The discovery of those old photos, and the tips in this article by nature photographer Andrew Goodall have made me pick up my wide-angle lens again.
I’ve pretty much relied on my 70-200mm lens and the dreamy bokeh when shooting portraits for a long time – it’s absolutely refreshing to get back to wide-angle shots with the amazing amount of details. They always say you should change your routines and try something different to stay creative, and that’s exactly what this lens is helping me with.
POWERFUL FOREGROUNDS
The exaggerated perspective of the wide-angle lens makes objects at different distances seem much further apart than they really are. Foreground objects may seem a bit smaller, but objects in the background can seem many miles more distant. As a result, the wide-angle lens is excellent for adding impact to a foreground subject. You can stand very close to a person (or a tree, whatever) and they will appear to tower over the scene in the distance. This is the opposite of a telephoto lens, which tends to bring the background into prominence.
DEPTH OF FIELD
The wide-angle lens has a much stronger depth of field than a larger lens. Not only can you make a feature of both foreground and background, you can keep everything in focus while you are at it. To achieve the same result with a larger lens, you may have to close the aperture, which means slowing the shutter speed, which means using a tripod…a lot of exrta effort. After all that, the depth of field may still not be as strong as if you had used your wide-angle lens.
PERSPECTIVE
Perspective is exaggerated by a wide-angle lens, so it makes long objects seem even longer. If you are shooting a fence-line, a jetty, railroad tracks, a road…anything that stretches away into the distance, the wide angle lens can really give your photo a boost. The result will be a truly three-dimensional sense of depth. The strong lines of the composition will lead the viewer into the picture, so they feel they are not just looking at the photo, but right into it.
Read the full article over at Picture Correct.
Source: Picture Correct
