Part 1: Selfie: The Wrong Way vs. The Right Way

I ask my friend to help take these photos for me. Photos are taken with Apple iPhone 16, so I have to use photo editing software so that my skin does not look so bad. (T T) Surely, the first line of photos look way better than the second line.

"A nice handsome guy!"

The "right way": camera at eye level, proper distance, natural proportions.

195mm @ around 1.5m

"Nice smile!"

A little close-up, the details are richer.

146mm @ around 1m

"Your face seems a little fat!"

The facial expression takes more part of the image.

83mm @ around 0.75m

"Why are your right face bigger than your left?"

The distortion starts to kick in.

47mm @ around 0.5m

"Excuse me, Apple Face ID seems not working."

Your face starts to distort like a spindle.

25mm @ around 0.3m

"Wait. Who are you by the way?"

The distortion is so bad that you can't even recognize yourself.

16mm @ around 0.1m

According to the video by Think Media, the focal length of the camera determines the FOV(Field of View) of the image. While the shorter focal length captures wider FOV, the longer focal length can capture subjects from afar with narrower FOV. Also, the shorter focal length will lead to less compression (the background is less blurred) and more distortion of the image (the face is more distorted and stretched).

Part 2: Architectural Perspective Compression

This is the view from below our apartment:

Flattend view

331mm

You can see the sky right now!

32mm

Wider FOV (The door aside becomes distorted now!)

14mm

Part 3: The Dolly Zoom

During the scavenger hunt, I tried to use the Dolly Zoom technique to film one of my friends. By using the camera with iPhone 16, I was able to adjust the focal length of the camera to adjust the FOV of the image. I actually try to zoom in while stepping backwards. Here is the result: