[snozolli]

“Zoom with your feet!”

Nothing in photography annoys me more than advice conflating zooming with repositioning the camera. A wide angle lens up close gives a completely different result than a zoom lens from far away.

I've been seeing this awful sentiment for nearly two decades now.

Here's my advice: try everything and try to capture whatever feeling you had in the moment. If you convey the feeling, you've succeeded.

[alistairSH]

"Zoom with your feet" is usually related to cropping (and enlarging/zooming) in post.

Say you have a 50mm prime and want a photo of a car that's parked down the street.

Do you... A) take the shot from where you are and crop/zoom in post OR B) walk a block and get the shot composed correctly from the start?

[BeetleB]

> Do you... A) take the shot from where you are and crop/zoom in post OR B) walk a block and get the shot composed correctly from the start?

If you walk, the composition totally changes. If you like the composition where you are, but it's too small, walking that block will give you something worse.

The steps are:

1. Get the composition right (walking around)

2. Zoom or crop if the subject is too small.

3. Do not walk closer - it messes up the composition.

There's a whole other thread discussing this.

Hint: For the type of photography I do, I almost always get a better composition by being farther and zooming in. You won't get those shots by getting nearer to the subject.

See https://www.diyphotography.net/this-is-why-you-cant-zoom-wit...

https://www.diyphotography.net/zooming-lens-feet-changes-rel...