Landscape legends: the ultra-wide-angle zoom

First of all, let’s define an ultra-wide-angle lens: anything wider than 24mm on a full frame camera is considered traditionally to be an ultra-wide lens…

These are a few of the more common lenses available for full frame sensors:

Canon 11-24mm, Sigma 12-24mm and Nikon 12-24mm

For APS-C sensors, there is a Sigma 8-15mm available; it gives you approximately 12-24mm on a Canon body.

Unlike a fisheye lens, these are rectilinear lenses which control barrel distortion pretty well.

In my opinion, these lenses, which can give an area of view (AOV) from about 110 degrees to 126 degrees ( in the new Canon), are a specialty lens to be used in the right circumstances…it would be a big mistake to think of using them in every landscape image. These lenses are all about perspective, near-far relationships; as in all landscape, it is important to have a foreground, midground and background. It won’t be necessary in all your landscape images, but with an ultra-wide, it is critical. These lenses diminish everything in the distance and enlarge foreground objects: this can work to your advantage or disadvantage. A few masters of this lens are: Ian Plant, Marc Adamus, Max Rive and Ryan Dyar…look at their images and notice how the foreground relates to the background. Here are some examples of the ultra-wide used successfully and others not…

do not stack circular screw-in filters on an ultra-wide unless you like the porthole effect

This image has the fatal flaw of a dull clear sky and a boring foreground.

The sky is a little interesting but not enough to carry the image…foreground is bad.

This is a 17mm image, but the background is so minuscule, it’s hard to believe it’s a mountain.

by zooming in at about 40mm, the image is improved and that tiny mountain is more substantial

This image has an interesting ice foreground with leading lines, but a boring sky.

This is a strong image with a good sky mirroring the rocks in foreground…remember that you must get close to the foreground with an ultra-wide..I placed the tripod flat on the rocks..there is also edge distortion in an ultra-wide lens-this can help lead the eye into an image.

this image has a good foreground leading the eye to the lighthouse-even though the size of the lighthouse is minimal, it still can offset the weight of the foreground. I was in the water up to my knees with a low tripod and towel to wipe the lens.

this image was taken at 17mm…notice the Tetons look like hills in the distance… it is important to remember this perspective reduction of objects in the distance when using an ultra-wide.

zooming in to about 30mm helps the image; although there is no foreground element, the sky and reflection are enough to make it an acceptable composition.

Comments

Mike Dooley says

November 2, 2015 at 4:08 pm

The thing that I love about a wide angle lens is that it allows the photographer to get very close to the foreground subject. With its extreme depth of field you can be a foot away from the foreground and have a sharp image all the way to infinity.

Landscape legends: the ultra-wide-angle zoom

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