How Wide Without Distortion?

around 13mm on tokina 11-16 will give good result without noticeable distortion.

xarqi wrote in post #12679515
Close, you just have it backwards and are making unwarranted assumptions.

1) Get the spacing right to achieve the perspective you want. As far as possible without meaning you have to shout is a good starting point.

2) Select the appropriate focal length for the framing you want. You've got good lenses that run from 24 to 300, and whichever you use, it will be stopped down to get the DoF needed to bring the background into focus. I think the chances are high that the 50 will not be the best lens for the job.

DreDaze wrote in post #12679573
he's clearly just a right handed mechanic....

but seriously i know you said you wanted to include everything, but i'm not sure if you needed to include every car stall you could probably lose the last one and be fine...

atlrus wrote in post #12680081
I agree, you may have to do some walking back with the 50mm and not even an option on a crop.

If it were me, I would've used the 24-105 @ 24/28mm and the 5D. The 10-22 @ 10mm would've worked just fine if you were shooting from the other side of the street, then crop.

Ok I did say I would choose the focal length first, but I didn't mean that was the end all be all. Obviously I will have to try it out first.
Also, believe it or not, I didn't include all the stalls, lol. That's about half!

Anyways, I will post back with the results.

Higgs Boson wrote in post #12680490
Ok I did say I would choose the focal length first, but I didn't mean that was the end all be all. Obviously I will have to try it out first.

It's not at all obvious to me why you'd try the 50 (or indeed any specific focal length) first. Indeed, doing so, without a wealth of experience under your belt, is in my opinion a mistake.

What I'd do would be:
1) Choose the distance needed to get the perspective I want.
2) Choose the focal length to get the framing I want.

(Is there an echo in here?)

For part 2, I'd probably grab the 24-105 and see if I can frame with that. If, and only if, I can, and it turns out that the required focal length is 50 mm, would I even wonder for a moment if the 50 would be a better lens for the job. Stopped down for DoF, there may not be that much in it.

If the 24-105 can't frame it, then neither can the 50.

When you've shot ten thousand similar scenarios, then it may be second nature to "know" exactly what focal length you'll eventually end up needing, and grab it first. Until then, selecting FL first is a sure fire recipe for falling into the trap of "foot-zooming", and abandoning all control of perspective for the sake of framing with what may be a poor choice of lens.

All I was saying is that I would start there, it means nothing. Don't take it to mean I know what I'm talking about, sheesh. Ok, Ok!! Please, let me just go do it. I've read and learned from the thread, as was its intention. Yes, there is an echo in here and I'm not learning anything new from it at this point, ok?

nonick wrote in post #12680184
around 13mm on tokina 11-16 will give good result without noticeable distortion.

The Tokina 11-16 has less barrel distortion than some other ultra-wide lenses, but it will not fix the problem you see here.

The distortion you see is caused by being too close to the subject. No lens (other than a tilt and shift) will fix that.

While I understand the concern of how the arm looks distorted, I would also be concerned with how distorted the building looks.....

Alright, it's fair to say I chose the wrong lens. lol.

Higgs Boson wrote in post #12682566
Alright, it's fair to say I chose the wrong lens. lol.

Basically, you chose the wrong place to make the image from and the wrong place to have your friend stand.

Had you chosen those properly as the first step (to get a good perspective of everything in the image) and then chosen a focal length to frame the image the way you wanted, the image would have turned out the way you really wanted it to.

SkipD wrote in post #12683921
Basically, you chose the wrong place to make the image from and the wrong place to have your friend stand.

Had you chosen those properly as the first step (to get a good perspective of everything in the image) and then chosen a focal length to frame the image the way you wanted, the image would have turned out the way you really wanted it to.

two sides of the same coin. i agree. where you stand can also determine what lens you choose. if i used the wrong lens, it goes without saying that i stood in the wrong place, doesn't it? it does to me.

Higgs Boson wrote in post #12684112
two sides of the same coin. i agree. where you stand can also determine what lens you choose. if i used the wrong lens, it goes without saying that i stood in the wrong place, doesn't it? it does to me.

The point that I was trying to make is one should not just arbitrarily select a lens (that is, without using training and/or good experience to guide the selection) and then move around to frame the scene. One should really be looking at the scene first and choosing the best position to make the photograph from. Then, one chooses the focal length to frame the image the way it was imagined.

An experienced studio portrait photographer may not think about the sequence I suggested because he/she knows from experience how far to be from the subject for any given style of portrait and also what lens works best for the task. This experience sometimes over-rides the thinking process and I'd guess that there are lots of studio photographers who don't even really think about controlling perspective in their images. They just do what provides pleasing (to the customer) images.