Wide Angle

Back in February of 2016, we covered the wide angle topic.  At that time I showed you how moving close to the subject or objects near the subject, can distort the end photo, but also how it might be an interesting choice.  Here are two photos of Matty (our batty cat), that you can find in that blog.

In the first photo, where I am further away from Matty, the perspective appears almost normal.  In the second, where I am close to the couch cushion, you can see distortion in the elongated legs and paws, and in the couch cushion itself.

You can fit more in when using a wide angle lens, but sometimes fitting more in doesn't give a good idea as to what the subject really is in the photo.  There is no mistaking my subject is Matty in the second photo.

This go round, I wanted to use a wide angle lens and minimize distortion.  I used a 28mm Nikon lens for the following photos.  Since I do not like to distort dogs or people in photographs, I paid particular attention to the distance I would need to reduce distortion on my subject.  I did have to get closer to each dog in order to get the detail I wanted with the 28mm.  Sometimes with dogs that are afraid of cameras, or dogs I do not know well, this could pose a problem.  It did not in these instances. 

I was contacted by Ruff Dog Rescue North East to do some photos of their long-time residents.  I actually took these photos yesterday, beating the storm of the century which will be arriving here overnight.  If anyone is interested in these lovely dogs, you can visit Ruff Dog Rescue by clicking HERE.

This is handsome Petey.  He is sitting on a little bridge.  I am a bit higher up than he is.  I am close enough to get the details and his face and most of his body without any distortion, however, if you look at the little bridge you can see the curvature to either side.  The bridge is not really curved.  It is straight.  The curve is lens distortion. It was a pretty dreary day with many dark clouds, which enhanced Petey matching his surroundings.

Below is the lovely forest nymph, Molly.  Molly would never look directly into the camera,  I think it's a forest nymph characteristic.  To be a forest creature, we had to show some forest, which is where the wide angle came in handy. But again, if you look closely at the background you will see the rounded, fall-off distortion on each end of the photo.

In both cases, the subjects do stand out, even though there are other things around them. So when you want to include more in your photos, or if you do want to distort a portion of the surroundings or the subject itself, a wide angle lens is your option. Anything below 50mm is considered a wide angle, as 50mm represents what our eye sees normally.

To see what other photographers have done with this week's theme, you can continue on in the blog circle by clicking the next link. Check out Cheryl Gottschall of Gott Dog Photography (I just love that name) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Have a great weekend. We will spend some of ours digging out of snow, and hopefully none of ours without power from the storm.