A telephoto lens is a long-focus lens that allows photographers to utilize a focal length that is shorter than the lens’ physical length. Photographers use telephoto lenses to focus on a single (often faraway) subject and create contrast between the foreground and background.

An ultrawide-angle lens is a type of lens that has a shorter focal length than a normal lens. Photographers use the short focal length of wide lenses to expand the horizontal scope of a camera shot. With a wide-angle lens, subjects closer to the camera will appear larger than subjects further away—resulting in a slight barrel distortion of the image. A wide-angle lens keeps almost everything in focus, unless your subject is very close to the lens. An ultra-wide-angle lens, also known as a fish-eye lens, can take in a full 180-degree radius and is often used to create perspective distortion in photography and cinematography ¹.

In summary, telephoto lenses are used for zooming in on faraway subjects and creating contrast between foreground and background, while ultrawide-angle lenses are used for expanding the horizontal scope of a camera shot and creating perspective distortion.