Of all the tools photographers use to capture wedding portraits, few are as versatile as the telephoto lens. While the zoom capabilities of telephoto lenses are certainly useful (for lenses that include zoom functionality), the real magic lies in something that is commonly referred to as “lens compression.” This effect can dramatically change the look and feel of your portraits, helping you create more impactful and creative wedding imagery. In this article, we’ll break down what lens compression actually is and how to use it intentionally to elevate your wedding portraits.
All the examples discussed here are based on real wedding images, provided by photographers at Wedding Maps and used with their permission. Featured photo up top by Gretchen Troop.
What Is Lens Compression?
At its core, lens compression isn’t actually about the lens itself — it’s about perspective. When you use a telephoto lens with a longer focal length, you need to stand farther away from your subject to keep them properly framed. This increased distance changes the way the background appears relative to the subject.
Objects in the background will look larger, closer, and more compressed toward the subject, even though their physical distance hasn’t changed. This is why a distant mountain range can suddenly loom dramatically behind a couple, or why a background that looked far away with a 35mm lens feels much closer when shot with a 135mm. Technically speaking, it’s more accurate to call this phenomenon perspective compression.
Understanding this basic principle is crucial because once you see what’s happening, you can start using it with intention to create stronger compositions.
How to Use Lens Compression in Wedding Photography
Now that we’ve covered what lens compression is, let’s look at some different ways to use it to our advantage.
Make Background Elements Look Closer and More Impactful
One of the most straightforward uses of lens compression is making background elements feel bigger and closer. If you’re shooting at a location with a beautiful backdrop, like mountains, city skylines, or even architectural elements like cathedrals, a telephoto lens can exaggerate their presence in the image.
Instead of letting these background elements feel small or distant, you can use a longer focal length to make them feel like an integrated, dominant part of the portrait. This approach can dramatically change the setting of the image, even if the couple is standing relatively far away from the landmark.
Pro Tip: When planning your shot, scout the scene to find backgrounds that would benefit from feeling “pulled in.” Then, position your couple accordingly and use a longer lens to compress the scene.
Capture Flattering Angles for Portraits
Wider lenses are great for environmental portraits, but they can distort your subjects when used close-up, elongating limbs, exaggerating facial features, and sometimes creating unflattering proportions. Telephoto lenses, especially in the 85mm to 200mm range, naturally compress features and preserve proportions in a way that’s typically much more flattering.
This makes telephoto lenses a go-to choice for close-up portraits of the newlyweds, bridal party formals, and even emotional candid moments during the ceremony. You can work at a comfortable distance without making the couple feel crowded, while still capturing intimate expressions and flattering body language.
Pro Tip: Stay mindful of your posing. The compression effect won’t fix poor posing, but it will enhance good posing by keeping body proportions looking natural and balanced. For legitimate candid moments, like the one featured above of a bride during the ceremony, look to capture great expressions.
Separate Your Subject From the Background (Using Depth of Field & Bokeh)
Telephoto lenses, especially at wide apertures (like f/2.8 or wider), create an extremely shallow depth of field that can beautifully isolate your subject from the background. Combined with compression, this effect can turn even a cluttered or less-than-ideal scene into a creamy, abstract backdrop that puts full focus on the subject.
This separation doesn’t just make your images prettier; it guides the viewer’s eye directly to your subject without distraction. Even elements that would normally be distracting, like branches, cars, or textured walls, melt into smooth patches of color or subtle bokeh highlights.
Pro Tip: Maximize the separation effect by moving your camera closer to the subject while also creating more distance between your subject and the background. If you follow this format, you can expect to capture smoother and more pleasing bokeh.
Conceal Unwanted Elements
Weddings are chaotic. No matter how beautiful the venue is, there are often unwanted elements like trash cans, cars, power lines, or random guests in the background. A wide-angle lens would make these distractions obvious. A telephoto lens, however, can help you frame tightly and blur those distractions into insignificance.
Use compression to hide distractions by creatively repositioning your subjects and tightening your composition. Sometimes just a few steps in any direction, paired with a longer focal length, can clean up an otherwise messy frame. Learning how to “edit in-camera” using your lens can save countless hours of retouching later.
Pro Tip: Use foreground elements whenever possible to help conceal part of the frame and draw the focus to your subjects.
Highlight Patterns, Leading Lines, and Other Compositional Elements
Compression can also enhance compositional elements like leading lines, repeating patterns, and frames within the environment. A row of trees, columns, string lights — all of these elements feel more visually impactful when they’re compressed closer together through a long lens. Combine these compositional elements, like the image above that also uses a reflection, to make the image even more visually impactful. Instead of fading into the background, these lines and patterns can be used to direct attention right toward the couple, giving your compositions more purpose and structure.
Pro Tip: When you find repeating patterns or natural frames at a location, try backing up and zooming in to exaggerate their visual rhythm and make the composition more dynamic. If you spot a potential frame during your scouting, a telephoto lens can help you bring it together neatly and dramatically.
Capture Details Without Changing Lenses
A telephoto lens isn’t just for portraits. It’s an incredibly useful tool for capturing details like rings, floral arrangements, cake decorations, and intricate dress designs without having to constantly swap to a macro lens or a prime.
At a busy wedding, where moments move quickly, having a zoom telephoto (like a 70-200mm) lets you adapt on the fly — shifting from intimate portraits to tight detail shots without missing a beat. This versatility not only saves time but also keeps you lighter and more mobile when you’re moving around the ceremony site, or even between locations or setups.
Pro Tip: When shooting details with a telephoto, remember to mind your minimum focusing distance. Not all telephotos can focus closely, but zooming in and stepping back can still achieve strong, frame-filling compositions.
Maintain Versatility in Your Coverage
Finally, telephoto lenses can add versatility to your wedding coverage in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. Even though you’ll need to move physically (no zooming your way out of needing to walk!), you can use compression to simulate different “looks” without changing lenses.
For posed portraits, or any shot that will allow you enough time, you can capture a wide-looking scene using a technique like the Brenizer Method (also known as panoramic stitching). stitching multiple compressed shots together in post to create a wide image with beautiful depth of field that’s impossible to get with a traditional wide lens. This technique can be used to great effect in wide open spaces, but it also works especially well in small spaces, where you want a wide field of view without sacrificing background blur.
Pro Tip: Practice mixing up your angles (wide, medium, tight) when using compression creatively. You can create beautiful close-up portraits or dramatic environmental portraits that feel simultaneously wide and shallow in depth.
Conclusion & More Inspiration
We hope you found these tips and ideas for using lens compression in wedding photography helpful. When used thoughtfully, lens compression can be one of the most powerful creative tools in a wedding photographer’s kit. It lets you flatter your subjects, control your backgrounds, amplify your environments, and create portraits with impact, all without needing to swap lenses constantly or rely on Photoshop tricks later.
Here are some additional wedding portraits featuring lens compression for your inspiration.
