Pixiq

Many photographers think lenses capture what we see.  This isn't true.  Normal lenses, i.e. 50mm to 60mm, come close, but they don't record a subject or scene as we see it.  For example, lenses don't have peripheral vision like we do.  Lenses create shallow depth of field, and our eyes never have to deal with this limitation of the ability to see a scene clearly.

To drive home the point I want to make here, I took the photo above yesterday in Lalibela, Ethiopia of 13th century St. George church.  I used a 14mm wide angle lens, and obviously we never see this kind of exaggerated perspective and distortion.  Similarly, the picture of the elderly woman below, also in Lalibela, shows a soft background because I used a 200mm telephoto lens while standing only a few feet away.  Again, our eyes don't see out of focus backgrounds like this.

In order to previsualize what a picture will look like even before you raise the camera to your eyes, you must train yourself  to think as the lens sees.  Picture a shot with the distortion of a wide angle or the compression and shallow depth of field characteristic of telephotos.  Don't expect to capture what you see.  You'll always be frustrated and disappointed.  Use your lenses to their full potential by knowing how they interpret a subject -- in other words, previsualize what they will do -- and your work will take a quantum leap forward.