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The longer the focal length of a lens, usually measured in mm, the narrower its angle of view, so the further back you would have to stand to get the whole of the subject , say a full length figure , in. Shorter focal lengths give a wider angle of view so you can stand closer, and still get the whole figure in. But there are other effects.

So what is perspective? If you look at something close up it appears bigger in relation to the background behind it. This effect is due to perspective; ever seen a photo of someone's face taken with a wide angle lens close up to fill the picture. Their nose is closer to the camera in percentage terms than the rest of their face and looks huge compared to the rest of the head.

When the photographer steps back and uses a longer focal length, which still fills the picture with the face, distance between the plane that the nose is on is and the rest of the face is smaller in percentage terms and everything looks more natural. Both versions are actually right, try looking at someone from 6 inches away, probably best if you know them reasonably well, and then step back a few feet. We are used to looking at people from a reasonable distance so our brain tells us that this is the more natural picture. For these pictures Alana had already gone fairly OTT with the makeup; so we just decided to go for a striking effect.

The basic image straight out of the camera looks fairly flat. So first we adjust the levels. I tend to use an adjustment layer so that I can go back and tweak it later. Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Levels