NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T | A photography lesson, courtesy of Torre de Manila

Who – or whose camera – is telling the truth? The controversy over DM Consunji’s Torre de Manila project in Manila has taken an interesting turn with the company and the office of Senator Pia Cayetano releasing seemingly conflicting and irreconcilable photographs of the Luneta vista.

Sen. Cayetano’s photos show the still incomplete building prominently at the backdrop of the Rizal Monument. DMCI’s latest releases seem to belie and discredit the senator’s “photobomb” pictures, suggesting these were manipulated. The senator says DMCI, in alleging the use of “Photoshop”, is trying to distract from the real issue of city ordinances supposedly having been ignored or corrupted.

Is anybody lying? InterAksyon.com’s photo editor Bernard Testa went to Luneta to explain how the two camps can come up with vastly different pictures without either side resorting to photo manipulation. Basic photography principles – from angling and composition to choosing lenses and focal lengths – can explain how both sides can claim to be telling the truth… but, given technical realities with photography, not always the whole truth.

Take, for example, these two photos, taken from the same spot near the LRT and Kalaw Ave. Using different focal lengths – 22mm, then zooming to 35mm – we get vastly different pictures.

The picture above was taken using a lens at 22mm focal length.

The photo above was taken at 35mm focal length.

Immediately, from the above two pictures, we see that even a small change in focal length can have dramatic effects on perspective. The longer the focal length, the closer objects seem to be relative to each other.

In the next two photos, we see that focal lengths can also make background subjects look smaller or bigger relative to the foreground. Longer focal lengths make things seem bigger. The wider the lens, thesmaller objects in the background appear.

The photo above was taken at an 18mm focal length. The photo below, from the same spot, is zoomed in to 33mm.

Now consider how the above behaviors of focal lengths can change your perspective and perception of objects in focus – in the case of the two photos below, you can see the Torre de Manila in the background, relative to the statue of Lapu-Lapu which is also in Luneta, on the opposite end from the Rizal Monument.

The photo above, with the lens at 33mm, shows Torre de Manila in the middle of the horizon, conspicuous in size relative to the Lapu-Lapu statue in front.

On the other hand, the photo below dramatically shrinks the Torre de Manila despite the fact that we’ve stepped closer and higher to the base of the statue. This is due to the use of a wider focal length, with the lens at 18mm.

The larger the difference in focal length, the more dramatic the effect on perspective.

The next two pictures use lenses with a far greater focal length difference.

The first photo below uses a wide-angle 16mm length. At foreground is the Luneta fountain. In the distance, in the horizon, is Torre de Manila.

The photo below is taken from the exact same spot as above, but note how a telephoto 105mm lens “pulls” the Torre de Manila higher in the frame, and “closer” to the fountain.

Finally, we get to the Rizal Monument.

The next series of pictures demonstrate that by manipulating focal length, and combining it with deliberate composition or framing, you can emphasize or de-emphasize the foreground relative to the background, and vice versa.

Below is a photo taken with a 70mm lens, slightly to the left of the monument. Torre de Manila peeks on the left, smaller than the base of the Rizal monument.

Now check out below: By simply crossing the street, moving to the right, and using a wide-angle lens (35mm), everything shrinks, but crucially, the Torre de Manila is no longer in the background of the Rizal Monument.

On the other hand, move to the left, use a “long” lens – in this case, 130mm – and you get the dramatic juxtaposition similar to what Sen. Cayetano has released to the public. Note, too, that, as with the senator’s photo, this one below was taken from across the street (note the cars in the foreground), and not from the base of the monument, as most tourists will likely do.

Zooming in from the same spot, setting the lens at 200mm, achieves the full “photo-bomb” effect, even if the Torre de Manila is nearly a kilometer away.

On the other hand, it is still possible – as below – to take a photo of the Rizal Monument without the Torre de Manila in the frame, by applying all the factors discussed.

Below, once again, are the photos released by the two contending parties in the controversy.

Here is Sen. Pia Cayetano’s recent photo release.

And below is DMCI’s photo, showing no sign of Torre de Manila. Now you know how both photos above and below can contradict each other, and still both be real.

So who is telling the truth?

It is reasonable to grant that the photos released by Sen. Cayetano and DMCI may both be genuine.

The better question may be, however, whose photos show the more complete picture?

You be the judge.