What aesthetic calls for long (3x normal) lenses?

[bob_bill]

A longer lens compresses a scene. By making the background appear relatively larger, it can be made to dwarf and seem more important than the foreground object. Imagine a person in foreground and a building in the background. A wide angle lens, moving closer to the subject, makes the person larger, more important, dominant in the image than the background. Think the classic interesting foreground object/low camera angle/ wa lens landscape shot. A long lens does the opposite, moves camera further from the person and makes the background smaller, less important. A long lens is for more than just reaching out. The perspective is set with your feet, not a zoom ring so it is one of the things to take into consideration before establishing the camera position as well as background, light angle and all should fit the vision for the shot, what you are trying to say.

[bob_bill]

A long lens does the opposite, moves camera further from the person and makes the background smaller, less important.

larger, more

[Ed_Ingold]

Bob, I think I know what you mean, but you didn't express it well. A long lens has a smaller field of view. By moving back for a portrait or closeup, a long lens includes less background and potential distractions. Looking at it another way, the same background looks closer and more imposing since you see less of it. Had I moved to within a few dozen feet of the farmhouse instead of half a klik, Eyafjallajogul would be a mound instead of a 1500 meter monster with a 100+ meter escarpment (former sea coast).

 

The mountain is always bigger than the farmhouse. A wide angle lens exaggerates objects in the foreground. A long lens does not exaggerate the foreground. The further you stand back, the closer the proportion is to reality. It's a double-negative in a good way.

[MTC Photography]

Huangshan

[Ed_Ingold]

It is not a good sign that a moderator has the same problems posting images as others do.

 

I would like to show image from my PNET portfolio, but so far I can only post a link. Otherwise I have to upload each time. Even that's not easy. If you try to post more than one image, the order tends to get scrambled, or simply repeats the first post (as probably happened here).

[ben_hutcherson]

I actually find that I rather like a 250mm on 6x7. It makes a great portrait lens, and as others have said it can invoke an interesting perspective in landscapes.

 

For 6x7, I don't consider 250mm to be particularly long. It's in the same ballpark at a 135mm lens on 35mm, another focal length that I find a decent amount of use for. My RB67 kit runs from 65mm to 250mm, and I'd probably cart the 250 with me everywhere if it weren't so dang heavy. I don't desire anything longer for the camera(although I'd love a 50mm), but like I said I use it a fair bit.

[kim_johnson1]

Any answer for this question is totally subjective and up to personal taste. While a very long lens may be used when you're at a distance and that is the only use you find it good for, others may like the shallow depth of field it provides in a myriad of situations, or the perceive compression of space, or just the general look using it for portraits, or the Brenizer Method. I've seen some really stunning portraits done with a 300mm lens ... Its totally up to what the photographer creatively wants.

[Matthew Currie]

I find it interesting that as so often happens in photographic discussions, the same thing can be said in two ways that seem opposite. So with a long lens, in one sense the background becomes smaller (less real estate is covered in the background) and larger (individual objects are relatively magnified).

 

Anyway, though I often tend to like wider views, I like a longer lens for some things, including isolating a background, because when done right the objects in the background not only are blurrier but often more abstract when you see only a part of something rather than all of it. A chair is a chair even when it's blurry, but a piece of a chair is not.

 

Wildlife has, of course, already been mentioned, but I would add as a sub-genre at least, bugs. Being able to stand a little further back helps if you have a critter that likes to fly away. Here's a skittish dragonfly caught with a 300 on DX.