T3I Wide Angle Lens and Lighting

[USCRugbyNo1]

I currently have a T3i and I just purchased a 10-22 mm wide angle. I am going to be using this lens to shoot inside of homes as I am a real estate agent. I don't have any external flash, but I do have a tripod. Someone also mentioned that I should shoot level as it's very important with this lens. I'm a noob so please be gentle! I welcome all comments and questions!

 

[pgriz]

So post something up and let us rip it apart! Or not. Or... we can give you a virtual high-five if it looks really good. Or we can shake our heads and ... Ok, you get it. Post some pics.

 

[USCRugbyNo1]

LOL I haven't shot yet. I would rather get tips before shooting! This is why I posted!

 

[pgriz]

Lenses are like dogs. You need to take them out for a walk on a daily basis, otherwise they get all pudgy and cranky and leave little messes in your camera bag. By giving them their daily exercise, you improve their socialization by interacting with you, and you help them feel wanted by having them do what they love to do best - hunt light. Now the challenge with a special breed like the 10-22mm, is that it can try to take on too much. That is where your control as the alpha-dog comes in, keeping a firm (but not too tight) grip by having it sit on a tripod while you give it the right encouragement to look straight - level gives you straight lines. Especially at the wide end, it can be a little greedy and nibble at your toes. And a proper diet of well balanced light, without too much brightness or dark areas will promote good digestion. Really now - How can you train it if you don't take it out frequently?

 

[USCRugbyNo1]

Lenses are like dogs. You need to take them out for a walk on a daily basis, otherwise they get all pudgy and cranky and leave little messes in your camera bag. By giving them their daily exercise, you improve their socialization by interacting with you, and you help them feel wanted by having them do what they love to do best - hunt light. Now the challenge with a special breed like the 10-22mm, is that it can try to take on too much. That is where your control as the alpha-dog comes in, keeping a firm (but not too tight) grip by having it sit on a tripod while you give it the right encouragement to look straight - level gives you straight lines. Especially at the wide end, it can be a little greedy and nibble at your toes. And a proper diet of well balanced light, without too much brightness or dark areas will promote good digestion. Really now - How can you train it if you don't take it out frequently?

Understood, but I would do a LOT of research before buying a dog and taking him out to play!

 

[Fuganater]

Depending on the lighting in each room you will most likely need the tripod and a pretty long exposure. Maybe even try some HDR shots to really get all the light you can.

Hopefully your not shooting in auto so try to get a large aperture like f/16 - f/22 to get everything you can in focus. These will require a pretty long exposure time.

 

[pgriz]

Depending on the lighting in each room you will most likely need the tripod and a pretty long exposure. Maybe even try some HDR shots to really get all the light you can.

Hopefully your not shooting in auto so try to get a large aperture like f/16 - f/22 to get everything you can in focus. These will require a pretty long exposure time.

I'll have to disagree on the aperture. Shooting at the low end of the focal length range gives you amazing depth-of-field even with relatively large apertures. Using too high an aperture can kill fine detail due to diffraction. The trick to shooting interiors in the daytime, is to have the interior light more or less equal to the outside light (so the windows are not blown out), and that means careful placement of your light sources. As well, depending on the light sources, you can get objectionable WB colour differences if you mix outside light with inside light. If you are using flashes to illuminate the area, then you have to think about reflective things in the room that can bounce back direct flash as objectionable glare, and if you're using bounce flash, then you have to check for the colour of the surface you're bouncing the light off. It's tricky. It makes portrait lighting look simple by comparision.

 

[Fuganater]

Depending on the lighting in each room you will most likely need the tripod and a pretty long exposure. Maybe even try some HDR shots to really get all the light you can.

Hopefully your not shooting in auto so try to get a large aperture like f/16 - f/22 to get everything you can in focus. These will require a pretty long exposure time.

I'll have to disagree on the aperture. Shooting at the low end of the focal length range gives you amazing depth-of-field even with relatively large apertures. Using too high an aperture can kill fine detail due to diffraction. The trick to shooting interiors in the daytime, is to have the interior light more or less equal to the outside light (so the windows are not blown out), and that means careful placement of your light sources. As well, depending on the light sources, you can get objectionable WB colour differences if you mix outside light with inside light. If you are using flashes to illuminate the area, then you have to think about reflective things in the room that can bounce back direct flash as objectionable glare, and if you're using bounce flash, then you have to check for the colour of the surface you're bouncing the light off. It's tricky. It makes portrait lighting look simple by comparision.

I'm no pro but if you aperture is at say f/4, you will have a shallower DOF than at f/16. Is that right or wrong? (crap sorry to thread jack)

 

[pgriz]

Depending on the lighting in each room you will most likely need the tripod and a pretty long exposure. Maybe even try some HDR shots to really get all the light you can.

Hopefully your not shooting in auto so try to get a large aperture like f/16 - f/22 to get everything you can in focus. These will require a pretty long exposure time.

I'll have to disagree on the aperture. Shooting at the low end of the focal length range gives you amazing depth-of-field even with relatively large apertures. Using too high an aperture can kill fine detail due to diffraction. The trick to shooting interiors in the daytime, is to have the interior light more or less equal to the outside light (so the windows are not blown out), and that means careful placement of your light sources. As well, depending on the light sources, you can get objectionable WB colour differences if you mix outside light with inside light. If you are using flashes to illuminate the area, then you have to think about reflective things in the room that can bounce back direct flash as objectionable glare, and if you're using bounce flash, then you have to check for the colour of the surface you're bouncing the light off. It's tricky. It makes portrait lighting look simple by comparision.

I'm no pro but if you aperture is at say f/4, you will have a shallower DOF than at f/16. Is that right or wrong? (crap sorry to thread jack)

Using the DOF calculator (see here: Online Depth of Field Calculator), you get the following:

T3i, 10mm, f/4: The hyperfocal distance is 4.35 ft., and if you focus at that point, everything from 2.2 ft. to infinity will be in focus. At f/16, 10mm, the hyperfocal distance is 1.11 ft., so that everything between 0.71 ft. to infinity is in focus. For most interior shots, the closest item will be more than 3 ft. away, so you have more than adquate DOF even at f/4 to get everything sharp.

Same camera, 22mm, f/4: Now the hyperfocal distance is 21 ft.If you focus at a point 10 ft. away, your DOF is between 6.8ft to 19.1 ft. At f/16, the hyperfocal distance is 5.3 ft., and if you focus at that point, everything between 2.7 ft. to infinity will be in focus.

This shows that it is very important to know the DOF associated with the focal length, and to use this knowledge intelligently when deciding which aperture to use. The aperture selection is also governed by trying to balance the exterior ambient light with the interior lights. Let's assume the outside light level is mid-day bright, and therefore the f/16 rule applies (which says that using ISO 100, at f/16 the shutter speed should be 1/100). Let's also say your flash sync speed is 1/200. Let's say that you want the outside to be rendered "normally", ie, not too dim or too bright. So your aperture will need to be f/11 at 1/200 sec. You already know that you have more than adequate DOF from our calculation above, so now you concentrate on adjusting the flash power to give you a proper exposure at f/11. That's how these kind of things get figured out.

 

[Fuganater]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Shows how much I know about DOF

Thanks for that lesson.

 

[pgriz]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Shows how much I know about DOF

Thanks for that lesson.

Heh, we're all here to learn. Somedays we're students, somedays we're the teachers. I like to share what I've had to learn the hard way - it might make someone else's life a little easier.

 

[USCRugbyNo1]

A lot of this is Greek to me! :hail:

I love the link you provided, looks of great data there. I selected my camera and then changed my focal length to 22 and got this information.

Subject distance	10 ft
Depth of field
Near limit	3.45 ft
Far limit	Infinity
Total	Infinite
In front of subject	6.6 ft
Behind subject	Infinite
Hyperfocal distance	5.3 ft
Circle of confusion	0.019 mm

Can someone please explain this information to me? Does this mean the closest object should be 3.45 ft?

 

[Fuganater]

Means that anything from 0 ft to 3.44 ft will be out of focus. So ya, nothing closer than 3.45 ft

 

[pgriz]

Depth of field is the zone of acceptable sharpness that is centered (more or less) on the point of focus. In the example you've shown, your focus at 10 ft. gave you a depth of field ranging from 3.45 ft. to infinity. The important number is the hyperfocal distance. It says that if your lens is focused at a point 5.3 ft. away, then the far limit of your depth of field will be at infinity. You could focus at 20 ft. and the far limit will still be at infinity, but now the zone of acceptable focus will be further away. So the hyperfocal distance is the closest distance you should focus on to get the maximum depth of field. If you don't actually have an object at 5.3 ft. you could either set the distance by using a tape measure, or by setting it on the lens barrel (assuming you have a lens with the distance scale on it). Obviously, when you set the focus manually, you need to turn off the AF, as the camera will try to re-focus if you let it.

 

[MetroRuss]

Lenses are like dogs. You need to take them out for a walk on a daily basis, otherwise they get all pudgy and cranky and leave little messes in your camera bag. By giving them their daily exercise, you improve their socialization by interacting with you, and you help them feel wanted by having them do what they love to do best - hunt light. Now the challenge with a special breed like the 10-22mm, is that it can try to take on too much. That is where your control as the alpha-dog comes in, keeping a firm (but not too tight) grip by having it sit on a tripod while you give it the right encouragement to look straight - level gives you straight lines. Especially at the wide end, it can be a little greedy and nibble at your toes. And a proper diet of well balanced light, without too much brightness or dark areas will promote good digestion. Really now - How can you train it if you don't take it out frequently?

I like your analogy. I also learned a lot from this thread and your posts.

Thanks everyone