Compression affect

I don’t use really long lenses very much.  I don’t do much sports anymore, and my big mammal wildlife days seem to be be in my rear view mirror as well.  I do however love the compression effect of big lenses.  I recently picked up a sweet old Nikkor  400 f 3.5 IF-ED manual focus lens for just that use.

The rule goes something like this, the longer the lens the more compression affect.  I shoot the D7000 a lot and being a DX  sensor camera my new 400 will be the equivalent of a 600!!!   That plus the fast wide open aperture of f 3.5 make for a very exciting optic for separating the foreground from the background.  This is one of my favorite techniques from the old bag of tricks.  It a great way to do a visual change up while maintaining the same relative position to the subject.  Another example below.

Always use your lenses to give you the visual effect your looking for.  Remember telephoto glass is not just for bringing things closer in the frame. It can make a big difference in how they appear as well!!!