Shooting with an Ultra Wide Angle for FUN

Hey,

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You popped for this high dollar piece of glass now why not take it out of the bag and use it more often. The reason I hear most often for keeping it put away.

• Geez, this thing is heavy
• I can’t seem to get close enough
• I loose a lot of good shots when I have this thing on the camera
• Geez, it is so heavy

It is heavy, it is also an amazing piece of glass.  Learn to use it and you will turn heads and garner comments on your photos when using an Ultra Wide Angle.

Depth Of Field  Not an Issue

One of the things I love about shooting with an Ultra Wide is the depth of field.  You can get in really close and still have everything in the image in focus.  I’ll sometimes throw this lens on and crank it clear up to the 24mm so I can get in close and keep everything in the shot in focus.  Check out any of these images in the Ultra Wide Gallery to the right.  It will be hard to find anything that is out of focus.  I don’t have any close up shots of flowers or other subjects in this gallery, but from what is here you can see the incredible depth of field this lens provides.

However, if you want to get a tight focus with the background out of focus, this isn’t the lens to use.

Knowing When and Where to Use it

This lens is special and requires special circumstance in a shoot to bring out the power and value it has to offer.  Here are some circumstance when I pull out this big gun of glass.

Create the Perspective of Length and Depth

There was no way I could shoot this firetruck and get the entire truck in the shot without the ultra wide.  The truck is parked in a small yard beside a Fraternity house that used to be a firehouse in downtown Tucson.  By grabbing the Ultra Wide and shooting low to the ground I was able to capture a mood that otherwise would have been impossible.  Getting low to profile a subject really takes a normal image and turns it into a unique one.

Go Wide, Go Really Wide

Long Lines, Highways, Trains, Train Tracks, Airplanes, all of these can be captured in close quarters with an Ultra wide.  Don’t be afraid to keep getting closer and closer and closer till you can see both ends of the object.  If there will be converging vertical leave plenty of room on each end of the object.  In Post you can remove the converging verticals, but you will need that extra room on both ends for the cropping necessary when fixing converging verticals.

When Having Fun – Warp is Good

This is where we can have a lot of fun with this lens.  If you don’t have a lot of straight lines in the view finder you can push clear out to 12mm and take accentuate the positive flow of a subject.  The close up of  “The Photographer” wouldn’t have been possible without an ultra wide.  I was able to get right up under the statue and get the full extension of the arms to elbows.  The subject is in focus and you can’t even see that the arms are bowed compared to the real thing.  Here shooting at 12mm adds a life like curve to the arms.

Get Down Get Way Down

It is the view of the world that an ant might see from its perspective.  Things look real big real fast from down low.  When shooting with an Ultra Wide you can get very close and still get amazing height captured in an image.  Use this to your advantage.

Pulling out the Ultra Wide for Fun can get you some amazing shots when you go for the angles and get in really, really, close.

Tags: ultra wide angle lens

Shooting With An Ultra Wide Angle For Real Estate

Cropped with slightly converging verticals

Not Shooting for Real Estate?  I’ll cover using an Ultra Wide Angle for Fun later this week.

I bought my 12 -24mm Nikor lens back when they were just at $1000.  The response at the time was “FOR A LENS?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?“  I wasn’t.

It was time to take our real estate photos where they needed to be.  This could only be accomplished with a super wide angle.

Shooting Ultra Wide and Converging Verticals

You can get in amazingly close with an ultra wide angle and get the room that otherwise wouldn’t be worth trying to capture.  Why?  It would look to narrow and small. We all know you don’t sell a house by making it look narrow and small, even if you describe it as “cozy”.

There are always to sides to everything.  The thing you have to watch with an ultra wide are converging verticals.  This is one lens that DEMANDS to be level.  If it isn’t the walls won’t be straight.  Not only does it need to be level it should be shot straight as possible in a room.  “But the room looks bigger from the corner”.  Yes it does, and you won’t find a straight line in your shot making the room look like it was built by a blind carpenter without a level.

Maybe all those horrible virtual tours with the bowed walls and ceiling lines have desensitized all to the effects of things looking surreal.  But if you want to have your photos even considered as acceptable among the real estate photographers you have to learn to control converging verticals.

Don’t shoot below 14mm

Yes the lens goes to 12, but anything below 14mm will distort the walls and make the room look even bigger than it is.  “But that’s what I want”!  You might think that is what you want, but it isn’t.  You want an “Accurate” representation of the home.

Do you ever shoot at 12mm?  Yes I do.  Sometimes, usually outdoors, I will get in as close as I can and shoot at 12mm to get the entire front or back of a house.  Outdoors, the distortion isn’t as noticeable.  Not as many lines from all four directions.  Also, I will use post processing to remove lens distortion from the final image.

Be Prepared to Crop

Most of the time when shooting with an Ultra Wide you will get a lot more sky and foreground than you want in the image.  Cropping either top, bottom, or both parts of an image will greatly enhance it’s appearance.

check out this thumbnail image which is the original image before cropping.  A lot of sky and a lot of parking lot, neither of which were necessary.

An Ultra Wide Angle lens will produce great interior shot results.  Is it expensive?  You know it is?  Is it worth the expense?  Yes, it is.  You will get more listings with great photos, you will get great photos with an Ultra Wide Angle.

Tags: converging verticals, ultra wide angle lens