Wide Angle Lens

[dawnrosie]

Hi Folks,
ok so following on from the tutorial I read yesterday, I went out and took a few shots with my new Sigma 10-20mm, not the greatest of shots I must admit but taking on board the tips given, not a terrible shot, room for practise. Its a whole new ball game this extreme wide angle stuff lol

[enaiman]

Composition speaking, I like it but unfortunately everything is out of focus.
It will definitely help to make sure the camera is focusing on something.

[dawnrosie]

ah see what you mean, I think I focused on the topiary hedge at the rear for the first one, here I focused on the foreground roses it is sometimes difficult to decide what to focus on where so much is in view through this lens

[enaiman]

It does look like you have posted the same pic because it is identical.

In situations like this, where are multiple objects within the frame at different distances from the camera, it is better to use only one of the focus points (no idea what your camera is and if you used the LCD screen or the viewfinder so I can't be more specific). Let the camera acquire focus, then press the shutter button all the way down.
If you are confident to focus manually ( and your camera allows it) you should try to do it.

[jcuknz]

You seem to have a great range of focus with this shot from the flowers in the shade extreme right to the clouds in the sky.

But I wonder also if you are loosing focus due to over-exposure as the near flowers facing away from the sun look sharp but those in the sun do not, at least on my uncalibrated LED monitor.

I made myself a lightweight sun screen with muslin cloth sewn to the rim out of an old bicyle tire which would have helped me in this situation with it casting a bit of shade on the near flowers. Not much one can do with the bed on the left which also seems over-exposed and soft [ maybe].

[Donald]

Dawn

When you get into this sort of stuff and if you have not already done so, I would strongly recommend getting yourself familiar with the notion of hyperfocal distance. There is a very good tutorial here on CiC and there is also this one, which I have recommended in the past.

The Exif data has been stripped out of your image so we can't see what aperture setting you were at. However, it looks nice and sunny so we can maybe think that you were at f11 or f16?

For sake of argument, let's assume it was f16. And let's assume you had zoom set a 11mm. And let's assume it's not a full-frame camera you have. Your hyperfocal distance in that case, would be just under 15 inches. So, if you focused on something 15 inches from the front of the lens, everything from half that distance (7.5 inches) to infinity, would be in focus. So, you can see that your idea of focusing on hedge was way off the mark.

Like you say, shooting with an ultra wide angle is a whole new ball game. But it's wonderful fun once it all clicks into place.

[dawnrosie]

Canon 450D, ISO 200, F9,Focal length 15mm 1/100sec AV mode, meter evaluative, focus point = center spot. viewfinder, Defiantly different image.

Thanks for your replys folks, I do have a small reflector which also doubles as a sun screen so will bear in mind using that in the future.

OK off to read the tutorial

[dawnrosie]

well Ive read loads today but tbh its not all sinking in, Im the sort of person that learns best by doing rather than reading so Ill take the lens out tomorrows and see if anything Ive read has sunk in, thanks again for your help

[Colin Southern]

Defiantly different image.

You might like to double-check -- it has EXACTLY the same image name. Is it possible you've uploaded two, failed to copy it's URL to the clipboard properly?

[dawnrosie]

Hi Colin, where did you find the image name, if I go into my album, there are the 2 images with different file names? Its no big deal really as my question is not really about the image as such more to do with actually using this new lens of mine. From what Ive now read I think Ill have a better idea, thank you

[Donald]

Hi Colin, where did you find the image name,

Depends, I think, on which browser you are using. With Firefox, right click on the image and choose 'View image info'.

The giveaway for me were the people standing up at the back. They are in exactly the same position in both images.

But, as you say, this is not the important issue. Much more relevant to absorb all that information about focusing.

[dawnrosie]

[dawnrosie]

Ok so I downloaded the app for my phone, 20mm @ F16, Focal Distance 4.38ft, Near 2.19ft, Far limit 7529ft, Total DOF 7527ft.
So I focused on a flower about 4.38ft away, recomposed and took the shot. How does it look and have I done it right? Again no marks for the subject matter just the focusing.

[Donald]

Now you're getting it.

Not the best subject matter to get in close and examine and not sure if you've applied any sharpening. But that is a big step forward. It's obvious that you now do understand the whole thing about hyperfocal distance. Well done. Now, what's next on the 'to learn' list?

[dawnrosie]

lol tks Donald for your help and patience. Got to put it to more practice now! Funny you should say about sharpening, usually I just either sharpen for glossy paper in LR4 or just tweak the Clarity a bit. Ive just been reading the tut on sharpening and can see that yep I do need to learn a bit more about that too! But, thats for another day lol

[Donald]

When you do want to think about sharpening, the tutorial on CiC is excellent.

Colin has also written about sharpening a number of times here on CiC. You don't need to study it all yet, but this is something which is well worth looking at - It's post number 6 in the thread.

[dawnrosie]

ok cheers, will take a look tomorrow, of out soon to take some shots of Lesnes Abbey ruins, that should give my new lens a bit of a work out and I will have to pay attention to sharpening the images after as its all old stone work.

[Colin Southern]

And with a little post-production ... VIOLA!

[dawnrosie]

very nice Colin, Ill be sending all my images over to you from now on lol

[dawnrosie]

So what do you guys think of this then?