Wide angle shooting technique tips?

[hotmonkeyac]

Hi all,

I just picked up my first wide angle lens (thanks to MJA (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/member.php?u=136519)). It's the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. So far I am LOVING it. Since I am new to the world of wide angle lenses, does anyone have any good references for shooting techniques? What works best for different situations (outside, inside, etc)? Can someone school me?

[tonylong]

Hi all,

I just picked up my first wide angle lens (thanks to MJA (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/member.php?u=136519)). It's the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. So far I am LOVING it. Since I am new to the world of wide angle lenses, does anyone have any good references for shooting techniques? What works best for different situations (outside, inside, etc)? Can someone school me?

Heh! First of all, pay attention to the edges of your frame! That lens will take pictures of your feet if you don't watch out:)! I tend to zoom out a touch with UWA lenses just because they can take in so much. But they are great for getting that "close up" perspective to a lot of things (as well as the normal "wide scene" thing!

[USMCWayne]

You can reduce distortion by shooting parallel to your subject. If you're pointing an UWA up or down, it increases the distortion.

In the old days, it was the film plane to your subject. In the digital world, I suppose it's the sensor.

Here's Ken Rockwell's take on shooting with an UWA.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

[SkipD]

Hi all,

I just picked up my first wide angle lens (thanks to MJA (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/member.php?u=136519)). It's the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. So far I am LOVING it. Since I am new to the world of wide angle lenses, does anyone have any good references for shooting techniques? What works best for different situations (outside, inside, etc)? Can someone school me?10mm on an APS-C format camera is not "wide-angle". 10mm on the APS-C format is, however, very much an "Ultra-Wide-Angle" focal length. There's a huge difference between a conventional wide-angle lens and an ultra-wide-angle lens.

Most folks using an ultra-wide lens tend to intentionally distort the world around them by getting close to the foreground subject. To me, there are very few subjects that really need that sort of treatment. I have no use for an ultra-wide lens. However, if the lens is kept at - or longer than - 16 or 17mm, I could find a lot of uses for it. The fact is, though, I have a 16-35 f/2.8 lens and don't find any real use for the 10-22.

As stated above, you'll have to learn how to handle the 10-22 to produce images that are what you're looking for. It will be easy to come up with wildly distorted images, and far more difficult to keep the perspective distortion to a minimum.

There's a local newspaper photographer who has gone nuts with an ultra-wide lens lately. I talked to his editor about it, and the editor has already been talking to the photographer trying to get him to keep the crazy distortions (usually people with stretched out heads, etc.) to an absolute minimum for publication.

[JeffreyG]

Ultra wide angle can be difficult to shoot. The main advice I have is to try and use the lens to:
1. Shoot interesting foregrounds
2. Shoot very close up
3. Try interesting perspectives

UWA is usually weakest when used to try and shoot large expanses with no close detail. You end up with lots of nothing.

Here is one of the first shots I ever took after getting an UWA lens. It's a fun shot, but as Skip indicated, theses lenses are fun but not allways as useful as less extreme angles.