Difficult to compose with XF 14mm f2.8?

[milandro]

http://www.dxo.com/us/photography/tutorials/understanding-volume-deformation

 

from this article (connected to the sales of software)

 

“..

• The shorter the focal distance (F), the farther the projection will be from the center (distance D), and the greater the deformation
• The farther the subject is from the axis, the more visible the phenomenon will be

• For a conventional lens, distortion is tied to its physical properties, but volumes can be very distorted...."

[Tom H.]

I think a lot of people think landscape = wide and end up disappointed by the results. I remember doing this myself with a Sigma zoom in my Nikon days.

 

Wide lenses emphasise the foreground and send the middle distance even further away and vanish the far distance into almost nothing. Not to mention the distortion is incredibly unflattering for people not in the centre of the frame. They are not really everyday lenses unless you make that your style, and the Fuji options are quite expensive for what could end up being sparingly used lenses.

 

Frod nailed it.

 

Some people think landscapes implies wide angle lenses and portraits need telephoto lenses.

 

Any lens can do anything you want, as long as you don't forget what certain fields of view do to your image, of how close or far you need to be to get certain effects...

 

The wider you go, the more you need to think about what your subject is and how to frame it.

[Snodge]

I've only got the 14mm Fuji lens for my X-T10 (other than manual focus old adapted lenses) - personally I don't find it difficult composing images with it, however that being said, I've not tried to use it for street photography. My thoughts on this are that you just need to be aware of how an image will look when using a lens with a specific angle of view; in this case, objects appearing smaller the further away from the camera they are, and the distance involved that creates that effect.

[ChinaGuy]

I've been using the 14mm for street photography for several months now.  My rule-of-thumb is to always "lean-in" to get close to a foreground subject because of the wide field-of-view.  Just shooting wide vistas gets boring for the viewer.  Having layered compositions is much more interesting.  I've been using ultra wide angle lenses (I don't plan to jump into the semantics discussion) for about 5 years and love the ability to slightly distort reality.  The wide field also gives me cropping options.  The Fujinon 14mm is one of my favorite lenses and was a no-brainer purchase when it was US$499.  At $899 it's a stretch.

 

 

[sir_c]

(Ultra)Wide angle takes much more care than conventional focal lengths indeed.

First of all, there is a lot of stuff captured into the frame, just by the sheer viewing angle. So you have to be very careful with your composition.

The compression of distant subjects is another thing; ChinaGuy phrased it well: shooting wide vistas get quickly boring. Especially when you just get out of the car and pop off a few shots. Almost never works.

Ken Rockwell once wrote a usable introductional piece on UW lenses: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm which summarizes a lot what has been said here.

 

The wider you go, the larger the issue gets. So if you say you already were having difficulties with 16mm, I presume 14 won't improve matters. It requires a different eye, so you will need to invest time and effort to master wide angles.

I am not particularly good at UWA, but I must say that when I see a well-composed UWA photo, I really enjoy it.

[Dachshund]

Wide angle is great for landscapes where you want the foreground and background in focus. In my opinion since WA isn't great for photographing people, there isn't much point to having a large aperture. I think the better lens is the 10-24. At 10mm (15mm effective) you can focus on something a few feet away and the whole scene will be in focus, if you use f11 or f16.

[FujiNut]

@petergabriel -- if you look at "china guy"s shot you see that the people are not distorted.  if he tipped the camera up or down, you'd notice distortion in the whole scene.  whether you wish to call this wide or ultra wide (a superfluous argument -- look at the image, not the tech talk, no one will care what you call it when they see the picture) -- the 14mm is a pretty wide lens that us really really sharp. i've used it for a couple of years as a working pro, it is a pleasure to work with, too compact not to take along on a shoot, and offers a useful perspective.  get it, use it, learn it, love it :-)

[musiccitybill]

The 14 mm on APC (21 equivalent on full frame) requires foreground discipline: Filling the foreground with an important element in your composition, which introduces the rest of the image. If you miss it in the foreground, then you're lost--start over. Use the ground, floor, road, or whatever makes up the bottom of your image an important element in your composition as well. The tilt screen on the X-T1-2 help with low angle shots. With the X-Pro 1-2, you can simply imagine what the bottom of the image would look like if you put the camera almost on the ground. Hyperfocal distance is an important trick to remember. Set you f-stop and then use the lens' manual focus to set depth of field from infinity down to the minimum for your f-stop. If you want inspiration, go back to early, post-1963 images taken with Leica's Super Angulon 21 mm f3.4. It was one of the first lenses with a 90 degree field of view and professionals had a ball with it. 

[Puma Cat]

I love this lens, I think it's spectacular. No problems composing with it on my end....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JRphoto]

Beautiful photos, congrats! Thanks for posting!