Open wide

I have said it many times: wide angle lenses are under-rated. Few of my readers even have one.

I mean a wide angle lens in the range of 16-35mm if you have a full-frame camera like a 5D or a D700, or 10-20mm on a crop camera like a digital Rebel, D90, 60D, or D7000.

A wide lens, as I said yesterday, makes the scene wrap around you, or around the close by object.

Upstate New York (Photo: Michael Willems)

Upstate New York (Photo: Michael Willems)

Upstate New York (Photo: Michael Willems)

Boating in upstate New York (Photo: Michael Willems)

Frequent readers here will know the following:

  • Do include a close object (even the ground, as in picture #1 above)
  • Do not put people in the corners – they will be distorted, sinc eanything near the edges will look larger.

Use a wide lens and get close, and your pictures will look unlike others’.

 

2 thoughts on “Open wide

  1. Hi Michael,
    Could you identify what lens you shot these with. I looking at prime wide angles right now and I am a visual person so it would be nice to see the differences.
    Thanks!
    Laura

    • Most certainly, Laura. I used the 16-35 f/2.8L lens on a full-frame 1Ds MkIII camera. That is equivalent to a 10-20 lens on a crop camera like a 60D or Rebel. And I had it set to 16mm for most of these, so that is lie a 16mm prime.

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