I am trying to take better portraits of my grandkids and any body else who will sit for me. I read an article in Picture Perfect about taking better portraits; it all seemed pretty straight forward except for this statement:
More importantly,

when you come in close, instead of using a zoom,

you decrease the depth of field, which, in simple terms, is the length between your focus point and some point in the distance that is in focus. What this means is that when you come in close, you capture the face in sharp focus, but the closer you get the shallower the depth of field becomes. This, in effect, blurs out the background, and because our eyes always.

I understand everything except the section that I put in a space. I'll repeat my question; Is there a difference between zooming in and walking in.? The way I understand it is that there is, in that you lose your shallow depth of field when you zoom in.

right or wrong??

One thing I have noticed is that a long focal point will compress space. Unlike walking in where the depth of your surroundings will be proportional.

I would like to comment on uses for a zoom...

A Heron standing in the middle of a pond. I'm not about to walk through the water and watch the bird fly away to get a shot. Best to take the shot from the bank.

Architecture where I'm capturing the top view of a monument. I don't think the authorities would be too happy with me scaling the monument to take a picture.

I shoot a lot of nature. I would scare off the animal life long before I got close enough to take its picture. Zooms come in handy when you need to keep your distance.

I am trying to take better portraits of my grandkids and any body else who will sit for me. I read an article in Picture Perfect about taking better portraits; it all seemed pretty straight forward except for this statement:
More importantly,

when you come in close, instead of using a zoom,

you decrease the depth of field, which, in simple terms, is the length between your focus point and some point in the distance that is in focus. What this means is that when you come in close, you capture the face in sharp focus, but the closer you get the shallower the depth of field becomes. This, in effect, blurs out the background, and because our eyes always.

I understand everything except the section that I put in a space. I'll repeat my question; Is there a difference between zooming in and walking in.? The way I understand it is that there is, in that you lose your shallow depth of field when you zoom in.

right or wrong??