How to Use Wide Angle Lens

October 20, 2008 at 7:22 am · Filed under Photographers Den

Perspective

One of the most interesting features of wide-angle lens is the capability to stretch perspective. What do I mean by that? I mean that when you look through a wide-angle lens, it seems that the distance between objects has extended. The objects that were not so distant could appear too far away. And the proportion of objects dramatically increases, so the one that close to the camera look enormous, but those, which are father away almost disappear in the distance.

The wider the angle the shorter and stronger the difference in the sizes of the elements in the photograph. If we think of two parallel lines that stretch out away from the camera, these two lines will visibly merge at some point. This is a point, which I would call perceptive vanish point for wide angle lens. What do I mean by that? Well, theoretically at this point and beyond (at this distance from the focal plane) all elements would be represented as a dot or not visible at all. For normal lens (of in reality) this vanishing point is somewhat farther from the focal plane then for wide angle lens.

What do those two vanishing points mean (for normal and wide angle lens)? They mean that the wide angle lens reduce the actual (visible) distance to the vanishing point. Which results that our brain, when judging the distance and sizes of the objects in the photograph, assumes that the distance to the vanishing point is the same as with normal lens (i.e. reality). But this assumption makes it to stretch the perspective recorded in the image to the normal one.

Making it big

Let’s take for example a simple situation, where we have two kids, which should be of similar size. The girl is playing closer to the camera while the boy is watching several feet farther. We make a shot with a wide angle lens. What effect the lens would bring here? First of all compare the size of the girl and the boy. The boy probably would be two-three times smaller than the girl, while in reality their somewhat of the same height. OK, the perspective added its effect and make the boy seem smaller. But in the reality the boy is not that far away. On the photograph I it could seem as 15-20 feet (5-7 meters) between the boy and the girl, actually only a few feet separated them at that moment. So here you see the first effect of the wide angle lens - stretching perspective.

And I should say that there is additional benefit for a photographer in this. Because the girl appear to be bigger than the boy she becomes the main subject without any doubts or additional thinking, we just assume it by judging the relative sizes of subjects/objects in the frame. It means that with wide angle lens its much easier to focus viewer’s attention on the primary subject - the size matters. If we consider the relative sizes and how it reduces the significance of the objects/subjects that farther away from the camera, we can say that the other elements of the photograph (not the primary one) easily become the background for our primary subject. And this trail of thought leads me to a conclusion that by using wide angle lens we can separate the subject from the rest of stuff in the image by making all other elements to become the background. It looks like we push all other elements farther away from the camera and pull the subject much closer to the camera.

Though there is one side thought, it may not always be possible to get close to the subject and enforce that distance between elements in the photograph. It only works when you are very close to the subject, otherwise the use of wide angle lens will have the opposite effect - it will blend your subject in with the rest of the elements of the photograph. And sometimes it may even worsen things, such that some insignificant object on front plane becomes almost huge and draws a lot of unwanted attention. That’s why there are limits to this techniqe, as always.

Seeing a lot

So, by pushing the subject farther from the camera we blend it with background. But what if we need to include a lot of the scene? What if there is no single subject? Let’s say there is a vista or a big room full of people (some kind of event) and we want to get everything into the frame. Well, again the wide angle lens could be your choice, because the name of that range says it all. Wide angle means that you can fit a lot of stuff into the image.

Though when you put a lot of stuff into the image everything becomes small and less significant. And then the emphasis shifts to the overall “wow effect”. When the quantity of elements and their relation to each other play more importance, than qualities of a single element, this mix of many elements becomes the primary subject.

Wide angle lens help when there is a limited space and you need to jam a big subject into the picture. One of the examples is the interior design photography. Let’s say we have an assignment to take photographs of a kitchen, which I had some time ago. In my case I had plenty of room to move around, the kitchen was for a show, not for real purposes. But there are times when the space is a great issue, then the only choice is to use a wide angle lens, if you are not focusing on the details and need the overall view of the room.

Dynamics and distortion

Sometime ago I’ve taken a shot of a man sitting on a car. It was taken with “a hidden camera”, I just pointed the camera at the man from the waist level at pressed the shutter. The lens, of course, was the wide angle one - at its widest angle. The legs of the man were closest to the camera, and the head is most distant. How was it represented in the photographs? My first answer would be the disproportion of the man, his legs seem much bigger in relation to his whole body than a person usually would have. That is one of the the distortion effects which I wanted to point out. It relates to the “Making it big” issue covered earlier in this article. The body parts of the man, which are closer to the camera (in our case those are the legs) appear to be bigger than his other limbs, which are farther away. Such a distortion sometime may add a funny look to a portrait or highlight specific features of the subject. You probably have seen many images taken with a fish eye lens - the lens that cover 180 degrees and with most distortions. The first example that comes to my mind is a picture of a dog, which is sniffing the camera. The nose of the dog has the size of the dog’s head, which makes it so funny.

The other effect of distortion is that straight lines that cross the frame may appear not that straight. The farther from the image center the line crosses the frame the more it will be bent by the optics. Sometimes with fish eye lens it seems like a couple of lines create a circle around the lens. That’s how strongly a distortion can affect the scene in the photograph.

But we have not talked about the dynamics. Where are the dynamics in the photograph created with a wide angle lens? In my mind the dynamics in all aspects described above: the stretch of perspective, the differences of the subjects, which are on different distances from the camera, the unreal proportions of known shapes and forms and the distortion of the straight lines (or any other usual and known graphic elements).

Getting personal

Among those technical aspects of the wide angle lens, there is one, which adds its own appeal to me. Considering that you are using the lens to take photographs of a person, you are bound to come closer to the subject. Coming closer, huh? It means that most probably the person would notice you and your camera, which will almost touch him or her. And if your are noticed by the subject, then the attention will be turned at you and all the activities or interests that kept that person busy and made him/her interesting for you will be forgotten for a little while. And the scene, which you were hunting for, is gone. It seems like you are loosing the advantage of a candid shot and are left with a posed one.

Not at all, if you stick just for a few more minutes and spend some time around the subject, the person would be bored with you and shift his attention to some other, more interesting activities or objects. That’s the moment we have been waiting for - we are close and unnoticed. And the time which we spent waiting for that we made an invisible connection with the subject. We learned about some personal side and probably made some impressions and conclusions. All those small things count, they will appear in the photograph, it will create that personal touch and add the mood to the photograph, which is based on the photographer’s understanding and impression of the subject. I consider this side-effect of the wide angle lens one of the important aspects. And even if the subject is a simple rock laying in the grass, we will have to pay more attention to the rock and by doing so we cannot escape a deeper impression. This personal connection makes as think more about what subject we select to include into the frame and what we know about it, what we want to express, which is the core of photography.

Technical stuff

There are a few technical things that you may need to know when using the wide-angle lens. Here is the short description of those (I am not that much into technicalities):

• Lens Hood and Flare - because the lens covers a very wide area there is a great chance that the sun could mess with your image. To overcome this small problem most of the lens are supplied with a lens hood. The hood creates a protection from the sun, but there are two things that collide: the lens is created to allow view as much as possible and the hood tries to provide a protection from the sun. These two concept are somewhat contradictory, so one of them should give in, and that’s why the hood for wide angle lens is not such a good protection after all. So, it’s your job to watch for the flare and it may be useful to use some other objects (such as a sheet of black card) to protect the lens from the sun rays.
• Polarizer - with polarizer you have two concerns. One of them is that the simple thickness of the metallic rim around the glass may cause vignetting. The other one is the unevenness of the effect, which is partially depends on the all those various reflection angles that these lens will let through. If we take for example the sky, the best effect will be when the sun and the camera are at 90 degrees to each other. Though the lens cover a lot more of other angles, where the angles will vary from 45 to 135 degrees. As well I noticed that even without the polarizer the lens saturates the sky more than any other type of lens.
• Depth of Field - the design of the wide angle lens and its optical constraints make the DOF wider than with any other lens. It’s very hard (almost impossible) to have a shallow DOF with such lens, so look for other ways to simplify background (such as framing).
• Sharpness - if you have a wide angle zoom lens than you may notice slighter less sharpness at the very wide angle, especially with the widest aperture. That’s another design constraint, which very hard to avoid as I understand (almost any wide angle zoom lens has this drawback, even the best lens).
• Vignetting - some lens (especially of cheaper price range) may have dimness in corners at the widest angles and apertures. You may want to check this issue before buying the lens.

Roman Zolin
Friendly photography with a smile

Visit http://www.romanzolin.com for more photography and photoshop related articles.

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How To Take Better Kitten Pictures

October 19, 2008 at 9:01 am · Filed under Photographers Den

I compare my kitten with my kids and the love for my kids is equal to the love I have for my kitten, and that is why I make time to take my kitten pictures as my kittens grown into a lovely adult cat.

When anyone visits my home, they notice how well groomed my kitten is, and how well treated, and they also notice the collection of pictures I have of my kitten, I place my kitten pictures all over my home.

Well, this article isn’t about me or my kitten, it’s about taking better kitten pictures, and here are 5 tips for doing just that:

1. Always try to avoid sudden movements
If you wish to take better kitten pictures, then you should learn not to make any sudden movements and always use better quality high speed film, and use a digital camera with no shutter sound.

2. Lower your camera angle to the height of your kitten
Any kitten picture you wish to take, should be at an angle that is equal to the height of your kitten. This is for much better pictures and also some very cute facial expression that your kitten shows once they start staring down the lens.

3. Always make sure your kitten is well fed
This tip is the most important of all, it is very difficult to take kitten pictures of a hungry kitten, they won’t stand still long enough for you to be able to get one shot. That is why it is so important to make sure that the kitten has just been fed, before you try to take any picture of your kitten. Wait at least 15 minutes after the you just fed your kitten. It is also very wise to study your kitten movements, that way you will be sure when you kitten naps, and what time is best to start taking your kitten picture.

4. Always have a couple of their favorite treats on hand
A tip I leant online, was to always have a couple of your kitten favorite treats with you, that way you will give them a treat anytime they start to get rowdy.

5. Try to keep thing simple
The best kitten pictures I have taken was when they least expected it. I try to keep things simple and never ever try to take too many pictures at a time. The kitten will become frustrated and walks away,and it is very difficult after that to get your kitten to stand still for any more pictures.

Now you that you have discovered a couple of my simple trick for taking better kitten pictures, you can visit my website and post those kitten pictures online, so the world can see the love we have for our cats.

Alexander Marlin, has a web site that host kitten pictures from around the globe. Just drop by and post your kitten pictures or cat pictures, it’s all free.

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Aperture vs. Shutter Speed

October 18, 2008 at 3:18 am · Filed under Photographers Den

Photography’s root comes from the Greek roots “photo” which means light, and “graph” which means to write or scribe. Photography is all about light and how to interact with it. Two basic functions of an SLR camera accomplish this through the aperture and shutter speed.

Shutter speed refers to the amount of time that the film, or in the case of a digital SLR, how long the image sensor is exposed to light. Depending on the camera, shutter speeds can vary from 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second. Some cameras have a ‘bulb’ mode that allows the user to open and close the shutter manually using a switch.

The aperture setting of a camera refers to the amount of light that is let into the camera body by the lens. An iris contracts or expands depending on this setting on the camera, thus controlling the light that hits the film. Aperture terminology may be confusing as the “higher” the aperture, the lower its number. Lenses are rated by their aperture and focal length. For instance, Canon might have an F/2.8 28-75mm lens. The F/ prefix is the highest aperture that the lens can produce. In this case, an aperture of 2.8 is the maximum amount of light that the lens can let in. A lens that has a high aperture is considered a “fast” lens.

Shutter speed and aperture values are at a constant tug-of-war concerning light. Suppose someone was a handed a camera and was told that its aperture and shutter settings were set to ensure proper exposure using a shutter speed of 1/60th and an aperture of F/8. However, suppose that they wanted a faster shutter speed to capture a moving object, so they set the shutter speed to 1/250 and took a picture, they would get an underexposed photo because they didn’t allow the film to be exposed for the 1/60th of a second it needed. Therefore, they would need to change the aperture to allow more light in, perhaps by changing it to F/1.8, or whatever the maximum aperture of the lens is. It is always good once you have changed your settings to check them with a light meter and see if you are giving enough light for proper exposures.

More on Shutters

Cameras traditionally have two shutters, or curtains, that cover the film ready to be exposed — one shutter sits over the film and one rests off to the side. Once the shutter button has been pressed, the first curtain is moved away so that the film is exposed to the light coming through the lens. Once the film has been exposed for the length of the set shutter speed, the second curtain moves into the position that the first curtain initially sat. Why can’t there be just one shutter? For two reasons.

First, if the shutter speed is set to 1/1000 of a second, the shutter would have to move away from the film over a short period of time. Once the shutter has completely moved away from the film, the edge of the film that was last uncovered by the shutter has been exposed less than the edge of film that was first uncovered. This means that if a single shutter were to come back the way it left across the piece of film, it would again underexpose the already underexposed edge of the film, leaving the more exposed edge exposed longer still. Secondly, 1/1000 of a second is not even enough time for the first shutter to completely uncover the film; hence, a second shutter comes behind the first shutter and begins covering the film the first shutter has started to reveal. This has the effect of computer scanner moving across a piece of paper. This is why you cannot flash-fire a single burst of light for a photo with a shutter speed greater than 1/250th, you’ll have one part of the photo more exposed than the other.

Larry Huckabee has been a photography enthusiast for over 25 years. He has worked professionally with two large clothing retailers for modeling catalogs and takes his passion for photography all over the world for his beautiful calendars. Check out more articles by Larry at http://www.autoabout.com.

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Photography - What Makes a Photograph Great?

October 18, 2008 at 2:18 am · Filed under Photographers Den

Photography helps us capture memories; it allows us to
unleash our creativity. Even the most mundane subject can
become beautiful from the right angle. If this is what
photography does for us, what makes the difference between
a pro and an amateur?

For the most part the difference can be summed up in one
word: composition. Composition is the way in which a shot
is made as well as the subject of the photograph.
Composition almost wholly determines the popularity and
influence of a photograph.

A great photograph is a work of art; it evokes an emotion
from the viewer. The way you portray a scene, the
composition, is the way a viewer will experience the scene.

To create a beautiful work of art in a photograph, it
helps to have a plan, some emotion, or impact that you want
the picture to have. This will affect the way you shoot the
scene as well as the way viewers will eventually experience
it. Share your emotions with your viewers through your
photograph.

Professional photographers successfully draw on feelings
and memories that are common to everyone. Scenes
representing childhood, lost innocence, or connection with
nature grab the attention of viewers, reminding them of
their own experiences. Using unique scenes to pull on
common emotions allows a photographer to attract a wide
variety of people who respond powerfully to the photographs.

For a truly wonderful photograph, you must also consider
the way the parts interrelate with the whole that you are
trying to create. Proximity to the foreground often
determines what is considered the most important part of
the photograph.

In addition, the angle from which the photograph is taken
can greatly influence the viewer’s understanding and
emotional reaction. A normal, everyday item shot from a new
angle can totally readjust a viewer’s paradigm. Also,
combining different textures enhances the overall effect
and interest of a photograph.

True photography is not a point-and-shoot kind of thing.
Thought and care must be taken with each photograph, and
the viewer’s perspective is often the most important
consideration.

Photography is like poetry; both the subject and the form
determine the effect on viewers. As you search to take the
great photographs of your life, remember that your job is
to make viewers think, to help them see something from a
new perspective.

As a studio photographer, Margaret Byrkit has made a study
of topics related to photography. She is contributing
writer of articles for FYN Photography a
premier resource on-line for information on photography.
Find additional articles by Margaret at For Camera and FD Electronics

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Photography A - Z the Easy Way: F - Framing With Digital Cameras

October 18, 2008 at 12:45 am · Filed under Photographers Den

Framing a shot using a digital camera can get a bit of getting used to. Like film cameras, compact digital cameras have a viewfinder which is “offset”. This means the viewfinder image is not exactly the same as the image you get on the sensor. However, you can make small adjustments to capture the image you were hoping for.

Increasingly, however, digital cameras are being produced without a viewfinder at all. Why is this? Because digital cameras have a LCD screen.

What is a LCD screen? It is a screen - like a small television screen - on the back of the camera which shows you the scene exactly as the camera sees. You can frame your shot easily using this alone and without ever using the viewfinder (hence why they are going out of fashion). The image comes up nice and bright and is “live” which means that the image moves as the camera moves. And if the subjects move, you will see this on the screen too. It’s like a miniature video camera screen.

The only drawbacks are: (a) LCD screens use battery power and the more you use the screen the more power is consumed - always make sure you have charged batteries and spares and (b) in bright light (e.g. sunlight) the LCD screen can sometimes be a little difficult to see - shield it with your hand if need be

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com.

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