When I started my photography “career,” I used to take pictures at nightclubs and various types of social events. I had already started shooting for fun and had moved up to a Canon 350D, more popular as the Digital Rebel.

After shooting with it in my later college years, I wanted to pursue photography more seriously. Then I started saving money to buy something better. Finally, after a couple of years, I had saved enough for one body and one lens. So, I was excited to purchase the Canon EOS 5D Mk II and the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens. An excellent combo for what I was supposed to capture at those events. It allowed me to shoot wide and go all the way to telephoto to take candid photos of the guests. I was a happy beginner and used this basic setup for all my photography.

Over the next 11 years, I kept shooting with the same camera, but I started investing money in different lenses because good glass can be used with various bodies.

Nowadays, I get hired to shoot more and more images for websites and social media. As a result, I need to fit one or multiple subjects (products) in a relatively small frame most of the time.

When you frame a subject in the camera, you usually want it to fill the frame. However, you must consider that it is almost impossible to capture a certain amount of the background because of how lenses are constructed. And when I shoot in the studio, backgrounds are always an issue.

To build a scene and take a photo of three bottles of wine like the one above, which I can crop horizontally and vertically in post, I need a massive background, especially if I am shooting with a wide or a normal lens.

This issue made me think of ways to solve my problem using my already existing tools.

I may not own huge backgrounds, but after more than 12 years of accumulating knowledge and gear, I have an assortment of lenses that I use with a couple of full-frame and crop bodies, and I can pick the right combination for the job.
So I found myself intuitively reaching for the lenses with longer focal lengths when I had to take a picture of a relatively big subject on a relatively small background. Why?

The focal length is important, but I was more interested in this case because of its relationship to the “Angle of View,” or more commonly called “field of view.”

First, the two terms are not to be confused as being interchangeable. The Angle of View (AOV) of a lens is constant. It does not change because it is a physical property of the focal length.

The Field of View (FOV), on the other hand, is determined not only by the focal length of the lens but also by the size of the sensor of the camera you are using. Hence, the same 50 mm lens will have a narrower FOV when used with a crop sensor than with a full-frame camera.

In this post, I will only deal with the issue of AOV since I don’t want to get into lengthy discussions about sensor sizes and crop factors.

I will simplify things because of my background in economics. So, let’s assume that I only shoot with one full-frame body and several lenses for said body.

Lenses with short focal lengths have a very wide angle of view. On the other hand, lenses with a very long focal length have a pretty narrow angle of view. So, my 24-70mm lens that was the workhorse I used to shoot for most of my projects requires rather extensive backgrounds even when taking pictures of relatively small objects. But, again, you will usually not overthink this issue when you are shooting social events.

Let’s say that I have two fixed focal length lenses — a 35mm and a 70mm. I can take the same picture with either lens if I physically move the camera around. However, when I move forward or backward, the relationship between the subject and the camera changes. Because of the smaller field of view of the longer focal length lens, I will also be taking a much smaller portion of the background relative to the subject even though I move the camera further away.

For example, my subject is about 65cm wide. If I use a 35mm lens (a normal lens), I need to be about 65cm away from the subject. If I double the focal length to 70mm, I will need to move to 1.3m to have the same framing. At 100mm, the distance will have to be approximately 1.8m, and at 180mm, I have to move to more than 3m away from the subject.

There is a a handy calculator on Canon’s website that will help you calculate the Angle of View of any lens. You can try it by clicking here.

Are you confused? Don’t worry. The more you practice and use lenses with different focal lengths, the better you will judge which lens to use for the job at hand. In addition, you will quickly learn to use the angle of view to your advantage.

Just remember that the angle of view gets narrower with the increase of the focal length, and it can determine how your shots will feel and look. If you need a lot of depth and dimension, you will need to reach for lenses with shorter focal lengths. You need a telephoto lens to get more intimate shots and eliminate most of the background.