Wide Angle lens - shooting advice

cmcm789

cmcm789

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I have just purchased my first wide angle lens, the Canon 10-18mm. I am a hobby photographer and I like to travel light. I chose the 10-18 as it is lightweight and has the same filter size as my canon 70-200 f4 and my tamron 17-50 f2.8 so I can share my CPL and use the same adapter for filter holders. Also it seems to get good (obviously not the best) reviews.

To date I have taken a few landscapes with my Tamron 17-50 but on occasions have been restricted with what I could include.

My question is for anyone who has gone to wide angle, have you had to approach your shots differently, e.g. getting closer, making more use of foreground elements etc.

Any advice welcome.
 
The major thing i fought when first discovering wide angle use was the distortion though a lot of that can be fixed in post nowadays. It's difficult to sort of "get closer" to a landscape shot, but the wide angle lens will certainly make things that are far away in the background seem even further & vice versa so you will have to be careful & take that into consideration. It'll exaggerate distances between things. When used for the right scene though i think it can be breathtaking. Getting out there with the gear is obviously the best thing you can do. Experiment & you'll soon see for yourself. Is it just landscape you'll mainly use it for? It can also be handy for street & general travel photography if you get up close to subjects & really fill that frame. Can also be great for creative & unique twists on shots that might have otherwise been somewhat boring or standard.
 
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Good advice from Shawn and Ken. They're a great way to exaggerate depth but you need a very interesting (and close) foreground in my view, it's very easy to come away with empty looking pictures despite a scene being far from that in our eyes. Have fun playing anyway, you'll soon iron out the pros and cons
 
Scirocco, Kendo thanks. I hope to get out this weekend into the mountains and may just take the 10-18 and nothing else to force me to use it and adapt.

Shawn it will initially be for landscapes. I have my Tamron 17-50 for everyday use and think it's a really nice lens. I have the 70-200 as I attend cross country and fell races and use it quite often. I have used the 17-50 on some fell races to include the landscape, and when they start up again I may go a step further and experiment with the 10-18 for the fell races to really exaggerate the scenery and distort the runner for a different type of shot. I have seen this done before and it gives a nice perspective.
 
I'd pack your 70-200 in the mountains too, two very different lenses but worth the weight I reckon!
 
Scirocco_09 said:
I'd pack your 70-200 in the mountains too, two very different lenses but worth the weight I reckon!
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Good suggestion. The 70-200 is excellent wide open at f4 and fast focusing for sports events, but I may revert back to my old Canon 55-250 IS to bring with me for landscapes. Also a brilliant lens, very compact with excellent IQ, IS and is lighter then the 70-200.
 
I've been struggling with this also, I've recently purchased the Tokina 11-16mm and I'm finding hard to adapt to the wider angle. I need this lens primarily for Architecture indoor and outdoor but haven't really had the opportunity to use it for this yet.

When out and about I keep finding myself clutching for my 18-55 still to get in closer for some reason!
 
When shooting wide, make sure that you check all the corners of the image before pressing the shutter, it is so easy to bring in unwanted elements because the centre of the image looks great, it took me a bit of time to get my head round this, but now I have I get more keepers, but I take less shots because I'm slower!!
 
One of uncle Ken's better articles (it's actually very good): http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

I've said it many a time but I actually prefer normal to telephoto for landscapes, UWA only suits certain types of images and they aren't as common as most people try to make them.

For example, UWA is totally useless for "OMG look at that awesome scene/thing over there" which tends to be the majority of things you see when hiking in mountains (I find). You need to be actually standing on the subject for UWA to work well and that doesn't happen that often.
 
gazoutdoors said:
How do you find the Canon 10-18mm ,I quite fancy a new wide angle my self ,
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great lens! for the money, its brill, if you have a crop camera, a very good way to get UWA shots, but as Nawty said, its not for everything, i will use it indoors for cars and so on
 
Nawty said:
One of uncle Ken's better articles (it's actually very good): http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

I've said it many a time but I actually prefer normal to telephoto for landscapes, UWA only suits certain types of images and they aren't as common as most people try to make them.

For example, UWA is totally useless for "OMG look at that awesome scene/thing over there" which tends to be the majority of things you see when hiking in mountains (I find). You need to be actually standing on the subject for UWA to work well and that doesn't happen that often.
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been following Thomas Heaton, and he used a 70-200, i did , and it opened another way of getting landscapes, i did a 5 pana shot too! at 100mm , worked well!
 
lesz42 said:
great lens! for the money, its brill, if you have a crop camera, a very good way to get UWA shots, but as Nawty said, its not for everything, i will use it indoors for cars and so on
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cheers mate ...
 
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