Tag Archives: Wide Angle

Wide

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What lens to put on your camera?

Sometimes it is difficult to decide. But sometimes it’s easy.

Social events are easy. When shooting such events, where there are people socializing, eating, drinking, I recommend a wide angle lens between at least 24 and 35mm “35mm equivalent” (greater range is ok of course).

Meaning that if you have a full frame camera, use a lens in that range. If, as is more likely, you have a crop camera like a Nikon D5000 or Canon Digital Rebel, you use a lens 50-60% smaller to give the same effect, i.e. a lens in the 16-24 range. Like a 17-40.

At yesterday night’s event with Wendel Clark, ex Leafs captain (below) I used a 16-35 wide angle zoom on my 1.3 crop camera (I used the new Canon 1D Mk IV).

I do this a lot, and so can you.

Remember to get close to people.

Another option is to use not a zoom, but a wide angle prime lens. On my full frame camera I use a 35mm f/1.4 lens quite often for these events.

The pictures that the three above are part of will be on Oakville.com in the next few days.

And wide again.

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Wide angles. Have I told you I like those? Here’s a snap taken with 16mm on a full frame camera (equivalent to 10mm on a crop camera):

MVWS0656

Downtown Toronto on November 12, 9AM.

Here, it is the otherworldly light reflections plus the Infiniti’s red LED brake lights that do it for me. Do you agree?

Here’s another one, from a wedding earlier this year:

You can see it is wide, partly by looking at the ceiling lights and at the floor. Gives it that “vast” look.

Wide

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Don’t forget the wide angles! Here’s a snap taken the other day, using my 16mm wide angle on a full-frame camera (so if you have a crop sensor camera such as a D60 or Digital Rebel, to get this you would have to use a 10mm lens):

MVWS9892

Can you see I like the diagonals to go  into the corners? That is my preference.

Photography becomes a lot of fun when you start to develop your own preferences.

 

Aerial picture tips

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IMG_0708

Since I have not been on an airplane for a year, I thought it might be time to tell you how to take pictures from one. And in sort, it is like this:

  1. Carry your camera, no bag, “underneath the seat in front of you”. Keep it discreetly when flight attendants walk by. A camera does not in any way endanger the aircraft. You could put the strap intop your seat belt to avoid the camera flying off in case of turbulence.
  2. Sit near a window (but not over the wing…).
  3. Wait until the plane banks, after take-off or before landing (as when turning final  in the picture of Manhattan above).
  4. Aperture mode, wide open, perhaps 100-200 ISO. Or you could try “sports” or “portrait” modes.
  5. Get close to the window – close, but no touching.
  6. Zoom in, but not extremely so: use the widest angle you can to still get the right composition.  Wide angles are less susceptible to vibration.
  7. Shoot repeatedly, as much at right angles to the window as you can.

Finally: you will find many aerial shots to be somewhat hazy. That can be fixed if the problem is not extreme. In Photoshop, do a “levels” adjustment to ensure the histogram goes from black to white.

It is as simple as that!

Cheers

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This is one of my standard party shots:

MVW_1690

It is three-dimensional, shows fun, and shows the subject well. If the subject is the worse for wear, the blurring hides that, which subjects tend to like for some reason.

You get a picture like this by:

  • Using an external flash.
  • Bouncing that flash behind you, off a wall or ceiling.
  • Using a wide lens : <24mm on a crop camera, or <35 on full frame.
  • Getting close. No, closer. No, even closer!
  • Using aperture or manual mode with a wide-open aperture (small “F”-number).

Oh dear, I seem to have given away another secret.

Guess what.  The days that “giving away secrets” was a bad thing are long gone. We call this The Internet. You can come here every day in the secure knowledge that I will never “hold back information”. My mission is to fill the world with better photographers, and to show you all how simple this is. Because it is.

3D

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How do you make an image three-dimensional, like this?

Israel, August 2006

Israel, August 2006

This is very simple and needs only two things.

  1. Use the widest lens angle (in my case here, 16mm on a full frame camera, so that means 10mm on a crop camera like a D90 or 50D)
  2. Get close
  3. If you want the blurry background, use a wide aperture (small “F-number”, like f/4). Else use a small aperture (large F-number, like f/16).

That’s all. Every time an object “jumps out of the page”, it’s wide angle.

Cat

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This cat, a niece’s friend, shows the coolness of wide lenses for really selective depth of field. Scroll down to see the sharp bits. Really sharp.

cat

1Ds MkIII, 35mm f/1.4L, 1/30th sec at f/1.4

Remember, always focus on the eyes – the closest eye, to be precise. And at f/1.4 you have to be precise.

Click on the picture to see it at larger size.