This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Somebody please let me know who guy on the right is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafapf/7869990022

hhp

 

That's Jim Wasco from Monotype.

If you contact the author of the photo, maybe ha has a version with resolution high enough to read the badge.

Edit: as often is the case, I’m late and unhelpful… ;-)

John, that's what I thought, but the name on the badge seemed too long - was it set in a really wide font? Anyway if you remember seeing Jim in that shirt I guess I'm set - thanks!

hhp

It is indeed Jim Wasco. The typeface used for the badges was Popular.

Hrant,

What you are seeing is distortion from a wide-angle lens: it tends to be most noticeable at the peripheries. Jim is probably not as wide as he appears in the photo, either…

Technically speaking, that effect is not called "distortion". It is caused by looking at the picture from too far away - the angle the picture makes to your eye should be the same as the angle the scene made to the camera.

The typeface used for the badges was Popular.

Close but no cigar, Stewf. Actually, the identity in Milwaukee was set in Receiver — basically a slab companion to Antenna.

John,

Sorry: if it's not distortion, what is it? Based on the 35mm film format, a "normal" focal length of around 55mm is supposed to mimic what the human eye actually sees—although, typically, portrait lenses have focal lengths of 70-85mm. The referenced photo appears to have a focal length of 30-40mm, I am guessing, which means that objects in the periphery will be "misrepresented" to the eye, and actual photographs make this "misrepresentation" apparent.

I'm not sure if the effect has a name, but in optics, distortion is a technical term for what a fisheye lens would have done instead.

Hi All, I'm the author of the picture. It is a fisheye lens in this case and it is Mr. Wasco. (I think).
Lens is the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 in a Canon 5D MK II