Comment by crazygringo
1 day ago
I think you're misunderstanding, and have come up with a strawman here.
What you're describing as correct is what people understand. Of course it's the fact that you're far away. I think it goes without saying that you can't use a telephoto lens inside of a room or something.
And yes, of course you could take a wide picture and make a crop. But the resolution would be terrible. The whole point of a telephoto lens is to take that tiny crop of your environment at full resolution.
I'm sorry you learned it wrong at age 14 and maybe wherever you got it from really did explain it badly. But it's standard for professionals to talk about the effect of a long lens in this way, that the camera will be further away.
Of course. I wish it was better explained. No, not everyone interprets the words to get the correct view. The words used are awful and some photographers are responsible of this.
I don't think it's a strawman. I've definitely seen a lot of people think that the perspective compression is a result of lens choice rather than camera position.