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Re: [OM] 21mm challenges

Subject: Re: [OM] 21mm challenges
From: Skip Williams <skipwilliams@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 07:19:38 -0400
I have a couple of good superwide photo taken with a 15mm in NYC at
http://www.skipwilliams.com/gallery/nyc1/1.htm  and
http://www.skipwilliams.com/gallery/nyc1/3.htm

And this one was taken with the 21/3.5 mounted on a Pen FT
http://www.skipwilliams.com/gallery/penft-1/2.htm

But you usually have to get close to your subject to avoid getting the subject too small. Also, as John mentions, you need good environmental details around the subject to keep the viewer's interest. Either lots of other stuff, or one big subject like a big rock in many UWA landscapes that I see.

Skip


At 10:03 PM 4/24/01 +0000, you wrote:
Using a "super-wide" is _not_ easy. It's only appropriate for certain scenes . . . for the first reason you mention. The entire vista of its AOV needs to have interest everywhere in foreground and background. A common mistake is using a lens too wide for the landscape being photographed creating "dead space." When using one I will hunt for a position that has as much interest everywhere as possible. If I don't find one within a reasonable time, I drop back to the 24mm or switch the the 35mm shift lens.

My successes with the 18mm superwide for city-scapes and landscapes are not usually done from a standing position. They're normally down low (sometimes almost at ground level) and/or near something of interest in the immediate foreground to give the image a sense of depth/scale and accentuate the radical perspective. When you do find something for which it works, it can be quite dramatic!

-- John

In urban settings, using a super-wide can be almost impossible. It's difficult at times with the 35mm shift lens. There have been many, many times I've wished for a chain saw to remove street lights, traffic signals and signs! Better judgement about doing this has kept me out of the gray bar hotel . . . but it can be very frustrating. I don't think many city and traffic planners or architects are photographers. Not from the number of times I've found very photogenic subject material in the core of a city (usually historic structures) only to be confounded by all manner of power lines, signs and lights.

-- John



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