Hello,
I bought a Canon 17mm ts lens to do interior and exterior architectural photography. I am having a hard time getting a decent looking interior because of the extreme wide angle. Everything on the edges looks distorted and larger than normal – which is normal for wideangle lens’, but any advice on how to shoot a ‘natural’ looking interior with this lens? When I use the ’shift’, the distortions are even worse. This lens was way to expensive to not get abover average results in my opinion. Do I just need to stick to a more standard lens if I want a natural look?
Thanks,
I use a 14mm Tamron lens on my Canon 10-D. I originally bought the lens when I switched over to digital because of the 1.6x telephoto factor caused by the sensors being smaller than 35mm (at the time) and I wanted something close to the 24mm effect that I got with my old film camera: a Minolta XD-11.
If you want some help in using a shift lens; check out Brian Ratty’s video tape series "On Assignment" using large formats. I think that the techniques that he uses in the camera of his large format bellows camera will also apply here. Perhaps mounting your lens on a bellows would give you more control? The problem is keeping the subject straight with the film plane — which is hard to do since the film plane on a SLR won’t pivot like on a large format camera.
In some cases, though, you can help avoid the distortion by standing on a step ladder about 6 feet off the ground. Remember also that the center area of your picture will have the most natural look. Tilt your camera up and down to actually see the distortion and then pick the angle that gives you the look that you want. Naturally you’ll have to crop out the distortion at the edges.
Another possibilty is to use PhotoShop’s ability to correct for barrel and pincushion distortion. Any good "How To" book on digital photography or PhotoShop should include a chapter on this since it is such a common occurrence. Good luck!
March 17th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
It’s a great lens–I don’t have one, but saw it in store the other day. Looks like a bug.
With a Shift & Tilt lens, it’s a different kind of animal that you have to get used to.
You only shift if you have to capture the top of the scene, i.e. if you’re shooting a tall building.
And you’d tilt if you want to increase the depth of field, i.e. if you’re shooting a field of flowers at wide open.
p.s. What camera are you using this lens on?
—————
Just realized I didn’t exactly answer your question. Yes, at that wide, things look weird. I have Canon 16-35 mm f 2.8–and it looks like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_pooky/2349994755/sizes/o/
References :
I have Nikkor 35 mm PC lens.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Use a 35mm lens to get natural wide photographs. What you have is almost like a fish eye lens. t is bound to give you distorted pictures and edges.
References :
March 17th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I use a 14mm Tamron lens on my Canon 10-D. I originally bought the lens when I switched over to digital because of the 1.6x telephoto factor caused by the sensors being smaller than 35mm (at the time) and I wanted something close to the 24mm effect that I got with my old film camera: a Minolta XD-11.
If you want some help in using a shift lens; check out Brian Ratty’s video tape series "On Assignment" using large formats. I think that the techniques that he uses in the camera of his large format bellows camera will also apply here. Perhaps mounting your lens on a bellows would give you more control? The problem is keeping the subject straight with the film plane — which is hard to do since the film plane on a SLR won’t pivot like on a large format camera.
In some cases, though, you can help avoid the distortion by standing on a step ladder about 6 feet off the ground. Remember also that the center area of your picture will have the most natural look. Tilt your camera up and down to actually see the distortion and then pick the angle that gives you the look that you want. Naturally you’ll have to crop out the distortion at the edges.
Another possibilty is to use PhotoShop’s ability to correct for barrel and pincushion distortion. Any good "How To" book on digital photography or PhotoShop should include a chapter on this since it is such a common occurrence. Good luck!
References :