, I'll try to get my husband to pose after the game, maybe he'll sit still Maybe. That might work better :/

ETA- I see what your saying about the body to head distortion. I normall shoot back a couple more feet and get more of a head mid body shot and don't have the distortion issue as much. So that explains it, I think. Thanks <3

 

[Bossy]

The comments keep arguing about who is right :/

Yeah but you can kind of figure it out yourself from what they are all saying......

There's a reason I post on a forum and don't google everything. I'm sure I could get the right answers eventually by googling, but sometimes there's someone who can explain something just the right way and it clicks.