UWA Lens technique & advice?

mrmac

I had planned to get a Tokina 11-16 in June, during a family holiday to the US, but thanks to a tip-off by Arciphel, I'm getting one on Saturday
(Big Thank-You to Arciphel!!!)

I've read a few reviews of this lens, and read a few discussions, with sample shots, on flickr; but couldn't find any "Dummys" guides to using a UWA.

Ken Rockwell does have a useful guide here: link

I'd appreciate any other links, but I'd much prefer any tips from anyone who uses this type of wide lense.

TIA.

Paulw

Keep your toes out of the image. :-) Watch out for your shadow in shots too.

I use a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens and it's nice and wide. You tend to shoot with a smaller aperture (f/16 or so) for landscapes, but a wide lens is fun.

PopeBuckfastXVI

What's the tip-off? Can you share or is it a one off?

Thanks!

Effects

My advice would be to put it on your camera and take pictures.

mrmac

Paulw wrote: »

Keep your toes out of the image. :-) Watch out for your shadow in shots too.

I use a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens and it's nice and wide. You tend to shoot with a smaller aperture (f/16 or so) for landscapes, but a wide lens is fun.

Thanks Paul, it will be mainly for landscapes, although I do hope to try it out in my local Cathedral to see how it works out.

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

What's the tip-off? Can you share or is it a one off?

Thanks!

Sorry, should have explained! Arciphel knew I was looking for one, and he informed me about a used one for sale, that was slightly cheaper than buying one in the US. After a phone call, and a deposit paid, I'll be picking it up on Saturday!

Effects wrote: »

My advice would be to put it on your camera and take pictures.

D'oh!

pete4130

To reduce distortion keep the camera level. Any up/down angle will lead to distortion especially at the edges of the lens and would be noticable on your verticals not being straight and curving more. This may happen a little bit regardless.

Anything that gets really close to one of the corners of the frame will become heavily distorted and pulled/stretched out of shape. You can use this to good effect sometimes if hats what your looking to do.

You can shoot form the hip and get pretty much everything in as well. Depth of field is big enough with UWA so you don't have to worry about being spot on with focusing.

Don't be afraid to stic the camera right "in there" and shoot away blindly if you can't reach yourself, you can get good unexpected results.


Be aware of the angle of the sun and flaring with UWA!

Watch your exposure if there is lots of bright sky in the shot. The cameras meter can be fooled by seeing so much bright sky and underexpose the rest of the shot. I generally point down to my jeans (if blue) or some other evenly exposed person/building/clothing and spot meter to that. It might mean your sky is a little bit blown but then you can compensate for this by readjusting exposure a little.

If your in the US, then expect tall buildings. Don't be afriad to look directly up, gettign skyscrapers shooting out of each corner or the lens converging towards the centre of the frame.

Get low down and close to things onthe ground like this




Basically move away from the lens being able to take everythign in from a distance and get closer/use odd angles to get slightly different looking images!!!

mrmac

Thanks Pete - great info!
I've got a horz/vert spirit level that fixes to the hotshoe, as it's very useful for any architural shots. I'll bring it with me on Saturday.

As for getting in close, that's just one of, the many, reasons for buying it. I love the quirky look you can get by getting really close.

Good tip about the exposure! Have to watch for that, cheers.

pete4130

Dont forget you can correct for any slight lens distortion in post processing, like straightening horizon, removing any minor distortion etc...so don't get too hung up about everythign being spot on perfect regarding being level. I generally use the focusing screen/markers as a rough guide.