"zoom with my feet"

calson · Jan 5, 2018

A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Do a brief experiment and take a 35mm lens or set a zoom lens at that focal length, and go outside and take a picture of a scene with objects 50 yards or meters from the camera. Then cut the distance to half as much and take the picture again. Do this again so you have 3 or 4 image files.

Then crop the images so the area covered in the scene is the same for all the pictures. Compare the perspectives and how the various objects from the foreground to the background appear in size relative to each other.

Different focal length lenses alter image magnification and perspective and not simply the view angle. This is most obvious when comparing a panoramic image that is comprised of 3 images taken with a 85mm lens that provides a composite view angle of 84 degrees, with a single image taken with a 24mm lens providing the same view angle.

These are easy experiments to do and once you do them you will not be inclined to make the statement "I zoom with my feet". You will know better.

blurred GTA · Jan 5, 2018

calson said:
A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Do a brief experiment and take a 35mm lens or set a zoom lens at that focal length, and go outside and take a picture of a scene with objects 50 yards or meters from the camera. Then cut the distance to half as much and take the picture again. Do this again so you have 3 or 4 image files.

Then crop the images so the area covered in the scene is the same for all the pictures. Compare the perspectives and how the various objects from the foreground to the background appear in size relative to each other.

Different focal length lenses alter image magnification and perspective and not simply the view angle. This is most obvious when comparing a panoramic image that is comprised of 3 images taken with a 85mm lens that provides a composite view angle of 84 degrees, with a single image taken with a 24mm lens providing the same view angle.

These are easy experiments to do and once you do them you will not be inclined to make the statement "I zoom with my feet". You will know better.

--
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -- Herman Melville

Good luck changing the (almost) universally accepted factually incorrect term to "crop with my feet"

Westmill · Jan 5, 2018

Tried zooming with my hands once..... now that really was stupid...... it was a bugger carrying the camera with my feet.

Reminds me of the time I painted myself into the corner doh !

Leonard Shepherd · Jan 5, 2018

calson said:
A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Some may like "cropping with their feet".

That aside two advantages of modern photography are being able to record either time or perspective in different ways to that perceived by the eye/brain combination outside of photography.

saaber1 · Jan 5, 2018

blurred GTA said:
blurred GTA wrote:...

Good luck changing the (almost) universally accepted factually incorrect term to "crop with my feet"

I think Ken rockwell is largely to blame. This saying along with other BS such as "no one needs lenses faster than f/4 anymore", "P stands for Pro mode" and countless others have become memes for those that don't know better. It's too bad because it can hurt beginning photographers' development.

briantilley · Jan 5, 2018

calson said:
A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Do a brief experiment and take a 35mm lens or set a zoom lens at that focal length, and go outside and take a picture of a scene with objects 50 yards or meters from the camera. Then cut the distance to half as much and take the picture again. Do this again so you have 3 or 4 image files.

Then crop the images so the area covered in the scene is the same for all the pictures. Compare the perspectives and how the various objects from the foreground to the background appear in size relative to each other.

Different focal length lenses alter image magnification and perspective and not simply the view angle.

So here's another minor rant - I cringe every time someone says that focal length alters perspective.

Perspective depends only on the relative distances of subjects from the camera. Focal length can seem to alter perspective, if with a wider lens you move closer, but it's the change in distance that does it, not the focal length.

bflood · Jan 5, 2018

My only recollections of the phrase "zooming with your feet" have always been in reference to a need for more focal length to get a specific shot. The typical example is the wildlife shooter without a long enough lens to fill the frame with the subject, and therefore "zooming with his feet" to get close enough to fill the frame. Thus, zooming with the feet happens to compensate for not having a lens that could optically zoom to a focal length that could accomplish the same framing.

In that context, zooming with the feet has a legitimate meaning.

fishy wishy · Jan 5, 2018

"Zoom with your feet" sounds like old camera club amateurs talking to me. The idea that people want to wait around tapping their feet while 'the photographer" diddles about going backwards and forwards to get framing is silly. Even when I'm on holiday people sometimes pause or duck under my camera while I'm shooting on the street. That's not what I really want, and I use a zoom to get off shots as quickly as possible. Many moments just disappear if I spend more time fiddling with my camera.

There's no way I could hold up an event while I keep changing prime setups either.

Leonard Migliore · Jan 5, 2018

Westmill said:
Tried zooming with my hands once..... now that really was stupid...... it was a bugger carrying the camera with my feet.

Reminds me of the time I painted myself into the corner doh !

I used to be able to zoom with my feet. Now all I can do is shuffle.

MrScrooge · Jan 5, 2018

saaber1 said:
saaber1 said:

blurred GTA wrote:...

Good luck changing the (almost) universally accepted factually incorrect term to "crop with my feet"

Click to expand...

I think Ken rockwell is largely to blame.

I have found photography to be full of phrases like this to aid beginners grasp the mechanics of certain concepts.

Only problem with teaching/learning this way is that the nomenclature is totally wrong and you need to un-learn it later and adopt the correct terminology if you want to converse clearly and correctly with people who understand photographic concepts.

A lot of what Ken writes seems to intended to get people to try things. If you’re a beginner you’ll probably end up enabling yourself to shoot more and in new ways following his advice, which imo is a great thing as experience is a much better teaching tool than a textbook. But if you want to advance you’ll need to be able to put those lessons into context and be ready to re-learn the technical stuff properly down the line.

It certainly worked for me when I wanted to take this wee hobby further than just taking the same snaps I always had except with a better camera. I would never have attempted to live without a zoom lens, were it not for being pitched the concept of ‘zooming with my feet’ for example - I found that experience extremely valuable, and it’s not the only one.

Since2007 · Jan 6, 2018

Sometimes you can, but most often you can't. Even if you can, how long does it take to walk a hundred meters while you can zoom from 150 to 600 within a second?

Can't zoom with ones feet behind a fence, or on top of a building. One can only use crop mode and/or crop it in Photoshop.

Shot in DX mode and cropped

Cropped in Photoshop

ImageAmateur · Jan 6, 2018

calson said:
A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Do a brief experiment and take a 35mm lens or set a zoom lens at that focal length, and go outside and take a picture of a scene with objects 50 yards or meters from the camera. Then cut the distance to half as much and take the picture again. Do this again so you have 3 or 4 image files.

Then crop the images so the area covered in the scene is the same for all the pictures. Compare the perspectives and how the various objects from the foreground to the background appear in size relative to each other.

Different focal length lenses alter image magnification and perspective and not simply the view angle. This is most obvious when comparing a panoramic image that is comprised of 3 images taken with a 85mm lens that provides a composite view angle of 84 degrees, with a single image taken with a 24mm lens providing the same view angle.

These are easy experiments to do and once you do them you will not be inclined to make the statement "I zoom with my feet". You will know better.

Westmill · Jan 6, 2018

calson said:
A minor rant by every time I read that someone "zooms with their feet" I cringe as it is a stupid comment to make.

Do a brief experiment and take a 35mm lens or set a zoom lens at that focal length, and go outside and take a picture of a scene with objects 50 yards or meters from the camera. Then cut the distance to half as much and take the picture again. Do this again so you have 3 or 4 image files.

Then crop the images so the area covered in the scene is the same for all the pictures. Compare the perspectives and how the various objects from the foreground to the background appear in size relative to each other.

Different focal length lenses alter image magnification and perspective and not simply the view angle. This is most obvious when comparing a panoramic image that is comprised of 3 images taken with a 85mm lens that provides a composite view angle of 84 degrees, with a single image taken with a 24mm lens providing the same view angle.

These are easy experiments to do and once you do them you will not be inclined to make the statement "I zoom with my feet". You will know better.

beatboxa · Jan 6, 2018

Leonard Migliore said:
I used to be able to zoom with my feet. Now all I can do is shuffle.

Mahoonse · Jan 6, 2018

"Zoom with your feet" is particularly useless in landscape photography. Consider a shot of a mountain viewed over a lake with rocks in the foreground. A wide angle lens separates the fore- and backgrounds giving depth to the photo. You can't foot-zoom to get this effect with a longer focal length. If your concern is just getting the whole mountain or filling the frame (the usual foot-zooming reason) your feet may have to zoom back a mile or so or walk on water (not one of my skills).

MrScrooge · Jan 6, 2018

Mahoonse said:
your concern is just getting the whole mountain or filling the frame (the usual foot-zooming reason) your feet may have to zoom back a mile or so or walk on water (not one of my skills)

To be fair, I think you’re mixing up the concepts of “having a lens with a zoom feature” and “bringing a lens with the appropriate focal length”

larrywilson · Jan 6, 2018

Salt Creek Falls, Oregon USA

MrScrooge said:
Mahoonse said:

your concern is just getting the whole mountain or filling the frame (the usual foot-zooming reason) your feet may have to zoom back a mile or so or walk on water (not one of my skills)

Click to expand...

To be fair, I think you’re mixing up the concepts of “having a lens with a zoom feature” and “bringing a lens with the appropriate focal length”

When your doing wide to ultra wide angle photography standing at where you can't move very far its hard to have a single focal length lens for the right focal length. For an example this waterfall photo I took a while back with a cliff in front and back of me. I was on a trail.

Larry

Miike Dougherty · Jan 6, 2018

In order to get the composition I want, I will zoom with my lens and my feet. The only problem with my feet is that I get so involved with getting the composition right that I don't look where I'm going and have landed on my posterior more than once.

Westmill · Jan 6, 2018

Miike Dougherty said:
In order to get the composition I want, I will zoom with my lens and my feet. The only problem with my feet is that I get so involved with getting the composition right that I don't look where I'm going and have landed on my posterior more than once.

I use my body as a tripod while keeping both hands on the camera !

MrScrooge · Jan 6, 2018

larrywilson said:
Salt Creek Falls, Oregon USA

MrScrooge said:

Mahoonse said:

your concern is just getting the whole mountain or filling the frame (the usual foot-zooming reason) your feet may have to zoom back a mile or so or walk on water (not one of my skills)

Click to expand...

To be fair, I think you’re mixing up the concepts of “having a lens with a zoom feature” and “bringing a lens with the appropriate focal length”

Click to expand...

When your doing wide to ultra wide angle photography standing at where you can't move very far its hard to have a single focal length lens for the right focal length. For an example this waterfall photo I took a while back with a cliff in front and back of me. I was on a trail.

Not being argumentative, but from the image posted alone and no other information, the first thing I’m thinking is that if you had “zoomed with your feet” by moving forward a bit, instead of zooming with the lens, you could have eliminated that distracting foreground and got a really great waterfall shot.

I’m sure there was a reason you couldn’t, but your image alone sort of does the opposite of help your argument.

Technically, there’s no reason you couldn’t have brought a range of primes and mounted the most appropriate one - no need for a zoom - and getting a bit closer might have bagged you a better shot. This is the fundamental idea behind ‘zooming with your feet’ - exchanging convenience for effort - not limiting your focal range.

"zoom with my feet"

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