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Wide-Angle Lenses For Digital

Yes, you can do wide-angle photography with a D-SLR!

Because a wide-angle lens takes in more of it, a tilted horizon line is especially annoying to the viewer, so be sure to level the camera. When photographing buildings or forests, remember that vertical lines in the image will converge toward the top if you tilt the camera up because the image (sensor) plane isn't parallel to the subject plane-an interesting effect when you want it, but generally not desirable in architectural renderings.

When you have to get a whole group of people in a shot and can't back up far enough due to a wall or cliff to do it, a wide-angle lens is just what you need. But here's something to keep in mind: When using a really wide-angle lens, you're picturing subjects directly in front of the camera quite differently from subjects at the edges of the frame. With a 90-degree (horizontal) angle of view, about what you'd get with an 11mm lens on an APS-C-format D-SLR or a 17mm lens on a 35mm SLR, the lens takes in subjects 45 degrees to each side. If you're photographing a row of people lined up across the frame, you're viewing the person directly in front of the camera square-on, but you're viewing those at the edges of the frame at a 45-degree angle. You can largely solve this problem by having those on the ends turn toward the camera, so that the camera "sees" them all at the same angle.

Another concern is the distortion caused by picturing three-dimensional objects on a flat surface (the image sensor, in a digital camera). Those at the edges will appear elongated. This isn't actually a result of lens distortion; it's just a geometric fact of life when you project a three-dimensional object onto a flat surface at an angle. The best solution is to avoid compositions that include three-dimensional objects at the edges.

The most dramatic wide-angle photos are those made at close range. Move very close to a subject to render it very large in the frame, and the lens' wide angle of view will still include some of the surroundings, exaggerating the subject's size relative to its environment.


> Lens Chart

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