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mollyc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
8,025
50,061
Welcome to our P52! This project is designed to get you out with your camera once a week in a meaningful way. Each week I will post a prompt for you to consider. The prompts are merely suggestions, and you are free to shoot off topic if you wish. All images posted must be taken by you, be safe for work, and be taken with this project in mind. Please do not post archive photos. For a further discussion of the guidelines, please refer to this thread, and you can find the previous weeks linked there if you missed them. Feel free to join in at any time of the year, and you may go back to missed weeks if you still wish to participate.

Week 37: Wide Angle

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What better month than September to tackle wide angle? Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are zooming into fall with all the rich colors that come with autumn, and our friends below the equator are casting off their sweaters moving into spring.

Wide angle photography is something that doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people, and it has its own set of challenges. Typically 35mm or wider (smaller number) is considered to be wide angle; moving below 24mm gets you into ultra-wide territory and anything under 14m or so is typically a fisheye lens with its own unique look. I don’t personally have any fisheye lenses so cannot show you examples of that, but in general those of you with a 24-70mm zoom will want to work at the wide end. If you do not have any lenses that are wider than 35mm you might want to consider using your phone for this week, even if the image quality might not be up to your normal standards; on the iPhones, the standard wide angle lens is a 26mm equivalent and the ultra-wide is a 13mm equivalent. Either of those lenses will be appropriate for this week if you decide to use a phone (if you use something other than a newer iPhone model, you’ll have to google your phone model to see what is best for you).

2023-09-11_0006.jpg

The above set of six images were all taken at 14mm on my 14-24mm zoom lens.


One of the biggest issues you’ll encounter when shooting wide angle is the edge distortion; this becomes more prevalent the wider your focal length and the reason that past 14mm you get into fisheye territory. If your scene has a lot of trees or buildings, you will find that the closer to the outside of the frame you go, the more angled into the center those lines become; they are no longer upright as they are in a normal or telephoto lens. This can make compositions tricky as you don’t want the distortion to overwhelm your subject. This distortion is why many architectural photographers use tilt-shift lenses, as they can keep the wider view while correction for the distortion.

Notice the difference in the two images below; the bottom version I applied the Auto-Transform command, and you can see how much the trees on the sides of the frame straightened out. This also cropped off part of the bench that Halley is sitting on, but it makes for a cleaner image overall.

2023-09-11_0005.jpg


If you are shooting with a 35mm lens you will likely see little distortion at all, particularly if you are mindful of keeping your horizon perfectly straight. Most modern editing programs now have a Transform option that will correct perspective distortion for you, and you won’t lose much of your frame. Again, the wider your focal length, the more severe your distortion will be; sometimes you can correct it in post, but you might lose a good deal of the image in the straightening process. Other times you might just ignore it and let the wide angle look be a part of the story.

2023-09-11_0003.jpg


I often shoot with a 35mm lens when traveling or when I want to carry only one lens on a day trip. I adore the 35mm length and find it is a great storytelling lens. I do have a 14-24mm lens that I don’t use nearly enough but when I do use it, I am amazed by what it can do. I took a photo walk this morning with that lens and found it super fun. Wide lenses also typically allow for fantastic sunbursts and they are great on sunny days (which this morning was not, so no new sunburst images from me today). We will cover sunbursts next month, so if you happen to get one this week, great, but if not, we’ll spend a week hunting for them later.

2023-09-11_0001.jpg

Wide angle lenses are great in the city as they allow you to capture tall buildings. I also love them on the beach to make my family small and fade into a vast expanse of sand and water. The “making things small” part is another challenge of wide-angle lenses because you don’t want your subjects to just become specks in the frame that are hard to discern. If you have a prominent subject (rather than just a generic landscape), get as close to it as you can to give it weight and importance in the composition. Horizon lines are extremely important to watch as the natural distortion will emphasize a crooked horizon. Wide angle is also great when you want to emphasize skies.

2023-09-11_0002.jpg


2023-09-11_0004.jpg


I hope you guys have fun this week; although I usually shoot longer focal lengths in my day to day imagery, it’s always fun to walk around with something much wider for a day and see just how much you can get in the frame and what new stories you can tell.
 
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tizeye

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2013
3,215
35,477
Orlando, FL
Week 37: Wide Angle

I often shoot with a 35mm lens when traveling or when I want to carry only one lens on a day trip. I adore the 35mm length and find it is a great storytelling lens. I do have a 14-24mm lens that I don’t use nearly enough but when I do use it, I am amazed by what it can do.
With real estate photography and UWA lens is the lens of choice, however, with the issues you mentioned, it is far harder than slapping a normal or telephoto lens on as you have to master those issues. In addition, there is spacial distortion, making narrow rooms feel deeper. Personally, I think 14 is too wide and have the 16-35 (graduating from the equivalent Sigma 10-22 from my crop sensor days). I've used it so much that it has become my with it's benefits for general photography that it has become my "walkaround" lens, selling my 24-70, using the 55 and 85 primes in it's place. If it was reversed, I would probably have a 16 or 18 prime to augment the 24-70.

Don't have any real estate shoots this week...so you are forcing me to hike and explore. :D
 
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tizeye

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2013
3,215
35,477
Orlando, FL
Earlier noted didn't have a photoshoot this week. Happy to say I do - tomorrow, bot first had to resolve an issue with pole photography communication. Better to do it today, than under pressure on the job...and in the hot sun. Went across the street and resolved. Turns out phone app had forgotten the password to set up the wifi linkage, so simple fix.

Two of the photos are of the set-up. The actually wide-angle photos had the lens zoom set to 16mm as that is the one thing I can't change via the software when raised in the air. Always pre-zoom for slightly larger area as some is clipped in post when correcting horizontals and verticals. The one I dislike is the shoreline with the ragged transition between grass and shore. Probably would be better from other angle, but that would gave been direct into the sun.

In terms of the platform, this is a DIY with 2 "L" brackets connected through a paint roller handle as the threads match the pole. Important if building, the handle should have the metal ring at the bottom as a lot of pressure with the weight and will crack as I discovered on the initial cheap bare handle, and this is my second build. The platform is scrap wood cut large enough to protect camera and lens when laying on ground. A raises 1/4" board lifts the mount, initially to accommodate the latch on the Manfrotto, but gives clearance for the tightening knob when converted my system to Arca -Swiss.

Hopefully later tomorrow will post a couple from my 10AM shoot.

IMG_1824.jpg
IMG_1825.jpg
WV-2500px-1.jpg
WV-2500px-2.jpg
WV-2500px-3.jpg
WV-2500px-4.jpg
 

_timo_redux_

macrumors 65816
Dec 13, 2022
1,261
18,098
New York City
Earlier noted didn't have a photoshoot this week. Happy to say I do - tomorrow, bot first had to resolve an issue with pole photography communication. Better to do it today, than under pressure on the job...and in the hot sun. Went across the street and resolved. Turns out phone app had forgotten the password to set up the wifi linkage, so simple fix.

Two of the photos are of the set-up. The actually wide-angle photos had the lens zoom set to 16mm as that is the one thing I can't change via the software when raised in the air. Always pre-zoom for slightly larger area as some is clipped in post when correcting horizontals and verticals. The one I dislike is the shoreline with the ragged transition between grass and shore. Probably would be better from other angle, but that would gave been direct into the sun.

In terms of the platform, this is a DIY with 2 "L" brackets connected through a paint roller handle as the threads match the pole. Important if building, the handle should have the metal ring at the bottom as a lot of pressure with the weight and will crack as I discovered on the initial cheap bare handle, and this is my second build. The platform is scrap wood cut large enough to protect camera and lens when laying on ground. A raises 1/4" board lifts the mount, initially to accommodate the latch on the Manfrotto, but gives clearance for the tightening knob when converted my system to Arca -Swiss.

Hopefully later tomorrow will post a couple from my 10AM shoot.

View attachment 2261654 View attachment 2261653 View attachment 2261655 View attachment 2261656 View attachment 2261657 View attachment 2261658
Very cool!
 

mollyc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
8,025
50,061
Earlier noted didn't have a photoshoot this week. Happy to say I do - tomorrow, bot first had to resolve an issue with pole photography communication. Better to do it today, than under pressure on the job...and in the hot sun. Went across the street and resolved. Turns out phone app had forgotten the password to set up the wifi linkage, so simple fix.

Two of the photos are of the set-up. The actually wide-angle photos had the lens zoom set to 16mm as that is the one thing I can't change via the software when raised in the air. Always pre-zoom for slightly larger area as some is clipped in post when correcting horizontals and verticals. The one I dislike is the shoreline with the ragged transition between grass and shore. Probably would be better from other angle, but that would gave been direct into the sun.

In terms of the platform, this is a DIY with 2 "L" brackets connected through a paint roller handle as the threads match the pole. Important if building, the handle should have the metal ring at the bottom as a lot of pressure with the weight and will crack as I discovered on the initial cheap bare handle, and this is my second build. The platform is scrap wood cut large enough to protect camera and lens when laying on ground. A raises 1/4" board lifts the mount, initially to accommodate the latch on the Manfrotto, but gives clearance for the tightening knob when converted my system to Arca -Swiss.

Hopefully later tomorrow will post a couple from my 10AM shoot.

View attachment 2261654 View attachment 2261653 View attachment 2261655 View attachment 2261656 View attachment 2261657 View attachment 2261658
that’s amazing!!
 

katbel

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2009
3,578
31,679
Earlier noted didn't have a photoshoot this week. Happy to say I do - tomorrow, bot first had to resolve an issue with pole photography communication. Better to do it today, than under pressure on the job...and in the hot sun. Went across the street and resolved. Turns out phone app had forgotten the password to set up the wifi linkage, so simple fix.

Two of the photos are of the set-up. The actually wide-angle photos had the lens zoom set to 16mm as that is the one thing I can't change via the software when raised in the air. Always pre-zoom for slightly larger area as some is clipped in post when correcting horizontals and verticals. The one I dislike is the shoreline with the ragged transition between grass and shore. Probably would be better from other angle, but that would gave been direct into the sun.

In terms of the platform, this is a DIY with 2 "L" brackets connected through a paint roller handle as the threads match the pole. Important if building, the handle should have the metal ring at the bottom as a lot of pressure with the weight and will crack as I discovered on the initial cheap bare handle, and this is my second build. The platform is scrap wood cut large enough to protect camera and lens when laying on ground. A raises 1/4" board lifts the mount, initially to accommodate the latch on the Manfrotto, but gives clearance for the tightening knob when converted my system to Arca -Swiss.

Hopefully later tomorrow will post a couple from my 10AM shoot.

View attachment 2261654 View attachment 2261653 View attachment 2261655 View attachment 2261656 View attachment 2261657 View attachment 2261658
Super cool! I like pole photography: smart idea 😎
Which lens are you using?
 

katbel

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2009
3,578
31,679
I'm having some issues to post again. Cannot post two photos together
 

mollyc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
8,025
50,061
View attachment 2261830
Yesterday I tried to use one of my favorite lens that it's not a wide angle per se , because it's a 85mm prime
I did try to take the same shot using a 28-70mm at 28mm . Quality is not as good as the 85mm


So I wouldn't say the 28mm is worse quality per se. There's something that I've always called "pixels per eyeball." When I was first learning photography, it was always frustrating that full length portraits never seemed as sharp as a headshot. All things the same, you typically get much better catchlights in a headshot than in a portrait. I was learning on an 8mp camera at the time, but the concept is the same, regardless of resolution. If you are dedicating 5% of your image to one eyeball in a head shot, you are probably only using like a quarter of a percent for that same eyeball in a full length portrait. It's not that the headshot is actually sharper, there's just more information available when shooting nearer to your subject.

The same thing applies to your landscape images here. The city skyline and mountains seem sharper in your 85mm image because they take up more area of the sensor and image than the 28mm. You can't hold them to the same resolution standards because there is far less data in the skyscrapers of the wide angle lens.

A wide angle lens isn't always the best on for the job, and for the end result you wanted, the 85mm worked better. You still have a landscape style image, but you are starting at a much further away distance, so you need a longer lens to make an impact in the frame. This is a stylistic decision, not a quality decision.
 

katbel

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2009
3,578
31,679
So I wouldn't say the 28mm is worse quality per se. There's something that I've always called "pixels per eyeball." When I was first learning photography, it was always frustrating that full length portraits never seemed as sharp as a headshot. All things the same, you typically get much better catchlights in a headshot than in a portrait. I was learning on an 8mp camera at the time, but the concept is the same, regardless of resolution. If you are dedicating 5% of your image to one eyeball in a head shot, you are probably only using like a quarter of a percent for that same eyeball in a full length portrait. It's not that the headshot is actually sharper, there's just more information available when shooting nearer to your subject.

The same thing applies to your landscape images here. The city skyline and mountains seem sharper in your 85mm image because they take up more area of the sensor and image than the 28mm. You can't hold them to the same resolution standards because there is far less data in the skyscrapers of the wide angle lens.

A wide angle lens isn't always the best on for the job, and for the end result you wanted, the 85mm worked better. You still have a landscape style image, but you are starting at a much further away distance, so you need a longer lens to make an impact in the frame. This is a stylistic decision, not a quality decision.
It make sense: thanks a lot for the lesson! 💐

P.s. Of course I should have put a photo at a closer range like 70mm that was the maximum range to compare for that kind of wide angle. I didn't because I really didn't like it at all.
 
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r.harris1

macrumors 68020
Feb 20, 2012
2,208
12,706
Denver, Colorado, USA
Earlier noted didn't have a photoshoot this week. Happy to say I do - tomorrow, bot first had to resolve an issue with pole photography communication. Better to do it today, than under pressure on the job...and in the hot sun. Went across the street and resolved. Turns out phone app had forgotten the password to set up the wifi linkage, so simple fix.

Two of the photos are of the set-up. The actually wide-angle photos had the lens zoom set to 16mm as that is the one thing I can't change via the software when raised in the air. Always pre-zoom for slightly larger area as some is clipped in post when correcting horizontals and verticals. The one I dislike is the shoreline with the ragged transition between grass and shore. Probably would be better from other angle, but that would gave been direct into the sun.

In terms of the platform, this is a DIY with 2 "L" brackets connected through a paint roller handle as the threads match the pole. Important if building, the handle should have the metal ring at the bottom as a lot of pressure with the weight and will crack as I discovered on the initial cheap bare handle, and this is my second build. The platform is scrap wood cut large enough to protect camera and lens when laying on ground. A raises 1/4" board lifts the mount, initially to accommodate the latch on the Manfrotto, but gives clearance for the tightening knob when converted my system to Arca -Swiss.

Hopefully later tomorrow will post a couple from my 10AM shoot.

View attachment 2261654 View attachment 2261653 View attachment 2261655 View attachment 2261656 View attachment 2261657 View attachment 2261658
Totally cool!
 

MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,351
6,278
England
Edit: Ignore me, I thought this was one of the photo contest threads. These ones are new Since I was last here.
 
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mollyc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
8,025
50,061
Edit: Ignore me, I thought this was one of the photo contest threads. These ones are new Since I was last here.
You are welcome to hop in at any time with nwe images relevant to the theme. 🙂
 
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MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,351
6,278
England
You are welcome to hop in at any time with nwe images relevant to the theme. 🙂
I’ve just been reading up on what you have set up over the past none months Molly. Great idea and awesome job on it so far. I’m deffo going to get involved with these - this is just the motivation I need to get back out there taking photos. I’d best dust off my 18-55 kit lens 😉
 
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