At one time or the other, every photographer comes across a situation where he needs to fill in more details of the frame but the camera won’t accommodate that. A quick way to deal with that limitation is by using wide angle lenses. Whether you are taking a group of students for a class photograph or a beautiful landscape with priceless details, wide angle photography makes it easy for you to get more coverage without having to move miles back to have everything in the frame.
Photo by ALOK KUMAR SINHA / Fotosocial
Wide angle photography is not only meant for landscape or group photos, it can be used in portrait photography as well, so long as you understand the aspects involved like distortion, change in perspective etc, and apply them well to achieve your objectives in that particular picture. Wide angle photography is also widely used in underwater photography and when you need to capture large objects at a very short distant.
Technically speaking, a wide angle lens is one whose focal length is 35mm or less. There are three categories of wide angle lenses. The first one is the Fisheye which ranges from 6mm to 15mm. The second one is the Ultra Wide Angle and it ranges from 14mm to 21mm and the last one is the ‘perfect’ wide angle which ranges from 24mm to 35mm. The fisheye lens is rarely used unless on very specially occasions when one need to get an almost 360 degrees view.
Photo by Anish Saha / Fotosocial
Putting emphasis on the foreground
One photography writer pointed out that there is nothing magical about wide angle lenses; it all depends on the position of your camera. One thing for sure a wide angle lens does is to exaggerate the size of the objects in the foreground. Small objects can appear really big in comparison to the ones in the background and this adds drama to your shots. You can get great pictures by playing with your camera’s position, moving closer to the subjects and panning or tilting to include or exclude background objects. If you are taking outdoor photographs and the sky looks beautiful, try to include the sky together with your foreground images and the results could be stunning.
Portraits in wide angle
Wide angle lenses are not recommended for ‘real’ portraits like the ones one can use for passport or official documents! For that you need an 80mm to 90mm. However, wide angle lenses can take great portraits but with exaggerations. The exaggeration adds drama to the picture and can be very effective to communicate certain messages. By placing the camera at the base of a person, you communicate dominance as the person will seem to be towering high. Place the camera above their faces and you portray submission.
Photo by Anish Saha / Fotosocial
Getting close
Many amateur photographers forget that wide angle lenses are not only meant to give them more coverage but can also create great effect by moving closer to the objects. Wide angle lenses have a wider field of view so they will put everything in focus even if you move very close to the subjects. What this does is that you end up creating dramatic images with the foreground objects filling much of your frame and background images appearing but still seeming to diminish. Don’t shy off from moving close to you subjects but make sure you get enough light if you need your photos to be well lit.
Watch out!
It is highly recommended that you avoid using polarizer while taking wide angle shots. This is because the thickness of the polarizer causes vignetting, an effect that is not needed here. And since you get more coverage with wide angle lenses, there is a possibility of including details that you don’t need in your frame. You will, therefore, need to be careful with framing to make sure you get only what adds value to your shot. Lastly, don’t use distortion for the sake of it. Use wide angle lenses to capture wide angle shots purposefully.
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