Angle of view
So to begin with let’s get the technical definition of angle of view out of the way-
Merriam-webster defines it as – “The angle in a lens between lines drawn from opposite edges of the image to the second nodal point of the lens.” Things get a little interesting here, now the question in your mind must be what in the world is a nodal point?
Again, Merriam-Webster does a stupendous job of it – “either of two points so located on the axis of a lens or optical system that any incident ray directed through one will produce a parallel emergent ray directed through the other”
Angle of view – impact on photographs
So, as we always do, let’s get down to understanding how does this exactly impact your photographs.
What we need to know if angle of view is the maximum angle at which a lens can see, which is impacted by the focal length and Sensor size (we will visit sensors as a separate topic.)
To explain in an extremely simple way – Shorter the focal length, wider is the angle of view and longer focal length narrower is the angle. It is measured in degrees and is normally diagonal.
Fish eye lenses tend to have a wider angle of view ranging between 100 and 180 degrees, while the telephoto lenses with focal length say 800 mm may have an angle of view of 3.10 degrees.
Wide angle
So what would you usually shoot at a wider angle? Subjects where you need to cover a larger expanse like a landscape or like I had mentioned before even a full length portrait where you need to build a story by including elements around the main subject.
Narrow angle
There can be an exactly opposite case where you would need to focus on the subject itself rather than showing a lot of other elements surrounding it which might distract the viewer’s attention. Say a beauty or product shot involves a model, where the user’s attention has to stay on the product rather than the surroundings.
Have you thought of photographing a tiger with a wide angle lens? The challenge here is to fill the frame with a tiger. Would you do it? 🙂
Next time we will see the impact of focal length and angle of view on magnification. In the meantime if you can read about focal length here.
