Today i'm going to show you what compression is in photography.
when people talk about compression in photography it can be quite confusing
it sounds like you just zoom in and that compresses the background in your photograph
but there's a little bit more to it than just that so if i take one shot with a wide angle lens
and then another shot with a longer focal length say i'm basically zooming in optically if i take
that really wide shot and crop in on it afterwards when i'm editing it giving me
the same framing as that first shot what you'll find is that the background will look the same
in this example the only difference is a slightly blurrier background with the 85 millimeter but the
tree looks the same in both shots when you zoom in on your subject if you don't move you'll start to
get a smaller and smaller part of your subject filling the frame so you would have to move
to keep the framing of your subject exactly the same and this is the key to compression it's the
relative distance between you your subject and the background here i have two very different shots
side by side i've tried to keep me the same size in the frame and the tree looks a lot closer to me
in the image on the right this was taken with the 85 millimeter whereas with the image on the left
this was taken with the 17 millimeter and the tree looks a lot further away however my position
compared to the tree has stayed the same the two things that have changed are the focal length
and the distance between me and the camera this is a 17 millimeter lens on a full-frame camera
and it's around about 30 centimeters away from me which is around about a foot and this is the 85
millimeter on a full-frame camera i've moved the camera around about eight to ten foot away from me
which is around about two to three meters and the background looks very different
that tree looks a lot closer to me even though i'm standing in exactly the same position as i was
with the 17 millimeter lens and this is why it's called compression it compresses the background
with the subject so in this case i'm the subject and the tree is the background and it's made the
tree look a lot closer to me than it actually is now if you have a much bigger focal length
you can really change the look of the photograph but you do have to walk a lot further away from
your subject with these cars with a focal length of 600 millimeters they look all bunched up but
if i zoom out and wait for them to get closer you can see they are actually quite spaced out
and it can work on any level from macro shots of flowers to people and buildings to bringing the
sun closer to what you are photographing or at least make the sun bigger in the frame even when
you're photographing portraits if you put on a longer focal length and move away from them giving
the same framing it will change how they'll look as it does compress the features of their face
also if you're the photographer you don't have to be the one that changes their position
if your subject is moving this can also change how your background looks here i've taken a photograph
of the bts in bangkok this is with a 24 millimeter then if i wait for it to move away from me
zoom in and then take another shot it not only changes what's in the frame
but how the train looks if i put them side by side the train is the same size in each frame but
the whole shot is very different the train on the left looks very stretched out whereas the train
on the right looks very compressed so it really is to do with the relative distances between you
your subject and the background the sensor size also has an effect on how your image looks this is
a 24 millimeter lens on a full frame camera and this is a crop sensored camera with that exact
same lens on the 24 millimeter so as you can see it's changed it just subtly but not that much this
has a 1.5 times crop so i went from the a7c to the a6600 now this has more to do with where you have
to place your camera for a given focal length than anything else it's only a subtle difference but
i've had to move the camera probably another foot or two away from me and so this has changed how
the background looks ever so slightly and that's my whole point with this tutorial compression is
all about where your camera is compared to your subject and compared to your background
now if you're still struggling to understand this try this quick exercise now have a look out of a
window but stand as far back from that window as possible position yourself so you can frame
something up in the window like a tree or a building out of my window the building is filling
the window frame and it looks even to my eye that the building must be really close to our building
but as i walk towards the window the building becomes less prevalent in the window frame
and all i'm doing is changing my distance compared to the window frame now once i get really close to
the window frame i can see much more of the city and the building is one of many so it really is
all about relative distances in your photography and your videography you can use this to get very
different looking shots but it's good to know how compression works to make the most of it this
is a street not looking too busy but at a longer focal length from further away you can really make
it look a lot busier than it is sometimes there might not be too many people around where you're
photographing but again if you move back and zoom in you can give the impression that people are
shoulder to shoulder and it's really busy and also like i've already mentioned if you want to make
the sun a lot bigger in your frame next to your subject then you need to get really far away from
that subject and use a really really long focal length or to do the opposite making someone look
really small in the world you kind of include a lot of the background and a lot of the environment
and you use a wider focal length so by either getting further away from your subject and
zooming in or getting closer to them and getting a wider focal length you can really change how your
photograph looks but it's all about your position compared to your subject so if you don't like
the look of your shot next time you're out taking photographs try moving away from your subject and
zooming in or moving closer to your subject and zooming out and just see how different it looks by
going out and taking photographs with this thought in mind you can get some really different images
of the same subject and by combining different distances focal lengths and positions you can
really change the perspective and get some really unique shots of whatever you're photographing now
what do you think did you know about compression or is this something new to you let me know in
the comments below and if this is new to you go out and try this technique this weekend and let
me know how you get on and if you want to learn more about photography click on this one next
or if you want to binge watch a load of tutorials click down here and if you haven't already
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you