How to use wide-angle lenses

Right Image: Canon EOS D30, Tokina ATX 20-35mm zoom, 1/4 sec at f-11 on aperture priority, Multisegment metering, Bogen Tripod and ball head
 

Wide-angle lenses are much more difficult to work with than longer focal lengths, even super telephotos. With telephoto lenses, you have less worry about composition since only a portion of the scene is viewed through the viewfinder. Less objects in the frame makes organizing the scene much easier. Wide-angle lenses with their broad angle of view, include everything that is in front of the camera making it difficult to exclude unwanted objects. You can easily become tempted to include everything, especially if you have already set up your tripod and chosen your shooting position. First step is to find the spot you want to shoot from and the composition. Do this without setting up the camera on your tripod. Walk around and look through the viewfinder until you find the best composition. Look carefully to make sure you are not including any unwanted objects. Everything in the frame should work together without distracting the viewer. I have shot beautiful landscapes only to see dead branches, soda cans, and even telephone poles in the pictures that I just didn't notice when I was photographing.


Controlling depth-of-field is another problem. Some believe that wide-angle lenses have greater depth-of-field than telephoto lenses and since wide-angles cover a wide view, depth-of-field is not much of concern. Wide-angles have more depth-of-field than telephotos only if shot from the same points. If you use a 24mm lens and then back off and use a 100mm lens but cover the same image size at the same f-stop, then depth-of-field will be the same with both lenses. Background and perspective will look different because of angles of view, but depth-of-field will be the same. You need to pick the right f-stop to make sure everything is in sharp focus, especially when including a strong foreground. You will find that this is not always easy. Shoot a landscape and move-in close to include wild flowers and the background and you'll discover that even the smallest f-stop may not cover the depth-of-field you need. Single focal length lenses have one great advantage over zooms. They include hyper focal distance markings on the lens. You can use hyper focal markings to quickly find the f-stop that can bring everything into sharp focus. Focus on a point in the scene and then refer to the markings and see the closest and farthest points of sharp focus at different f-stops. For instance, if focusing point is at 10 feet and the scale reads depth-of-field from 5 feet to infinity at f-8, then you set the lens to f-8 or smaller and make sure the closest foreground is at 5 feet. You can and should use depth-of-field preview if your camera has this feature to check depth-of-field.

At times, no matter how much you stop the lens down, you can't get everything into sharp focus. When you focus the lens, only one plane in the scene comes to sharp focus. This is the point which is parallel to the film and cannot be changed unless you use tilt/shift lenses or a view camera. Tilt/shift and view cameras allow movements so you can change the plane of focus and by stopping the lens down bring everything else into sharp focus. With normal lenses, you must take extra caution where you focus the lens and pick the right f-stop.

Some features you need to look for when buying a wide-angle lens are close-focusing distance, zoom or fixed focal length, and lens speed. Lens speed is not a great concern with wide-angle lenses since you almost always stop the lens down to gain depth-of-field, but faster models allow brighter view and are helpful in low light. Zoom lenses are not what they seem. A 20-35mm for instance, may actually be a 21-34mm! This is also true with longer zooms. A 75-300mm which has an actual focal length of 295mm at the longer range is not a big problem since 5 or 10 millimeters makes not much difference in telephoto range. With wide-angle lenses however, every millimeter counts. You should also look for a lens with short close focusing ability. You need a lens that can cover your foreground shots. Some zooms, especially all-in-one zooms with wide to long telephotos have far close focusing ability. Use a lens hood at all times to reduce flare which is a big problem with wide-angles and if you use polarizing filters, vignetting may show in the corners if you use thick filters.

Recommended Lens Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX DG Aspherical Lens Features: Sigma EX lens with 17-35mm zoom Incorporates aspherical lens elements in the front, as well as rear lens groups Equipped with a silent, responsive and fast Micro Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) Incorporates internal focusing to prevent deterioration of the optical quality at close distances The lens covers a super-wide angle of view 104°and has a large-aperture. It has a minimum focusing distance of 27mm at all focal lengths, and maximum magnification ratio of 1:4.5. The models which are equipped with HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) system are ensured a quiet, high-speed AF as well as offering Full Time Manual Focusing. Special Low Dispersion (SLD) and two aspherical glass elements provide excellent compensation for distortion as well as for various aberrations. The design concept of this lens is especially suitable for the characteristics of Digital SLR Cameras. The high performance inner focus system is particularly suitable for using circular polarizing filters and a petal-type hood as the front of the lens does not rotate. For Canon For Nikon For Pentax