What's wrong with this idea:

Buy a 35L

Foot-zoom one foot forward = 50L

Foot-zoom one and a half foot backward = 24L

Foot-zoom three feet backward = 14L


Something tells me that even if I foot zoom backward, I'm not going to get the wide-angle feel of a 24L...
I may get more field of view, but the wide angle will not be present because I will also get a lot more of the vertical field, unlike wide angles which will only get more of the horizontal field.

Can I foot zoom backward, crop off the top of the data, and then use the pincushion/whatever settings in Photoshop to make it look wide-angle-y?

This will only give you so much where as a real WA lens will perform much better in camera as a WA lens than foot zooming; and in camera is where the magic happens (IMHO).

"What's wrong with this idea"

Perspective!

adam8080 wrote in post #7083305
"What's wrong with this idea"

Perspective!

Thats what I thought.
I'm looking at maybe using Hugin to stitch panos and give them the wide angle perspective...

My reference: http://www.flickr.com …/lagemaatphoto/​840334335/

Also, sometimes there isn't room to foot zoom

As already stated foot zoom does not equal all the lenses ever made, or we'd all just have a 50mm lens. Perspective. Maybe you need to do some searching, learning, classroom time.

dshankar wrote in post #7083396
Thats what I thought.
I'm looking at maybe using Hugin to stitch panos and give them the wide angle perspective...

Software cannot correct the type of perspective change that was meant by Adam's post. What happens when you change the distance between the camera and various elements in the subject is you will change the relative sizes of elements of the subject that are different distances from the camera. This is often referred to as a perspective change.

We're not talking about converging lines here, though that is also called perspective. We're talking, for example, about the portrait with the bulbous nose relative to the ears because the camera was too close. Many people incorrectly believe this sort of perspective change is due to the focal length of the lens used. That is quite wrong. It's purely distance between the camera and the subject (or subjects) which are in the image that change the perspective.

"Foot zooming" is fine if you are photographing nothing but a flat surface (a flat wall, a painting, etc.), but the technique will very often prevent you from getting the best possible image in the real world.

My thinking about composition has me first finding the positions for the (primary) subject and camera that will give me the best perspectives (both types - relative sizes and converging lines). Only after determining the best positions do I choose a focal length to let me frame my subjects to get the image I have in my head.

In other words, the "angle of view" is specific to the focal length. e.g. two portrait shots using different focal lengths (and at their respective distance from the subject) will give you a different feel to the shot, as the shorter focal length will result bigger nose.

dshankar wrote in post #7083396
Thats what I thought.
I'm looking at maybe using Hugin to stitch panos and give them the wide angle perspective...

My reference: http://www.flickr.com …/lagemaatphoto/​840334335/

That image could have been taken with a 14mm or many 1200mm images combine, but the perspective is where you are in relation to what you are shooting.

You can stand in the same spot and take a shot at 24mm and a shot at 200mm of the same subject and you will have the same perspective in both images. The difference is the framing.

Here is an experiment for you. Stand in one place with your camera and any zoom lens. Pick a subject and center it in your frame and shoot at both extremes of the zoom (you will crop the wider angle in Photoshop to achieve the same look at the longer focal length), and then pic something else and shoot any subject at your longest focal length then zoom out to your widest focal length and try to frame the subject identically as your last shot. These two comparisons will give you a really good understanding of perspective.

bbbig wrote in post #7083799
In other words, the "angle of view" is specific to the focal length. e.g. two portrait shots using different focal lengths (and at their respective distance from the subject) will give you a different feel to the shot, as the shorter focal length will result bigger nose.

It isn't focal length that changes the perspective. Its purely the distance.

This has been proven and published in the forum. One could use ten different focal lengths and make ten images from the same camera position, then crop all to be the same field of view as the one taken with the longest focal length. The perspective (relationship between sizes of elements of the image at different distances from the camera) will be absolutely identical in all of the ten images.

If one chooses to use a longer focal length to make a portrait, for example, the tendency is to back up to keep the framing the same. That does not make the focal length responsible for the change in perspective. It's still the distance that does that.

".....unlike wide angles which will only get more of the horizontal field".

That's wrong, wide angle lenses are wide in every direction. You might be thinking of panoramic cameras.

Field of view doesn't change as you move. Only perspective does.

Perspective doesn't change with focal lengths, only field of view does.

In other words:

Perspective has nothing to do with focal length - it's determined by distance only.

Field of view has nothing to do with moving around - it's determined by focal length only.

you're better off buying the 14L or 24L then cropping and distorting the image back to normal. It'll work provided the smaller res works, but going the other way and you're making info up, not removing it.

Simple thought experiment. Mount 35L and place your subject 6 feet away standing in front of a mountain. Step closer and you have reduced the distance to the subject by 1/3rd, but your distance to the mountain has decreased 0.0000000001%. So after stepping one step closer the subject is much, much bigger in the image but the mountain looks exactly the same. This is perspective.

JeffreyG wrote in post #7084800
Simple thought experiment. Mount 35L and place your subject 6 feet away standing in front of a mountain. Step closer and you have reduced the distance to the subject by 1/3rd, but your distance to the mountain has decreased 0.0000000001%. So after stepping one step closer the subject is much, much bigger in the image but the mountain looks exactly the same. This is perspective.

Excellent way of getting the point across.