Wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses can create some beautiful and unique-looking images, but there are also some common mistakes you'll want to avoid...

What is a wide-angle lens?

A wide-angle lens generally has focal lengths below or equivalent to 35mm (65 degrees of diagonal FoV), providing a wide field of view. Almost every wide-angle lens will come in fixed and various focal lengths. It is also known as wide prime and wide zoom.

What is a wide-angle lens used for?

Since wide-angle lenses can catch a much wider field of view, they are often used in architectural photography, landscape photography, and pretty much anything else that requires the photographer to shoot broader backgrounds.

Wide-angle lenses allow the photographer to shoot the subjects from a personal distance without excluding the beautiful background. The background and its crucial elements will stay clear, giving an immersive experience to the viewers.

What is considered a wide-angle lens?

A wide-angle lens typically has a focal length of 35mm and below. If your lens is 24mm or more expansive, it will be considered the ultra-wide-angle lens.

You can easily find popular wide-angle zoom lenses ranging from 16-35mm. Standard zoom lenses will be around 24mm or 28mm. In contrast, the widest lenses are the 8mm fisheye lenses and the rectilinear 10mm. Based on its distortion, there are three main types of wide-angle lenses. Starting from the fisheye lenses, rectilinear lenses, and tilt-shift wide-angle lenses.

1. Fisheye wide-angle lens

The fisheye lens is a special kind of wide-angle lens. It can capture a 180-degree angle that helps you see half of the full rotation.

When you take a shot using a fisheye lens, the view may seem odd at first, but that makes it special. The hemispherical lens distortion gives its unique fisheye look to the photograph since it cannot produce straight lines, cramming as much information into your image.

You can find built-in fisheye lenses featured in most GoPros and action cameras. The fisheye zoom lens is quite hard to find. So, sticking to the wide-angle fisheye lens will save you time and money.

2. Rectilinear lens

The distortion also binds the rectilinear lens, but it keeps any lines almost perfectly straight. Moderate barrel distortion will still be noticeable in their images, especially architectural photos. If it doesn’t please you, you can correct it in the post-production phase.

A Rectilinear Lens will also give you an almost 180-degree view. The widest rectilinear lens on the market is the Voigtlander 10mm f/5.6 and the Laowa 9mm f/5.6 for full-frame cameras. Shall you need a shorter focal length, go for the Sigma 8-16mm (exclusively for cropped sensor cameras).

Please note that you can’t compare these types of lenses with the fisheye lens at the same focal length. Both lenses have different distortions, making images from the fisheye lens slightly wider.

I recommend the jack-of-all-trades Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM. If you already have the right lenses and have some spare money to spend on a better rectilinear lens, go for the Canon 24mm f/1.4L II.

3. Tilt-shift wide angle lens

Not all tilt-shift lenses can be classified as wide-angle lenses, but most are. This type of lens is highly sophisticated and pricey, but its capabilities are worth it.

It allows you to correct perspective distortion and manually tilt the plane of focus. This ability makes them favored by professional architectural photographers.

The tilt-shift lens projects larger images compared to the full-frame sensor. You can move both of the lenses (horizontally and vertically) on each plane parallel to the sensors, making the parallel lines converge or the converging lines parallel. I recommend the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II. The lens is just perfect for any architectural photography needs that you might have.

What is the difference between wide-angle lens and regular lens?

With the first part briefly explaining wide-angle lens photography, I figure that some further explanation of regular lenses is required. The standard/normal lens does a decent job of producing images that mimic human eyes. The lens itself sits between the wide-angle lens and the telephoto lens.

The standard lens has a viewing angle of around 50 to 55 degrees (similar to the human eye), making it comfortable for the eyes. In comparison, the wide-angle lens shoots widely, allowing it to fit more items in the shot. Because the wide-angle lens produces more zoomed-out pictures, this lens becomes less versatile since you can’t use it for every photography niche.

A wide-angle lens isn’t as flexible as its regular counterparts. The wide-angle isn’t that great at shooting subjects at a far distance, partly because a lens already exists that does just that.

You could say that wide-angle lenses are the opposite of the standard lens. The more specific the camera is, the more expensive and less flexible it becomes. But they sure shine their brightest in their comfort zone.

How do you choose a wide-angle lens?

To choose the best wide-angle lens, you first need to understand the uses of each lens.

Standard wide-angle lens

The standard 24-35mm wide-angle lens performs best when shooting natural landscapes or broad scenes. Since it gives fewer distortions, you can photograph humans or animals without making them look disproportionate.

The wide-angle lens also offers a significant depth of field, enabling you to shoot fast-moving objects without much focus. The center of the area with a medium aperture will make taking street photos feel effortless.

Fisheye lens

On the other hand, even though the fisheye lens is so pricey yet doesn’t offer versatility, it gives your images unique and striking effects. It is excellent for capturing beautiful landscapes or jaw-dropping underwater views.

Tilt-shift lens

If you want to shoot skyscrapers, real estate, historic buildings, or other fascinating architecture, I highly recommend using a tilt-shift lens. It gives you outstanding image quality, and advanced controls, and helps you avoid distortion.

If you still fancy a tilt-shift wide-angle lens but can’t afford the expensive Nikon and Canon lenses, try Samyang. Samyang is a third-party manufacturer that offers tilt-shift lenses at a more affordable price.

Common mistakes when using a wide-angle lens

We all make mistakes when using new equipment for the first time—and that’s okay! So do the pro photographers. There are some common mistakes that newcomers make when entering the realm of the wide-angle lens.

1. No main subject

Every photo must have a main subject to help the viewer understand the photographer's main thought when taking the picture. However, a wide-angle lens will often capture too many objects and distract people’s attention.

To overcome this, you can try this simple trick: get closer to your main subject. As the award-winner photojournalist Robert Capa once said: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” The wide-angle lens can still incorporate the background regardless of how close the subject is."

Try to capture objects in the scene at three different distances:

• Close
• Average
• Far Away

This trick will make the viewers feel immersed in the picture.

2. Using wide-angle to cram everything into the image

It can capture a broad scene so that I can fit everything into an image, right? Well, yes, but please don’t. Capturing too many objects at once will make your picture look crowded and messy. To avoid this mistake, try to push away some things around your main subject.

Don’t be discouraged if you fail to capture some good photos at first. No photographers build a solid career in one night. I hope to find an interesting subject for the picture in every exciting spot in the location. Don’t forget to try various angles and settings to get the best combination possible. Keep in mind that giving up won’t take you to places!

3. Using it for taking portraits picture

The wide-angle lens creates distortion, and it… isn’t something great in a portrait? Distortions are unflattering and turn your subject into a caricature if you get too close. You will realize that their faces and features look odd or slightly longer than they really are.

The wide-angle lens can produce a wider field of view than our eyesight, allowing it to fit more objects into your image. That characteristic makes photographers commonly use it for architectural, landscape, and street photography. Like other specified lenses, the wide-angle lens is less versatile than the standard lens and more expensive. That’s why you should carefully choose which type to choose for your project.

This lens may make you feel awkward at first because it automatically makes your subject look different than it actually is. The key to avoiding common mistakes is simple: choose an interesting main subject, get close to it, and keep its surroundings simple. This will draw your viewer’s attention and blow them away instantly.