What's up with going wide (10-22)

windoze

i received my new lens ( canon 10-22 ) and just wanted to see what it does. ive really never used a lens like this before. i thought what it would do is show a wider view of what Im looking at. i didnt expect that it changes reality. in the 1st test image i took in my sitting room - the table and chairs are look quite small. the perspective shown suggests they were far away from me but they werent! that is actually a big table set! dont get me wrong - im not complaining... it could be a very fun lens!!! what im asking here is what should i keep in mind as I shoot with a wide angle, in other woods im going to Las vegas in two weeks... I was hoping for some landscapes - are they going to look "distorted" - any suggestions are appreciated..

Again let me say - im not complaining.. im trying to learn how to use a wide angle lens. ive always used a telephoto lens and i want to try some new things - maybe street photography and some landscapes. Is a wide angle better for images that are right infront of you or for images that are far away - do you get less distortion if they are farway but then will it look "tiny".,....
Id' go out side and try it for myself but its dark and we're snowed .....

troy

gtc

going wide
the wider you go the more distortion there is-no way around that-i deal with it by trying to incorporate the distortion into the overall effect or by framing in such a way that subjects appear to counterbalance the distortion-have a look at my post oops!ir hammer thrower in cityscapes-i composed the shot so that the hammer appears to be pushing over,ever so slightly ,a building in the background,which was being pushed over by the wide angle.in addition the crane in the background appears to support the hammer.

The palms on the left side are also leaning into the centre, so go with the buildings in background,so drawing attention away from the the tilted verticals caused by the wide angle.

sometimes i try and get something in the foreground to appear as it is "holding up" a tilted vertical,such as light poles pushing against towers etc

for a tilted skyscraper you will need to use the ps perspective shift or free transform tool to straighten it up.

things like the room you have posted are nigh well impossible to fix-if you want to squash all the detail of the room into a wide angle shot something has to give-in this case its straight lines.a close up wideangle shot of a persons head in the foreground might ,in a freaky way,give you a picture in which the distortion actually works to make an interesting photo- a weird distorted face in a room with wonky angles could look quite good.

gtc

example
example of what i try to do

Andy

wide angle shooting
good topic, troy, as you know wide angle is one of my favorite modes

at 10mm, your lens is equal to 16mm on a ff. that's really wiiiiide.

keep the camera level, and pay attention to the distortion in the viewfinder. use a tripod if you can for your landscapes. there will be distortion if you are off.

here's a really good piece on wide angle, by petteri

here's the dgrin wide angle challenge thread

keep the camera straight. still, in post, you may have to do some perspective correction, but it's easy.

and, a couple shots at wide.. this at 16mm


this was shot for a company's website.. 16mm actual focal length. i was standing on a ladder above them. in this case, i was going for the distorted look, so i pointed my camera at a down angle, and the people look like a flower arrangement


another at 16mm



and then here's my one and only 10-22 shot, at 10mm (16mm on 20d)

gtc

heres another
ir-truck passing shot tower,melbourne