The next type of lens is the wide angle lens. The wide, or short lens, delivers a wide horizontal field of view, and decreases the apparent size of the subject. To jump aside briefly, horizontal field of view tells how wide a shot the lens will deliver and is measured in degrees. Vertical field of view describes the height of the shot also measured in degrees. Both of these are very helpful to predetermine shots or lenses needed during a shoot. In the 3D world, these can be helpful to match a virtual camera to a real world one for post work.

Anyway, back to wide-angle lenses. A wide-angle lens has a shorter focal length than a normal lens, generally 1mm (a definite fish eye lens), to around 22mm. Because we are using a short focal length, the image becomes distorted. Distances between objects become distorted thus fooling the eye into thinking objects are further apart. If you compare image X to image X, you will notice this effect happening. The chess pieces have not moved, there has only been a change in focal length (10mm) and a slight readjustment to the camera to reframe the shot as in image 2. The short focal length gives the appearance of greater distance between the chess pieces.

There are some other distortions that happen when using a wide-angle lens. The first should be fairly obvious. Many of the chess pieces seem to be warping or bending. The same is true for the horizon line; it is no longer straight, but curved. This is called barrel distortion, and pushed to the extreme, will result in an image that is very similar to looking through the peephole on the front door of your home or apartment. Another distortion that happens which is not apparent in still images -- motion. Because the eye is fooled into thinking the objects are further apart, all movement seems to slow down.

Try this: the next time you are doing a flying logo for a client or for fun, change your camera lens to a wide angle one. Move the camera closer to the logo than normal, and make the logo fly past the camera as it enters. Your logo should now look HUGE. Compare images 3, 4 and 5 to see the results.

The last type of lens we need to cover is the narrow angle lens. Narrow angle lenses are obviously those lenses with focal lengths longer than 25mm. They have a narrow horizontal field of view, and they magnify and enlarge the subject. If we push the focal length past 100mm, the narrow angle lens becomes a telephoto lens. In the real world, we use narrow angle and telephoto lenses to shoot subjects from a great distance away. Narrow angle lenses produce images with characteristics totally opposite of the wide-angle lens. Instead of increasing the apparent distance between objects, the narrow angle lens compresses the perspective and makes objects appear closer together. In image 6, I again have moved the camera to maintain framing, but have increased the focal length to 100mm. This time, the chess pieces look as though they are sitting right on top of one another and gives the illusion that the image is very crowded.

You have seen this foreshortening effect many times. Watch the evening news, and when they give the traffic report, notice that they generally shoot the cars head on, from a distance, and with a narrow angle lens. Traffic looks like it is bumper to bumper for miles. If you get a chance to see the same traffic from a different angle (like from a traffic camera that is up and to the side), the highway headache doesn't seem as bad. The same effect has been used on airport runways to make it look like airport traffic is worse than it is.

Besides just foreshortening, the image becomes flat, loosing some of its dimension, and objects appear to move faster.