How to shoot with wide angle lens?

[NDAv]

When shooting wide angle, I try to accentuate the wide angle effect. You have to give a sense of perspective or depth to the photo, try to avoid making the photo look "flat." I mean, all photos in reality are flat, but I think it is good idea to make wide-angle photos look three-dimensional.

There are several ways to add a sense of perspective or the illusion of depth to a photo, all kind of interrelated:

- Try to avoid empty spaces in a major part of the photo. Like a cloudless sky in a landscape. Bare sky is very bad for wide-angle landscape photos. You lose a lot of depth.

- Having a strong foreground element at the edge of the photo (in most cases, at the bottom or the sides)

- Moving closer to the subject, as others have already mentioned. Be as close you can possibly be. You might be surprised how close you can get if you know how to maneuver the camera.

- Raising the camera up as high as possible and tilting downward as much as possible. Generally good for landscape. You should generally avoid lowering the camera and pointing upward, unless you have no choice or the sky is the main focus.

- Diagonal lines or objects arranged diagonally or diagonal patterns seem like a good way to add perspective. Not exactly sure why.

Here is one photo to illustrate some of what I mean:

There is a lot of texture in the sky, and the camera raised up and pointed downward sufficient. The concrete and lamp posts adds depth because they create diagonal patterns. Not really any strong foreground element here: the people are too far way, they were trying to avoid the camera, but the wide angle lens defeated them, ha ha!

 

[uhligfd]

Simply shoot with a 28 mm lens as you would with any lens.

I see no distortion in my 28 mm Biogon on 35 mm film. I wonder what you get with a Leica lens that remotely looks like distortion ... Unless you mean the natural perspective stretch near the outer edges of the long side. That, however is not distortion, but the way a rectilinear lens portraits space according to the laws of geometry and perspective. Surely, you do not want your favorite uncle to expand in size near the edge of the frame. But in nature, with buildings, furniture, rooms this is almost not noticeable. And if you shoot a lot, you will soon learn intuitively to avoid that super fat uncle image. Have no fear, just see with your eyes wider than usual, compose before you lift the camera and all will be fine, after a few disasters, but I have absolutely no problems and seem to have never had any anyway with down to 16 mm lenses.

Of course there may be a visual/compositional impairment in your case. And I do not know how to remedy that. Some people are just very uncomfortable (and unproductive) with any lens that is wider the 35 mm or thereabouts ... on 35 mm film/full size sensor.

Finally,

I do not think the ubiquitous idea of having something close by in the foreground with wide shots has much merit. The pics taken with this kind of idea look so contrived and most often suffer compositionaly. So i would suggest you forget about these comments and just take and take wide pics, learn to see them before even lifting the camera etc and so forth until you are happy with your work. Might be a year.

It will come or it will never suit your eyes and vision and another Leica 28 mm Asph will be up for sale.. ... Have fun!

 

[januaryman]

I have few decent frames shot with a 19mm Vivitar on my Canon AE-1 - I don't have rules or preconceived ideas. I look and see a potential, them move myself around until it looks like I have a composition.

Examples:






Lots of possibilities. But always have at least a 35mm with you as well! 😉

 

[pvdhaar]

The whole point of a 28 is indeed being able to get closer to your subject.. and the biggest hurdle to overcome isn't the distance itself, or the perspective for that matter. If you're used to a 50 that lets you photograph people from a couple of meters away, then you've growned accustomed to a certain comfort zone; a safe distance, somewhat remote from your subject. And it's that comfort zone that you need to break out of.. but the reward is more intimacy, more sense of being there when you do..

 

[Brad Maestas]

I used a 28 on my Contax RTS III a lot and I kind of missed it when I got a Leica. A few months ago I picked up a lens adapter and now I can use that 28 on my Leica. I am very used to that lens and its great DoF so I wasn't worried too much about zone focusing but the thing that's been hard for me is getting the exposure right. It has a lot more contrast than my Summicrons and tends to underexpose so I'm still working on integrating it into my RF flow. I don't use it much though because the 35 and 50 cover pretty much everything I shoot. I would like to get a Leica 28 at some point (and also have my eye on the 28/2 Ultron). It sounds like you'll have a great time during your practice session. I look forward to perhaps seeing some of them.

Here's an early shot with the Zeiss 28 on my Leica (pardon the fogging - I tried my best to shield the camera when I changed lenses)

 

[FS Vontz]

The idea of a wide angle is not to get it all in, it's to imitate how you see through your own eyes. Wide angle lenses are about making you feel you really are there, in that photograph.

 

[edodo]

One good advice I have come across with shooting wides is to have both a foreground and a background scene. The great DOF gets everything in focus so you got to exploit that to the maximum.
I don't have shots to show but you got the idea, for example a portrait closed up composed together with the geometrie and light in the background.

An exemple quickly googled is from Wikimedia, shot by Jens Buurgaard Nielsen. It is southernmost part of Greenland:
The big rocks in the foreground play the first role, and the scenery completes it. There is this duality/dichotomie that fills the entire frame which is necessary in order to avoid either too boring areas and or too crowded ones.

I found that working this way (filling the frame with something of interest) is good technique to get good portraits with digicams and their huge DOF

my 2 cents

 

[patois]

I just bought a CV 15mm heliar and I am finding that it can be difficult to keep my body parts out of the frame. I agree that you should get close and I would add that you should also get low. My finger/knee is in the frame here but I'm about 1-2 feet off the ground.

 

[Nikkor AIS]

For every good rule there is always an exception. There is no substitute for just getting out there and shooting. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, taking bad photos. Tilt the camera and use odd angles, try to get distortion ...OO the list is endless. Learn the rules and then break them all.









The real trick for successful images with the wide angle is pre-visualization. You must train your mind to be a camera. Then it's a just a matter of getting the right lens, being at the right place, at the right time, with the right light and ... go ... click.

Gregory

 

[Nikkor AIS]

The other thing is shoot the things around you. See them from low/high odd angles. Wide-angle shots are everywhere. You only have to see in the mind's eye first.

 

[bigeye]

Nikkor:

Do you teach photog? If not, you should. The Truth, right there above.

I'm trying to 'develop an eye' in my long photographic misadventures (current status: intermittent light bulb over head). This has followed the "buy my way into being a great photog with a Nikon/Leica/MF", AKA "fantastic P&S image quality/spray-and-pray" methodology.

Thanks describing a process that appears to be effortless for you. I can SEE!

Repeatez.

-Charlie

 

[minhhich]

I have some experience with shooting wide angle portrait (16mm on canon 5d fullframe) Get closer, try not to put you subject too closed to 2 ends or corner of the frame (left& right end for landscape & top bottom for portrait) otherwise it does cause distortion. Avoid shooting down as it will make your subject shorter. Try not to shoot from too low up either(unless you have a purpose to do it). shoot low up but find a place so that the subject's legs are not as long as octopus legs

 

[Nikkor AIS]

Thanks Charlie, I really appreciate it. Shoot me a PM if you get a chance.
Here are some samples of my early work using the Nikkor 24 2.0/2.8 AIS on Nikon film bodies FM2/F3T, F2AS.










Gregory

 

[theblotted]

15mm Super Wide-Heliar Asph. use WA to maximize depth & magic.