Nikon 11-16 Wide angle Lens

donny1963

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One of the things that annoys me about this 11-16 wide angle for my Nikon D7100, is that.

(A) you can't go to 11 mm and use your pop up flash on the camera, because the lens is so wide the flash can't send light down below the lens so you get this shadow shaped like a cone at the bottom of your images.
(B) you must use a off camera flash to overcome this..

it's not very often i use such a wide angle, mainly taking large groups of people is 1 of them the other is in cramped places where i don't have much room to step back to the subject of my shot.
it's not really good for portrait other then large group shots,

It's a great lens tho it does fight lens distortion, because it's a rectal-linear, so it helps to fight against things looking like they are stretched or warped very pleased with the quality of the wide angle it does, except for the fact i have to use off camera lighting to avoid getting this cone shaped shadow at the bottom of my images lol.. of course if i zoom into 16 MM i don't get that shadow it's when i get to below 13 mm

Just that fact that i need to have an off camera flash system bothers the hell out of me.
Any one ever experienced this before?

Donny
 
Hey Donny,
you could use a popup flash diffusor. However, with wide angle lenses the light fallof of the flash is pretty extreme because you are close to the subject with your camera flash. So for example the vignetting of your lens will appear even more extreme if you use a flash to shoot a large group of peple. Plus, there is of course the distortion, you better place the slim people in the corner of the frame :D .
 
Hey Donny,
you could use a popup flash diffusor. However, with wide angle lenses the light fallof of the flash is pretty extreme because you are close to the subject with your camera flash. So for example the vignetting of your lens will appear even more extreme if you use a flash to shoot a large group of peple. Plus, there is of course the distortion, you better place the slim people in the corner of the frame :D .

Yeah, the diffuser is not one of my choices, i just simply use off camera flash to solve this iuss.
OR i also figured out another trick if i'm shooting out doors and just want to use my pop up flash as a fill flash i turn my camera upside down, and therefor the shadow would be created at the sky, how ever the sky is too far away to create a shadow thus i don't have to worry about any shadows.
That method eliminates any shadows, of course this only works out doors..

Donny
 
Hey Donny,
you could use a popup flash diffusor. However, with wide angle lenses the light fallof of the flash is pretty extreme because you are close to the subject with your camera flash. So for example the vignetting of your lens will appear even more extreme if you use a flash to shoot a large group of peple. Plus, there is of course the distortion, you better place the slim people in the corner of the frame :D .

Yeah, the diffuser is not one of my choices, i just simply use off camera flash to solve this iuss.
OR i also figured out another trick if i'm shooting out doors and just want to use my pop up flash as a fill flash i turn my camera upside down, and therefor the shadow would be created at the sky, how ever the sky is too far away to create a shadow thus i don't have to worry about any shadows.
That method eliminates any shadows, of course this only works out doors..

Donny
Clever method ;)
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible

I do use On Camera flash some times, not when i'm doing something serious, if lets say i'm taking a shot of a birthday party or something i use the on camera flash because i don't want to be carrying around all kinds of stuff..

How ever when using this 11-16 MM lens i need to use my speedlight SB 900, and use it off the camera.
When doing portraits or what ever i always have the SB 900 off the Camera i use 2 of them, and many times use umbrella setup,or
attach my softbox diffuser to my sb 900.

I don't like harsh light aimed at my subjects i always diffuse it and spread it out evenly.
I enjoy shooting out doors on a cloudy day, because the clouds act as one large diffuser and never get shadows.

Donny
 
You could affix your speedlight to your camera, make sure it's zoomed all the way out, and use a diffuser if you really want to use on camera flash. Or bounce the light off of something (reflector, etc).
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible

I do use On Camera flash some times, not when i'm doing something serious, if lets say i'm taking a shot of a birthday party or something i use the on camera flash because i don't want to be carrying around all kinds of stuff..

How ever when using this 11-16 MM lens i need to use my speedlight SB 900, and use it off the camera.
When doing portraits or what ever i always have the SB 900 off the Camera i use 2 of them, and many times use umbrella setup,or
attach my softbox diffuser to my sb 900.

I don't like harsh light aimed at my subjects i always diffuse it and spread it out evenly.
I enjoy shooting out doors on a cloudy day, because the clouds act as one large diffuser and never get shadows.

Donny

You need to stop mounting your flash to the camera body. Always. Period.
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible

I do use On Camera flash some times, not when i'm doing something serious, if lets say i'm taking a shot of a birthday party or something i use the on camera flash because i don't want to be carrying around all kinds of stuff..

How ever when using this 11-16 MM lens i need to use my speedlight SB 900, and use it off the camera.
When doing portraits or what ever i always have the SB 900 off the Camera i use 2 of them, and many times use umbrella setup,or
attach my softbox diffuser to my sb 900.

I don't like harsh light aimed at my subjects i always diffuse it and spread it out evenly.
I enjoy shooting out doors on a cloudy day, because the clouds act as one large diffuser and never get shadows.

Donny

You need to stop mounting your flash to the camera body. Always. Period.

Unless you are bouncing it.
You know, like off a ceiling or something.
I use rogue flashbenders for that. Works great.
So....yea.
Almost always

sent by synchronized cardioversion
 
fmw said:
You need to stop mounting your flash to the camera body. Always. Period.

I disagree with this dogmatic statement so much that that I used the Disagree button for like the 30th time in 36,000-plus posts. Just flat-out poor, dogmatic,and ill-informed "advice". As shown by Pixmedic's comments above, and by 35+ years of experience on the part of me, and millions of others.

There is a REASON that Canon and Nikon have $589, dedicated speedlights that are designed to, as in D_E_S_I_G_N_E_D to connect directly to the camera's hotshoe, and to allow through the lens light control. Bounce flash off of ceilings, walls, bounce cards, plastic spoons, business cards, and so on....all are well-understood ways to control and modify the output from a camera's shoe-mounted flash.

Event,photojournalism, and wedding shooters very often use a shoe-mounted, powerful, rotatate-able, tilt-able, zooming shoe mount flash.
 
...........There is a REASON that Canon and Nikon have $589, dedicated speedlights that are designed to, as in D_E_S_I_G_N_E_D to connect directly to the camera's hotshoe, and to allow through the lens light control. Bounce flash off of ceilings, walls, bounce cards, plastic spoons, business cards, and so on....all are well-understood ways to control and modify the output from a camera's shoe-mounted flash.

Event,photojournalism, and wedding shooters very often use a shoe-mounted, powerful, rotatate-able, tilt-able, zooming shoe mount flash.


Dizzactly! I've used fisheyes with shoe-mounted speedlights.
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible

I do use On Camera flash some times, not when i'm doing something serious, if lets say i'm taking a shot of a birthday party or something i use the on camera flash because i don't want to be carrying around all kinds of stuff..

How ever when using this 11-16 MM lens i need to use my speedlight SB 900, and use it off the camera.
When doing portraits or what ever i always have the SB 900 off the Camera i use 2 of them, and many times use umbrella setup,or
attach my softbox diffuser to my sb 900.

I don't like harsh light aimed at my subjects i always diffuse it and spread it out evenly.
I enjoy shooting out doors on a cloudy day, because the clouds act as one large diffuser and never get shadows.

Donny

You need to stop mounting your flash to the camera body. Always. Period.

Unless you are bouncing it.
You know, like off a ceiling or something.
I use rogue flashbenders for that. Works great.
So....yea.
Almost always

sent by synchronized cardioversion

I normally hold the flash unit in my left hand when bouncing. There is no need to attach it to the camera. Nothing photographically positive is gained by on camera flash.
 
The good thing about the problem, OP, is that it is motivating you to use off camera-flash. On-camera flash should be illegal. They make the worst deer-in-the-headlights look images possible

I do use On Camera flash some times, not when i'm doing something serious, if lets say i'm taking a shot of a birthday party or something i use the on camera flash because i don't want to be carrying around all kinds of stuff..

How ever when using this 11-16 MM lens i need to use my speedlight SB 900, and use it off the camera.
When doing portraits or what ever i always have the SB 900 off the Camera i use 2 of them, and many times use umbrella setup,or
attach my softbox diffuser to my sb 900.

I don't like harsh light aimed at my subjects i always diffuse it and spread it out evenly.
I enjoy shooting out doors on a cloudy day, because the clouds act as one large diffuser and never get shadows.

Donny

You need to stop mounting your flash to the camera body. Always. Period.

Unless you are bouncing it.
You know, like off a ceiling or something.
I use rogue flashbenders for that. Works great.
So....yea.
Almost always

sent by synchronized cardioversion

I normally hold the flash unit in my left hand when bouncing. There is no need to attach it to the camera. Nothing photographically positive is gained by on camera flash.

That's just a matter of preference. You gain absolutely nothing by holding the flash when bouncing off the ceiling compared to having the flash on the camera. Your just needlessly tying up a hand.

sent by synchronized cardioversion
 
What I gain is the flexibility to change the aim point of the flash unit easily and instantly. Try it. You may like it.
 
A friend of mine says:

"There is only one sensible and permanent solution for Nikon Pop Up Flashes: open them, but some drops of epoxy glue into them, close them."
 

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