Perspective · Focal length · Center of projection

Becoming friends
with my camera.

Three small experiments with an iPhone 17 Pro reveal how moving the camera changes space—and how zoom changes the frame.

Explore the experiments

Selfie: the wrong way vs. the right way

Distance reshapes a face.

For the first image, I photographed the subject from close range at 1×. For the second, I stepped several feet back and used 4× zoom while keeping the face approximately the same size in the frame.

Close-range portrait photographed with the 1× lens — **Close & wide** The nose and center of the face sit much closer to the camera, so they appear proportionally larger.

Portrait photographed from farther away with the 4× telephoto lens — **Far & telephoto** From farther away, the relative distances across the face become smaller and the proportions look flatter and more natural.

Architectural perspective compression

The building folds in on itself.

I first photographed the angled facade from far away at 4×. Then I walked toward it and switched to 1×, matching the building's size as closely as possible.

Building facade photographed from far away at 4× zoom — **Compressed** The repeating columns and arches appear closer in size, making the facade feel flatter.

The same building facade photographed from nearby at 1× zoom — **Expanded** Up close, the nearest columns loom larger while the others recede, creating stronger convergence and depth.

The dolly zoom

A still subject. A moving world.

I moved backward while continuously zooming in, using the palm trunk as a fixed visual anchor. I sampled nine frames from the move and combined them into a forward loop.

Animated dolly zoom with a palm-tree trunk staying centered as the pool and building in the background grow larger

CAMERA ← ZOOM →

Move back
The camera-to-subject distance increases.

Zoom in
The subject remains roughly the same size.