>>3722752>the sense of scale in old photographs is so much more impressive then modern ones?format, and to a degree modern lens design.
In the film days 35mm was small format, really only used by armatures, photo journalists, sports photogs, and budget wedding photographers. MF (645-6x7 / 2 1/4" rollfilm) was the standard for pro work, and LF (4x5", 5x7", 8x10") was used for anything important.
now 35mm "full frame" is supposed to be big and the few MF digitals are still crops on 645, most DSLRs and mirrorless are crop on 35 (APSc) and everything else has a microscopic sensor. The sense of scale really does come from the format, shit shot on 8x10 almost has a 3D feel to it.
modern lenses are being made for sharpness above all, but so many photo's end up looking flat and dead with weird compression, zooms make this even worse. Prime lenses were much more common back in the day, they have better character, usually less distortion, and more naturalistic compression.
