Club Obi Wan

This subject may have been dealt with in the past, and though some of you are most likely aware of it I haven’t seen it addressed. It is the relationship between camera and taper.

I have posted here some different shots of the same hat to prove a point, being that the taper factor in some ROTLA shots are sometimes not the hat but the camera lens. Here is a hat as seen through a 28mm wide-angle lens, which might be used in a scene where there isn’t a lot of room (for the camera that is, not the hat).

This lens is also used for sweeping landscapes and here’s why:
A wide-angle lens creates depth or distance between the foreground and the background.
It makes things close to the lens look big (such as a hat brim), and things in the distance look smaller (such as a hat’s crown) and even further away.

Here is a shot of the same hat from the same camera height, but using a 45mm lens. This is not considered wide angle but it still causes a tapered look.

Now look at the same hat using a telephoto lens of 165mm. A telephoto lens compresses an image. It makes things that are farther away appear closer to the object in the foreground. This is the approximate lens setting I used for my pics posted in “This could be dangerous.” I chose it because Hollywood portrait photographers would use a similar one for publicity shots. It is more flattering for people because their nose will look smaller and it brings their ears into proportion.

Why is this important to those who study the intricacies of the fedora? Because in film different scenes call for different lenses that give sometimes distorted views of our object of admiration. If you’ve watched the IJ Bonus Features DVD, you’ll notice Spielberg talking about using a telephoto lens on the boat/propeller scene, so they could keep the actors out of harms way while making it look like they were about to get chopped to bits.
This Lens phenomenon affects many other items as well, but since we seem a bit obsessed with the hat, we tend to focus on it alone.

I hope you find this info useful in your own endeavors to create the fedoras of your dreams.
Good Luck
Inexpensive Jones

Sometimes the obvious answers are the most difficult to see.

Regards! Michaelson

Yeah, distance from the lens is another one of my pet peeves. When you hold a camera at arms length it does horrible things to the human face, and makes the hats look funky too. I always preferred a shot taken from some distance and then cropped...

Great Post! I think most of us have probably know about this phenomenon, its nice to see someone take the time time to put in into a form that is a bit easier to grasp.

I think that is the best LC style hat I've seen!

Thanks Rick! I was wondering what was happening with some of

my close up shots. It makes the crown of the fedora look way too

small, sort of the clown hat effect if you know what I mean.

No problem. Kind of like the fishbowl lens.

I came to realize that since I have a large nose. Taking a shot at arms length makes it VERY obvious since my nose is bigger and everything else is smaller. To add insult to injury, the camera wanted to focus on what was closest, so every blackhead, capillary and nose hair shows up just fine, but the details of the hats can be fuzzy. So if I set the timer and get about 4 miles away, I am in the right position.

So if I set the timer and get about 4 miles away, I am in the right position.

Rick has kept me laughing, here and away from here as well for quite a few years now. I think his "real job" is that of a comedy writer for a well known production. Fedora

The first two pics also show a fedora that is tipped back more than the last pic. This too will affect the final look. Fedora

The first two pics also show a fedora that is tipped back more than the last pic. This too will affect the final look. Fedora

Actually, the hat never moved and the height of the camera is exactly the same. The only difference is the distance of the camera from the hat and the lens.
By the way Rick, I look better 4 miles away also...at least that's what my wife says.

Actually, the hat never moved and the height of the camera is exactly the same.

You used a line level to maintain the elevation of the camera in relation to the subject? Or did you just back up, on a perfectly level surface and shoot from a tripod? If you were backing up, outside, the elevation may not have been the same as the closer shots. I see a slight variance in angle of shot. Fedora

You used a line level to maintain the elevation of the camera in relation to the subject? Or did you just back up, on a perfectly level surface and shoot from a tripod?

Fair enough. I used a tripod on level concrete indoors. The hat was on a stand that did not move. I did have to back the camera up for each shot or the series would have been of a hat, zoom...the hat band, and zoom...a stitch of the hat band. But the height of the tripod was never adjusted as I wanted to keep the relationship the same.
I think that the angle of the front of the brim testifies to the camera angle staying the same.
It would be more interesting if I shot it on someone's head, but then I have to be concerned with movement. I'm rambling now.