More Wide Angle Lens Examples

The other week I wrote a piece about using a wide angle lens and the interesting results you can get when using it for photographing children. I have been using the Sigma 12mm-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG Aspherical HSM lens lens a little more recently and wanted to show you some more examples of what a lens like this can do for your photography. I shot these images using an off-camera flash and a reflector, and used a shower curtain as a backdrop. That's all I have for now, but hopefully will have a more decent backdrop soon. In retrospect using a white wall as a backdrop would probably have worked better; I had to do some significant photoshop post-processing to these images to get rid of the very obvious shower curtain in the background. The final images are not perfect, but I think they are good examples of what a wide angle lens like the Sigma lens can accomplish.

With these images I tried to capture Ashley's love for her large Piggybank. We got it for her last year, it's really cute with colorful flowers and insects, and it was personalized with her name. She likes feeding it, heh. The other day while we were at Michaels her eyes caught tiny versions if the same piggybank, so now her Piggybank is a mommy with babies.

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As mentioned all three images were lit with one off-camera flash and a reflector, if I'd take these again I'd probably use a light on the other side too; I do not like the uneven lighting of the floor on each side. But on a general level, I like the resulting images very much, and I'll probably try and get some cleaner repeat shots once I get my backdrop. Although with kids at this age, getting repeat shots can be kind of hard...

Technical info: Canon EOS 5D set to ISO 200 & aperture priority mode. Sigma 12mm-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG Aspherical HSM lens @ 12mm, F/11, 1/200 sec. Off-camera Nikon SB28 flash triggered via Pocket Wizard Plus II wireless trigger, fired into a Photogenic Eclipse 45" Silver Umbrella camera right, with reflector (roll of silver reflective insulation material from Home Depot) on the left. All three photographs were developed and cropped in ever more appreciated Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. For post-processing, such as the (kind of sloppy) blurring of the shower curtain, I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 for the Mac.

Cropping to Ehance Image Appeal

Cropping your photographs effectively during the post-processing stage can significantly enhance the charm and appeal of those images. Depending on what camera-lens combination you use, you may not always be able to compose the image in-camera as you would like to see it framed on your wall. This is especially true for close-up pictures. With some lenses the minimum focus distance just does not allow for getting real close. Cropping to the rescue!

As an example, Santa was kind enough to bring me a Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM lens prime lens last Christmas. It is an awesome prime lens at a very decent price. It is lightweight (especially when compared to the superior but clunky Canon EF 85mm F/1.2 L II that costs about 5 times as much), tack sharp and works well with the Canon 5D. The only 'problem' that I have with it is the minimum focus distance of 0.85m / 2.8 ft. I have not used the lens for that long and still miss shots because I am too close and, as often happens when photographing kids, before I correct my physical distance from the subject the moment has passed. Another favorite prime lens I use, the Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 USM, has half the minimum focusing distance and as such is easier to use up close and personal.

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Anyhoo, because of the intricacies of this camera-lens combination, I can not always get close enough to compose the image I want in-camera. Remember that the 85mm is a prime lens without the luxury of zooming in / out to adjust your composition rapidly. I would not call that a limitation though. Rather, the charm of shooting with a prime is that you're more actively involved in photographing your subject. You find yourself moving around in synch with your subject, anticipating what will happen next. With kids this can be a challenge that I gladly take on.

Below I will show you three photographs as they came out of the camera. Next to them, an 8 x 10 crop that has been post-processed to taste. You can click on the images to see a larger version. Even though I 'lose' a significant portion of the original image due to the cropping process, the resulting 8 x 10 sized image is still perfect for printing and hanging. Thanks to the 12.1 Megapixels and image quality of the Canon EOS 5D, cropping away portions of the original does not really matter for prints this size. Oh and by the way, when I was shooting with a 6.1 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel before my upgrade to a 5D, I made dozens of awesome looking 12 x 18 prints! In short, don't be afraid to crop, it won't necessarily hurt the way your prints will come out!

For all three images the idea behind cropping them the way I did was to 'zoom in' on the face to bring out Finn's budding personality. By cropping away unused photographic real-estate (empty space) and distracting portions of the image, all the eye can see and the all the mind can focus on is Finn's expression and the rays of his 7-month old sunshine personality breaking through. I used rather large apertures (F/2.0 and F/2.8) with focus on the eyes, and with the crops as I made them you can appreciate the shallow depth of field effect a lot better. This is especially so in the first image (F/2.0).

Technical info: Canon EOS 5D set to ISO 200 & aperture priority mode - Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM lens @ F/2.0 (first image) and F/2.8 (last two images). Off-camera Nikon SB28 flash triggered via Pocket Wizard Plus II wireless trigger, fired into reflector surrounding Finn, as discussed in last week's post Creative Lighting Techniques (first image), and same flash fired into a Photogenic Eclipse 45" Silver Umbrella camera right with reflector on the left. All three photographs were developed and cropped in the more and more appreciated Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.