Question from a noob

[amandalee]

So tomorrow I'm doing some pictures outside in early morning sun with two cute little boys. We are going to some disabled train tracks and disabled train we have here in town. All I have is a my Rebel's kit lens and a friend of mine is letting me borrow her wide angle... I don't know the specs on it yet because she didn't know them either... :/ I know right but hey its something different. Problem is it is also new to me so I wanted to practice before buying and getting serious with other lenses... I was just wondering if you guys can tell me how to get the most out of a wide angled lens? I really want to use it correctly and don't know much about how a wide angle and my kit lenses differ??? Thanks!

 

[Raian-san]

All I can say is wide angle lens is not ideal for portraits, it's more for landscape. You will be a lot closer to the subject due to it being a wide angle. Have you consider picking up a 50mm 1.8? It's like a $100 and it'll be a great lens to start off with doing portraits and in low light situation. Try to shoot in shaded area since you don't have a flash. Also if you do shoot it in the sun or against the sun, don't be afraid to use pop up flash in bright sunlight as a filler. You just need to adjust the flash exposure according and it'll be a lot better than not having a flash.

What time are you going? If you can, try to go during sunrise or sunset where the light is not so harsh that you have to depend on a flash. I've done 2 shoot without a flash during the bright sunny time, and I'm able to get some good lighting in the shade. When the sun is above your head, find an angle where they are facing is shaded away from the sun, you can take some photos of it. Like this one,

Just go to that location before the shoot with someone if you can and test out which area has the best lighting so you know where to go, which setting to adjust and etc. GL

 

[Kerbouchard]

One of the benefits of a wide angle lens is that it excels in putting a lot of the scene into your background...
One of the downfalls of a wide angle lens is that it puts a lot of the scene into your background.

What I am getting at, is that, shooting good portraits with a wide angle lens is much more difficult than shooting with a portrait lens. That candy bar or dead plant or distracting sign or everything else will also be in your photo.

So, the first step, pick your background. Sounds like you are going with a train and some tracks...sounds good. Next would be to position your subject within about 4 ft of your background if possible...How close depends on how big the train is. Next would be to get close to your subject. No, closer than that. Yeah, just a bit closer. If you aren't a bit uncomfortable, you probably aren't close enough.

Now, for the second disadvantage of wide angle lens...anything near the edge of the frame is going to get distorted...when you do that to people's heads, well, people notice, so for now, throw out the rule of thirds(at least for your subjects) and keep them pretty close to the center of the frame...Doesn't have to be dead center. Different lenses and different focal lengths have different distortion characteristics...if she doesn't know what her wide angle lens is, it's probably not top of the line, so distortion, chromatic abberations, etc, may be an issue.

Now, that you have gotten those shots out of the way, switch back to a normal lens and finish the rest of the shoot. Or better, yet, start with the normal lens and after your subjects are comfortable with you, switch to the wide angle lens.

 

[Vtec44]

Perspective exaggeration can be fun, and it's what you get with a wide angle lens. It's the hardest lens to use because you get a lot of things in the background, even unwanted things. Have fun, try unconventional angles, get really close to your subject, exaggerate the perspective, and watch the background.


Here's the angle from my 10-24mm Tamron

Some cool wide angle shots (not mine)