Focal Length, Lens Compression, & Depth of Field

The choices you make regarding gear, settings, and so on have a great impact on the composition of an image. One of these choices is focal length, since the lenses you choose affect the look of the background elements of your photographs. Keep on reading to learn how you can alter the composition and compress the background of an image just by changing your focal length.

What is Lens Compression?

Lens compression is a way of distorting an image so that objects that are located behind or in front of the main focal point appear to be closer and larger than they really are. But don’t let the word “distortion” scare you away. It doesn’t distort the actual subject you’re photographing, like a wide-angle lens would, but rather it affects the background and foreground of your images by bringing them closer to the main subject. Adding compression to food photographs is something I do all the time, and it’s actually one of my favorite techniques in photography.