Tips and Tricks for wide angle shooting?

[Canon Fan]

Just like the topic says I am looking for tips and tricks of wide-ultra wide angle shooting. Mostly 20mm and less. I haven't had a good lens to practice this with myself but do finally have one coming wednsday or thursday this week. Primarily it will be used for weddings and interior shooting this year but also some cityscape and landscape stuff.

I know some of the basics of WA theory but just wondering what else is out there that I haven't heard or some interesting things to look for. Any ideas?

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[Rob]

There isn't really much to know other than some lenses are fish-eye effect and some are not. You get what you pay for and 20mm is about the minimum for low barrel distortion imagery, which is what you will probably want for serious images.

For jokey/novelty images, super-wide fish-eyes are interesting, but they are a bit gimmiky and you won't want to include more than one shot in a wedding portfolio.

Nikon make an absolutely fantastic 20mm f2.8 lens which has virtually no centre distortion and takes really interesting pictures. I would safely assume Canon have a similar model.

Rob

[Canon Fan]

True. I do have a "gimmic" eBay ultra wide angle adapter which can be fun at times but I ordered a Sigma 12-24mm EX this week to get some "clean" less distorted-more serious stuff. I guess I am not sure what I am really looking for in regards to advise here.

How well do these things work with extension tubes? Close focus on this one is 11" but I can see uses for more like 5" in the future. Will it completely blow my focus beyond that? Haven't used tubes before either but getting them next week.

[Digital Matt]

At 12mm, you will have barrell distortion, and a considerable amount. There's no getting around it with super wide angle. As for extension tubes, very wide angle lenses force you to get practically right on top of the subject for mangifcation. You might be as close as a few millimeters from the subject. I find that it doesn't work so well. I use a 50mm with extension tubes for macro work. When you work with extension tubes, you lose infinity focus, so be aware of that. You will have a very shallow focus range to work with, and if you want good depth of field, you'll be stopping down to f/11-f/22.

[Canon Fan]

Ya I'm not really looking to do macro with this lens much more so just looking to focus a little closer than 11" at times to really blow the proportions of the background up . . .

Um, for instance, a friend of mine diong body work on a car. I want to get his hand and the tools in very close focus (at about 6-7 inches) but still be able to see his face and body stretched back about 4-5 feet (I have seen a simlar set-up through my wide angle adapter with which I can focus as close as .25"). I know I can do the shot with my 24-70mm but the background magnifaction and distortion with a wide angle could add a certain perspective here (I think)?

If I understand you correctly though I would lose all focus on the background with a tube? Even at a high aperature? (oops nevermind that last one I just re-read your post)