Focal Length?

[twitter&bisted]

I want to take a photograph across a field looking at a structure. What would be the best focal length to set the lens on to give a reasonable idea of the actual view looks like to someone who has only seen the photo?
Thanks in advance and I hope the question makes sense!

 

[gaz_jameison]

Isn't that going to depend on:

- How far away you are from your subject
- How long the field is
- How big the structure is
- How you want the picture to turn out

????

Why not just take a few different shots and see?

 

[Faldrax]

A focal length of 50mm (on 35mm) is often regarded as a 'normal' field of view - IE similar to what you woudl see if standing at the spot the photo was taken.
On a crop camera remember to adjust for that (so a 1.5 crop body would give a similar FOV with a 35mm lens).

 

[ChrisGilbert]

If you set the focal length of the camera to 20mm then the image that it produces will be more or less what the eye sees. Is that what you wanted ?

Seems a bit short to me but that's what Google told me <shrug>

 

[HMansfield]

A focal length of 50mm (on 35mm) is often regarded as a 'normal' field of view - IE similar to what you woudl see if standing at the spot the photo was taken.
On a crop camera remember to adjust for that (so a 1.5 crop body would give a similar FOV with a 35mm lens).

This is based on the FOV of one eye though. Most of us have two eyes though, so have a wider angle view, somewhere in the region of 30-35mm (full frame. Multiply by 0.67 if you have cropped eyes).

 

[twitter&bisted]

Thanks to everyone.

I am trying to get the photo to look the same as if the viewer was standing on the spot that it was taken. I suppose the next thing is that everything will vary depending on what size it is printed at, as suggested I can feel a few experiments coming up.