The background on the far left photo looks way more accurate to how a building structure looks. The fact you chose the middle photo to be вЂњtrueвЂќ to real life, sounds as though you are picking based on which photo you feel you look best in- even though the background in the middle photo looks distorted. I would be impressed with your finds had you kept yourself at the same distance for all photos using different lens (like many other photographers have done). ItвЂ™s pretty obvious from your expirement, if you keep moving yourself, youвЂ™ll get different results. The finale photo came out closer to real life/proportionate. Not only that, thereвЂ™s plenty of people who has done the same thing as you have, except they keep the subject at the same distance as the camera- and every photo that comes out ends up looking distorted. Standing close to the mirror in real life does not create a exaggerate perception as the camera does.

In other words, itвЂ™s not using a different lens that changes the perspective and causes distortion, rather itвЂ™s the lens enticing the photographer to change the perspective to get the framing that he wants, and that action by the photographer then changes the distortion. You get very different distortions with different lenses precisely *because* of the photographer compensating by moving the camera, thus changing the perspective. ThatвЂ™s not the same thing as the distortion caused by perspective as you move closer to the subject to compensate for the angle of view of a wide-angle lens. However, using different lenses in the same position relative to the subject, you will always get the same geometry of viewing and thus the same perspective, even if the field of view and apparent size of the subject both change due to using a different lens. Yes, changes in lens focal length will change the field of view and the apparent sizes of subjects within the photograph. I wonder how many false convictions this has resulted in over the yearsвЂ¦.Дavid, I assume that by вЂњlens sizeвЂќ you mean focal length. It turns out that people are surprisingly bad at correctly identifying strangers in this way (e.g.

Similarly, if you ever end up in court for something, CCTV evidence вЂ“ usually shot from many metres away вЂ“ might be used to identify you. Every time we go through passport control at an airport, the photo on your passport gets compared to the real life you, by someone who never met you before. Portrait photographers usually use long focal lengths (at least 85mm) because this is thought to produce a more вЂnaturalвЂ™ and flattering portrait.ДЄll of this is important, and not just to make yourself look hot on Facebook (a hint ignored in both those links: donвЂ™t get too close to the camera!). I find the middle image above to be the closest to how I think I look, probably because the distance of 40cm means itвЂ™s approximately what I see when I look in a mirror normally. If you look at yourself in the mirror from very close up (or get close to someone youвЂ™re intimate with), you get exactly the same distortions (closing one eye helps with this, as most people canвЂ™t maintain vergence that close).

The crazy thing about this is that it happens in real life too, we just donвЂ™t often notice it.

My nose appears much larger, because it is proportionally closer to the camera than the rest of my face. Because my nose is about 10cm away from my ears on my head, this means that there is a large proportional difference in the distance from the camera to my nose, and the distance from the camera to my ears. In the rightmost image, IвЂ™m about 20cm from the camera. At this distance, each of my facial features is a similar distance from the camera вЂ“ within a few percent of the total distance вЂ“ so my face appears flat. In the leftmost image, the subject is far away (2 metres) from the camera. Actually, the only вЂdistortionsвЂ™ are caused by geometry, they are nothing to do with the lens or the camera. Many people would probably tell you this was due to вЂlens distortionвЂ™ вЂ“ implying that the wide angle lens used for the photos on the right somehow distorts reality, creating an imperfect image. Note that the wide angle lens used for the last three photos is not a fisheye lens (itвЂ™s one of these). Photos of me using different focal length lenses (85-8mm on an APS-C sensor, so equivalent to 127.5-12mm on 35mm film) from five different distances (200-20cm).

Camera lens distortion distance