A bit close for comfort over a Volcano

[Straighten Up]

Not sure if it's a photo edit / camera angle jobby but this looks mighty close!

Plane flies over Iceland volcano spewing lava for the perfect action shot | Daily Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2901979/That-s-close-call-Daring-pilot-swoops-Iceland-volcano-spewing-850C-lava-pose-perfect-action-shot.html)

[capewrath]

Probably the pic was shot far off with a telephoto lens of about 300mm or more. Effect is known as lens compression whereby background objects look much nearer than they are.

Demo here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQt_jYGyBkc#t=116

[JOE-FBS]

Proper aviation reporting here:

AOPA GA Magazine December 2014 (http://www.aopa.co.uk/images/epub/ga_dec14/#/40)

[doyll]

Telephoto lenses compress depth perception and make things look much closer than they are.
http://www.artandstructure.com/photography/artofpho/wntlines.jpg
Notice how much closer the building face becomes as phototographer zooms in on girl.

[joy ride]

To be truly pedantic: it is the distance between the subject and the viewer/camera which is responsible for the compression.

Whatever you look at (with eyes or any focal length lens) will look more compressed if it is at greater distance. Doyll's 120mm photo was taken from further back!

A telephoto lens does not "compress" or alter perspective, that is done by distance between you and the subject, the telephoto just increases the viewed size of distant objects plus the concomitant compression. Same for wide angle lenses/closer viewpoint, but other way round, if you see what I mean.

[Sunamer]

"telephoto just increases the viewed size of distant objects"

That is exactly what is called perspective - sizes of objects in relation to the viewing distances.

So, in short, telelens of wide-angle lenses (fish eye, as an example) will change perspective, or difference in sizes of viewed objects in relation to the distance at which those objects are located in relation to the camera.

In the extreme case, the perspective view will be collapsed to axonometric/isometric view. The main difference between perspective and axonometric/isometric view is that in the first one drawn parallel lines will intersect somewhere, but they don't intersect in the latter.

[oceancrosser]

The scorching lava, which is 850 degrees Celsius hot, erupts in the air up to heights of almost 200 feet, and has been erupting since 1783


Jeez. 1783? Journo IDIOTS.

[joy ride]

Sunamer, it's been a very long while since I studied this, so apologies if brain fog creeps in, but this is (hopefully) what was drummed into my thick bonce by my obsessively knowlegeable Theory tutor!

If you hold a small toy car at arm's length its proportions look roughly normal and proportional. Bring it closer until its front end is very close to your eye. It may be out of focus, but you can still tell that the front appears disproportionally large, as with a fish eye lens. Your eye is still using the same lens, but the different viewpoint has changed the perspectival appearance!

OR: if doyll's 3 photos had all been taken with identical distances between building, woman, and camera, then if the wide angle and standard lens shots were to be enlarged proportionally until the woman was exactly the same size in all three, then the perspectival relationship between her and the building would be identical. If her head fitted exactly the size of one window pane in the background of one photo, so it would in the other two.

The reason why there is a different perspectival relationship between the woman and the building in doyll's 3 posted photos is that the camera position has changed.

Anyway, the report suggests the plane was 300 meters away, which is still very close considering the heat and unpredictable nature of fluid flow, great photos!

Perspective is about the visual relationship between objects at different distances, and does not change unless the viewpoint changes

[doyll]

@joy rider, You know not what you are talking about. From our "perspective" is the girl is the same distance away from us in all 3 pictures but our "perspective" is she looks closer to the building in the background in each progressively zoomed in picture.

What Sunamer said.

[joy ride]

I think further discussion should probably be re-started on a new thread on Jet Blast, but for now this explains it better than I can:

Debunking the myth that focal length affects perspective + how to actually do it | Digital Camera World (http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2014/08/15/debunking-the-myth-that-focal-length-affects-perspective/)