The day before yesterday, when I saw a brand releasing a new phone,
suggested a "golden trifocal length for portraits" that is rarely mentioned in mobile photography.
I find it very interesting,
so today, let’s talk about the “focal length” issue of
.
Regarding photography, I have always held a concept: the focal length is more important than anything else.
Unfortunately, in the field of mobile phone photography, for a long time, no one cared about this.
What everyone pays more attention to is beauty, color, clarity, and fancy functions.
only ignores the help and improvement of focal length for photos.
Anyone who is into photography knows that whether it is shooting people or scenery, there are several focal lengths, which are very classic.
14mm, 24 (28) mm, 35mm in wide angle, 50mm in medium focus, 85mm
135mm, 200mm in telephoto, and if it is further subdivided into portraits, then the three focal lengths of 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm are undoubtedly classics. of classics.
Although the numerical values of the three are not much different from each other, the picture language "narrated" in the photos taken is completely different.
It will be more intuitive to look at it with photos:
1
35mm Everything is just right with the combination of human and landscape.
35mm is called the "humanities" focal length by many people. In fact, I prefer to call it the "human landscape" focal length.
This photo was taken at 35mm. In the photo, the person is more prominent, and the surrounding scenery can also be fully exposed. The relatively wide viewing angle of
can capture more environments. Therefore, if you want to take pictures that combine people and landscapes when traveling, then this focal length is very suitable.
This is also the reason why 35mm is suitable for humanities. In photos under this focal length, the environment and background of the characters can be presented relatively completely, and at the same time, the characters can be relatively prominent.
In this way, if someone has the environment, it will naturally be easier for the viewer to interpret the story:
However, 35mm is not suitable for shooting close-ups of people. If you are too close, you will still find that the picture will have some slight perspective distortion:
2
50mm The golden field of view that can advance, attack, retreat and defend.
50mm Compared with the 35mm, the viewing field of view is a little narrower.
Therefore, in 50mm photos, the presence of people is more prominent.
At the 50mm focal length, people will occupy a larger proportion in the photo relative to the environment. Therefore, it is a more suitable perspective for portraits.
At this focal length, the environment can also be recorded appropriately, but it will not be as complete as 35mm. Therefore, viewers can only restore parts of the scene through photos, and what they feel more is the atmosphere of the combination of characters and environment.
Different from 35mm, 50mm can take the above "ambient photos" that combine people and landscapes.
At the same time, it can also take half-length and even close-up photos without worrying about the perspective distortion of the picture:
3
85mm A powerful portrait tool to overcome environmental defects Compared with the first two, the field of view of
85mm is much narrower.
When you use it to shoot portraits, the focus of the picture will be particularly strong. In other words, the characters will be very prominent, while the environment will be almost unrecognizable.
You can look at this photo. Even if it is blocked by glass, the foreground, and passers-by enter, the characters still stand out.
Therefore, 85mm is actually very suitable for recording portraits in less perfect environments. For people who don’t know how to compose pictures, 85mm allows you to not worry about cluttered environments, cluttered lines, and cluttered lights.
only needs to be photographed by someone, and the photo will be OK.
Of course, because 85mm is close to a telephoto, if you are farther away and use a composition with small people and large scenes, you can also capture the compact feeling of people and scenes being compressed together.
4
Myths on mobile phones
It can be seen that although the numerical differences between these three focal lengths are not big, there is an essential difference in terms of imaging atmosphere and feeling.
Let’s go back to the field of mobile phone photography. Even though many brands now have multiple cameras, the focal range actually spans a very wide range.
Take my X70PRO+ as an example. The focal lengths are divided into 0.6X, 1X, 2X and 5X.
0.6X is a super wide angle, equivalent to 14mm. This focal length is not suitable for shooting portraits. The equivalent focal length of the
1X main lens is 23mm.
If you use it to shoot portraits, the recorded field of view is relatively wide.
Then, the photographer’s ability to control the environment is very demanding.
As long as the scene is a bit messy, the picture will be messy. As long as the scene has lines, you must consider the impact of distortion :
Just like this photo, the background environment and the lines of the wooden plank road will make the photo look less clean.
Therefore, when taking portraits with the 1X main lens, you must have the corresponding capabilities:
will be good at using the environment to express the direction of lines.
You must also be good at using composition to avoid cluttered backgrounds (in this photo, I squatted down and used the foreground to block the distance).
Therefore, more often than not, I am still used to using the 2X on my mobile phone to record.
has a 2X zoom, which is equivalent to 50mm.
You can look at the photos taken:
The distortion of the lines is smaller and the impact on the environment is smaller.
and 5X zoom, the equivalent is 125mm.
This is already a very telephoto focal length, which is more suitable for taking photos of small people and large scenes:
So, although my X70Pro+ has 4 lenses, for portraits, only 2X (equivalent to 50mm) is More classic. Both 35mm and 85mm are missing and can only be achieved by manual adjustment and digital zoom.
For example, this photo:
is the photo I am most satisfied with, and it is also my current WeChat avatar. It was taken with the digital zoom of my mobile phone. I adjusted it for a long time, and when I came back to look at the parameters, it was equivalent to 34mm, so it is a classic. It's a classic.
However, more people may not shoot like this, because everyone is used to the fixed values such as 1X, 3X, and 5X on the screen. After all, that is the optimal "fixed focus" focal length of the mobile phone. Default settings given to consumers by mobile phone manufacturers.
Taking a step back, even with this already set focal length, there are very few people who know how to use it when they buy it home. On the one hand,
is due to the limited level of photographers. On the other hand, it is also due to the fact that equipment providers, including manufacturers, have not popularized these more professional things to more people.
After all, compared to talking about the subtle changes between focal lengths, it is far less eye-catching than promoting the "super moon" and "starry sky and star trails".
So, I saw this definition of "portrait trifocal length" recently, and I think it is necessary to popularize it to everyone.
After all, photography is the selling point, and the clearer the focal length is, the more convenient it is, and the more classic it is, the better it is naturally.
For those who like to take portraits, with 35mm\50mm\85mm focal length options, perhaps they can truly feel the convenience and stunningness brought by these classic focal lengths. Of course, most of the photos in the examples above were taken by cameras. The camera’s lens module, lens quality, coating effect and physical aperture all directly affect the quality of the image. At this point, everyone must not ignore it.
