ANGEL LENSES

USING WIDE ANGEL LENSES

A wide angle lens can be a powerful tool for exaggerating depth and relative size in a photo. However, it's also one of the most difficult types of lenses to learn how to use. This page dispels some common misconceptions, and discusses techniques for taking full advantage of the unique characteristics of a wide angle lens.

A lens is generally considered to be "wide angle" when its focal length is less than around 35 mm (on a full frame; see camera lenses: focal length & aperture). This translates into an angle of view which is greater than about 55° across your photo's widest dimension. The definition of ultra-wide is a little fuzzier, but most agree that this realm begins with focal lengths somewhere around 20-24 mm and less. On a compact camera, wide angle is often when you've fully zoomed out, however ultra-wide is usually never available without a special lens adapter.

Regardless, the key concept is this: the shorter the focal length, the more you will tend to notice the unique effects of a wide angle lens.

The above diagrams depict the maximum angles that light rays can take when hitting your camera's sensor. The location where light rays cross is not necessarily equal to the focal length, but is instead roughly proportional to this distance. The angle of view therefore still increases similarly.

What makes a wide angle lens unique? A common misconception is that wide-angle lenses are primarily used for when you cannot step far enough away from your subject, but yet still want to capture all of this subject in a single camera frame. Unfortunately, if one were to only use it this way they'd really be missing out. In fact, wide angle lenses are often used for just the opposite: when you want to get closer to a subject!

So, let's take a closer look at just what makes a wide angle lens unique:

• Its image encompasses a wide angle of view
• It generally has a close minimum focusing distance

Although the above characteristics might seem pretty basic, they result in a surprising range of possibilities. The rest of this page focuses on techniques for how to best use these traits for maximal impact in wide angle photography.

WIDE ANGLE PERSPECTIVE

Obviously, a wide angle lens is special because it has a wide angle of view — but what does this actually do? A wide angle of view means that both the relative size and distance is exaggerated when comparing near and far objects. This causes nearby objects to appear gigantic, and far away objects to appear unusually tiny and distant. The reason for this is the angle of view:

Wide Angle Lens (objects are very different sizes)	Telephoto Lens (objects are similar in size)

Even though the two cylinders above are the same distance apart when photographed with each lens, their relative sizes are very different when one fills the frame with the closest cylinder. With a wider angle of view, further objects therefore comprise a much lower fraction of the total angle of view.

A misconception is that a wide angle lens affects perspective, but strictly speaking, this isn't true. Perspective is only influenced by where you are located when you take a photograph. However, in practical use, wide-angle lenses often cause you to move much closer to your subject — which does affect perspective.

Exaggerated 3 inch Flowers in Cambridge, UK.

Uses a 16mm ultra-wide angle focal length.

This exaggeration of relative size can be used to add emphasis and detail to foreground objects, while still capturing expansive backgrounds. If you plan on using this effect to full impact, you'll want to get as close as possible to the nearest subject in the scene.

In the extreme wide angle example to the left, the nearest flowers are nearly touching the front of the lens, which greatly exaggerates their size. In real life, these flowers are only a few inches wide!

Disproportionate body parts
caused by a wide angle lens.

However, one needs to take extra caution when photographing people. Their nose, head or other features can become greatly out of proportion if you are too close to them when taking the photo. This proportionality is in part why narrower focal lengths are much more common for traditional portrait photography.

In the example to the right, note how the person's head has become abnormally large relative to their body. This can be a useful tool for adding drama or extra character to a candid shot, but certainly isn't how most people would want to be depicted in a standard portrait.

Finally, because far away objects become quite small, sometimes it's a good idea to include some foreground elements to anchor the composition. Otherwise a landscape shot (taken at eye level) can appear overly busy and lack that extra something that's needed to draw the eye into the photo.

Regardless, don't be afraid to get much closer! This is where wide angle really shines. Just take extra care with the composition though; extremely close objects can move a lot inside the image due to camera movements of even a fraction of an inch. It can therefore become quite difficult to frame subjects the way you want.