Lesson #10: Using wide angle lenses. (20mm-35mm)


One of the most basic ways to vary the look of your images is to shoot your scene with different lenses. Just about every digital camera made these days allows you to change your lens angle from wide angle to telephoto. This week we'll cover the wide angle end of the lens spectrum.

By the nature of their name, wide angle lenses allow you to show wide views of your scene, and thus are great for landscapes. They typically have a very wide depth of field, so in addition to showing a broad view, you can hold focus on very close subject matter all the way to infinity. Wide lenses don't magnify camera shake as much as telephotos. (Of course with a sturdy tripod, you can use as low a shutter speed as you wish.) 

Wide angle lenses are also great for capturing subjects in their environment. By shooting close to your subject, and showing the area around them, you can accentuate your subjects and at the same time, give them a sense of place. They are the lens of choice when shooting in confined spaces, or when you can't back up any farther. Photos shot with wide angle lenses give the viewer the feel of being more intimate and involved with the scene. By using a wide angle lens, you can show your human subjects as figures on the grand landscape. Or by shooting in close, you can create that feeling of "being right in the middle of the action", and yet still show the rest of the scene that they are a part of.