Composition tip: Choose the right focal length
Saturday 10 January 2026, 14:28 by Elja Trum | 1,764 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Focal length plays an important role in your composition. In several ways. A wide-angle lens gives a very different image from a telephoto lens. The longer the focal length, the closer your subject appears. But the flatter the image becomes.
Focal length also affects the depth of field in your photo. With a telephoto lens, you get a blurred background more quickly than with a wide-angle lens. You can use this to isolate your subject from the background. Or, conversely, to keep the background sharp and make it part of your subject.
The focal length you need for your photo therefore depends on what you want to achieve. Try using several different focal lengths with the same subject and discover the difference.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
