Morning StretchCopyright 2009 Matt Mortensen
Photography is most effective when it captures less familiar visual images. The best time for photography is early and late, not just becuase of the quality of light, but becuase few people are seriously looking around at 4:30 am. The other technique to improve your images is to avoid the so-called "normal" lenses. These have focal lengths in the 30-60 mm range. Focal lengths around 50 mm are similar to what the human eye experiences and thus it is normal. To create more visually stimulating images use lenses less than 28 mm or greater than 70 mm. Wide angle lenses create the impression of being drawn into a scene because the light entering the lens moves faster at the edges similar to the effect driving down a tree-lined street. Long (telephoto) lenses tend to condense perspective so that foreground and background appear more similar in scale. Both of these optical properties let the viewer of your photographs experience something out of their ordinary visual experience!
