I like to think of lenses, and any other technical tool, as a way to coax our idea for a photo into reality. So, naturally, I used a wide-angle lens. If you have a few minutes to spare, I invite you to check out my detailed video on how to use wide angle lenses, which covers everything in this article and beyond: Wide-angle lenses are some of the most popular tools for landscape photography, and with good reason. mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} mso-header-margin:.5in; However, those that offer coupling of metering (and even) autofocus between lens and camera are costly items of precision engineering. A Sweeping View. font-family:"Times New Roman"; posted Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 4:17 PM EST. They're colorful and stand out (to our eyes, at least) against dark leaves, serving as beacons that attract bees, butterflies and other bugs for pollination purposes. Unfortunately, they inevitably cost a great deal more than the kit zooms because the design and construction are a great deal more complex. For example, I don’t usually do panoramas when the landscape has an interesting item in the foreground, since it tends to look kind of awkward. mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; Primes tend to be much better than zooms, and their manual focusing versions best of all in this respect. mso-font-pitch:variable; A lot of beginners arrive at a beautiful landscape, then use the widest lens they have simply to capture as much of it as possible. @font-face Thank you, Mohan! This is where standard DX zooms usually stop. Does the MTF chart have some influence at f/8 and above? And it’s useful to strive toward a logarithmic scale in proportioning these respective zones. Personally, I like to turn that advice on its head a bit -- contrariness is a way of life for me. Too much negative space can make a photo feel empty, which only works if you are specifically going for that kind of effect. tips and tricks including positioning, depth of field and more, 'Thin' (or narrow) extension tubes are few and far between. margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-generic-font-family:auto; It was essentially a rainbow overhead, and I knew that I wanted to get as much of it as possible in my photo. I find that this is particularly true when there are interesting clouds overhead. In fact, a lot of times, negative space is the main problem with a photo from wide-angle lenses. mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; In other words, the smaller the focal length of a lens the bigger the effect an extension tube has. mso-generic-font-family:auto; You already know that you can increase the size of nearby objects if you move closer to them. font-family:"Times New Roman"; However, the thinnest or narrowest extension tubes often produce an extension of 10-12mm, and with an ultra-wide lens this gets you very close to the subject -- perhaps too close. Spencer Cox, the thinking man’s Photographer… Spencer Cox, the feeling man’s Photographer… Spencer Cox, the Spiritual man’s Photographer…, I very much look forward to all of your posts. A photo like this probably won’t be very powerful. mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; The important thing is to get out there and see what your equipment -- and your imagination -- can capture. I've found, however, that Sigma seems to be in tune with the needs of close-up and macro enthusiasts. When I was in Yellowstone one morning, the entire sky turned incredible colors. If your photo doesn’t have an emotional impact, none of this technical stuff makes a difference. Exaggerating Perspective. This formula works for the lens set on the infinity mark -- you'll get a bit more magnification than this from the internal extension provided by the focus mechanism. It seems like wide angles lenses are more story telling lenses. {mso-style-type:export-only; Negative Space. In this article I share my quest of creating a DIY super-wide macro lens and my experience with wide angle macro photography.