Wide angle lenses are awesome to shoot with and allow you a different perspective to exaggerate depth in your images. A favorite of landscape and architectural photographers, wide angle lenses can be great for all types of photography, even portraits! Wide angle lenses can be tricky to use because of the unique effects, but when used correctly, you can really get creative with the range of possibilities.

The most common issue of a wide angle lens is dealing with distortion. Distortion changes the shape of your image, but may not always be a bad thing. There are a few different types of distortion and in the following video from his Complete Guide to Nikon Lenses course on CreativeLive, John Greengo talks about distortion and shows you what distortion looks like in a variety of focal lengths from 35mm to 17mm.

wide-angle-lens-distortion

[REWIND: LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY ULTRA WIDE ANGLE DSLR LENSES – THE COMPLETE GUIDE]

Greengo also talks about using the distortion for effects and for a creative technique when using a wide angle lens. One technique is getting really close to a subject with the wide angle lens to draw attention to that subject, making it more prominent in the photograph. Time to grab that 16-35mm and see what you can do with it!

Wide Angle Lenses: Tips for Dealing with Distortion

Do you shoot with a wide angle lens and love it? Why? Comment below.