wide-angle as a portrait lens?

Merlin_AZ

I'm going on a trip this summer with a group of 12. We'll be on a cruise ship, with some tight spots. I'm thinking of picking up the Sony 10-18 for my Sony crop (a6300 on order). Will distortion be such an issue that a wide-angle can't be used for group shots? Thanks.

kdog

You can use a pretty wide lens for a portrait as long as you keep your subject centered. Obviously, with a group shot, you're going to run into distortion issues towards the edges. You can mitigate the issue by shooting wider than you need, and keep the group away from the edges of the frame, and then cropping in. But at that point, you may as well use a longer focal length. Unless you're shooting in a stateroom, cruise ships tend to have plenty of big open spaces. I would recommend a little longer lens for group portraits.

Merlin_AZ

Thanks for the post.

staggerlee

Merlin_AZ wrote: »

I'm going on a trip this summer with a group of 12. We'll be on a cruise ship, with some tight spots. I'm thinking of picking up the Sony 10-18 for my Sony crop (a6300 on order). Will distortion be such an issue that a wide-angle can't be used for group shots? Thanks.

ive used a 21 sucsesfuly, though its only marginaly wide its quite a usful focal length,close focus good depth of feild and little distortion{crop sensor}

siberianrunner

Merlin_AZ wrote: »

I'm going on a trip this summer with a group of 12. We'll be on a cruise ship, with some tight spots. I'm thinking of picking up the Sony 10-18 for my Sony crop (a6300 on order). Will distortion be such an issue that a wide-angle can't be used for group shots? Thanks.

We take a cruise every winter and I have found that a 35mm works well for portrait type work on a crop sensor camera in just about any location on a ship.