In my cinematography class at UCLA, teacher Deland Nuse gave us an assignment to shoot a scene with a variety of shots and angles that we could do once with wide lenses and a second time using long lenses with the rule that we had to try and match the relative size of the actors in each version within the frame. This meant of course, that for the version using long lenses we had to move much further back (hence the absolute lack of dialogue audio).
The purpose was to demonstrate the effects of perspective compression and its impact on the appearance of actors, verticals as can be found in buildings, and begin to develop a vocabulary for when we might prefer to use longer versus wider lenses.
Notice how in the first version with wide lenses there is a distortion taking place that makes the buildings appear as thought they are elongated and their perspective somewhat exaggerated. We can see most of the right side of the building, however. In the second version, using long lenses, the building’s verticals appear perfectly upright and straight however far less of it is seen on the horizontal axis.
Similarly notice how in the wide version, the actors appear slightly more like caricature, noses are pulled forward, heads slightly tapered – this is something that the Coen brothers used to great effect in their comedy Raising Arizona which demonstrated an extreme example of this. Switching to long lenses for the medium and close up shots of our actors alters the ratios for the elements in their faces, causing them to appear more like they do in real life. This is why long lenses are conventionally used for portrait photography.
Finally note in the last shot of the film, when the actors ascend the stairs to the man standing before the fountain – in the wide the background is barely taking up much more than the horizon, leaving a lot of sky above. In the version with longer focal lengths, the background has been strongly compressed and thus brought forward and takes up the entire space creating a sense of grandeur.
Whatever the wide vs long versions feel like to you, is most important. While there are many conventions and best practices, it is really about understanding their effects and then using them as tools to help tell your story the way you or the people whom you are serving, feel it should be told.
