The Compressing Effect Does Not Exist

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A telephoto lens compresses distances. This is known as the compressing effect. The reality is a little more nuanced. In the end, the effect does not exist.

It is a persistent urban myth. A telephoto lens is supposed to compress distances. Unfortunately, this is not the case. A telephoto lens does nothing more than enlarge the image.

A telephoto lens makes the subject appear larger. Try it yourself. For example, choose a 24-105 mm lens and take a photo of a subject at 50 mm.

Then zoom in to 105 mm and take the same photo. It is important that you stay in the same place. You will notice that the subject appears larger in the frame, as you would expect.

Then use your photo-editing programme to crop the photo taken at 50 mm until you have the same angle of view as the photo taken at 105 mm. You will see that there is absolutely no difference.

So where does this urban myth about the compressing effect come from? It all has to do with how you want the subject to appear in the frame and the distance required for a particular focal length.

Repeat the test. Take a photo of a subject at 50 mm. Then zoom in to 105 mm and move further away from the subject until it appears the same size in the frame as it did at 50 mm. Then take the photo.

Compare these two photos. You do not need to crop anything because the subject appears the same size in both cases. But now you can see that at 105 mm the distances seem to be compressed.

It is the combination of the distance to the subject and the focal length that causes this. But zooming in itself, without changing the distance to the subject, only causes magnification.

The funny thing is that this also applies to depth of field. But that is for another time, in another article. Focal length is the focus here.

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