Tip of the week: My third tip for controlling the background of a image is to change the focal length and changing your position to insure similar framing for the main subject. This is a technique that I use frequently when I want to highlight or use only a small part of a scene as my background of the image. To insure similar framing of the main subject, be prepared to move closer or further back to insure that the subject remains the same size within the frame. For this example, I used my 50mm for my first photo and then backed up and used the 300mm on the second shot. Both of the these images were shot from a similar angle, however all the leading lines within the photograph are less exaggerated with the longer focal length.

To insure that you keep the same magnification of the subject, be prepared to do a little bit of math. The 300mm has 6x more magnification than the 50mm. To insure similar framing of the subject within the frame, I had to back up 6x further away from the subject. So if I photographed the original photo with the 50mm at 6 feet away from the subject, then I would need to back up to 36ft away to keep the subject a similar size in the photo with the 300mm. Conversely, if I wanted to shoot a 3rd shot with a 25mm lens, I would need to half my distance from the original shot and photograph only 3 feet away from the subject for similar framing.