Wide angle lens and focus/clarity?

[Gallery29]

Hi all,

I've been playing around with a fisheye lens (Rikinon 8mm) on my Canon 50D. I love the results, but how do you get more clarity in people's faces when using a wide angle lens? I don't know if this is supposed to happen, but when this lens is attached to my camera it wont auto focus at all. Any help would be appreciated.

Here's an example of one I did in the French Quarter this weekend.

 

[dxqcanada2]

Umm, Rokinon/Samyang lenses are Manual Focus.

Did you shoot wide open ... f/5.6 seems like the sweet spot for the 8mm f/3.5 lens.

 

[rexbobcat]

It's going to be hard to get a whole lot of clarity when that far back, because the resolution of the face is not that much. You can get it as sharp as possible but if the subject is so small in the frame then it might not have as much detail as you want...

 

[nehas8]

You will have to manually focus. Also, to get more clarity keep the aperture small - if you are shooting from a distance. If you are shooting close to the person - use a wide aperture.

 

[unpopular]

I don't know if this is supposed to happen, but when this lens is attached to my camera it wont auto focus at all.

There's your problem. You forgot to focus!

 

[KmH]

That is an ultra wide angle lens.

The barrel distortion and short focal length diminish subject scale in the middle portion of the image frame.