This week I have been testing the new Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens and used it to photograph one of my favorite New York scenes, the Statue of Liberty at sunset close to the time of the winter solstice. At this time of year the sun sets directly behind the statue so it can be included in the photo. I like photographing this scene with a very long telephoto lens because it squashes the perspective, and as a result brings in all the industrial background to form a tableau with the statue.
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| Photo was taken with the Nikon D800 set to its 1.2x crop mode, which resulted in an effective focal length of 600mm with the Sigma 150-500 zoomed out to its full 500mm magnification. |
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| This is a panorama of the scene made after the sun set by combining three images in Photoshop so the resulting file is very large with extremely high resolution. |
May be worth noting for your readers that it isn't the telephoto that "squashes" the perspective, but the distance between the lens and the subject. Wanna prove it?
ReplyDeleteMake the same image, with the camera in the same place on a tripod, with two lenses, say a normal or short tele, and the long tele. Then enlarge the first shot enough that it contains only the subject matter shown in the one made with the tele. What's the difference in perspective?
The value of knowing how this works is in now being able to select your camera position to produce what's in your mind's eye and make the precise image you visualise.
And what do you think about Sigma 150-500? Does it match D800 in resolution?
ReplyDeleteIts very interesting to know your opinion about this lens.