SPACES

WIDE OPEN SPACES

Put most photographers in the middle of a place like the Colorado Plateau or Rocky Mountains, and they
immediately grab for their wide angle lenses. It seems to make sense. There’s a lot of scenery out there, and
if you want to try to capture it all, you’d better use a lens that can fit it all in. And a wide-angle lens will
probably fit it all in, but in the process it will also include lots of things you probably didn’t want included,
as well as minimize the subjects you wanted to emphasize.

You’ve probably heard this before, that photography is the opposite of painting. A painter starts with a
blank canvas and adds only the elements he wants. A photographer starts with an incredibly full canvas,
and eliminates elements until only the ones he wants are left. A lens that captures a huge chunk of the
horizon makes it very difficult to eliminate those unwanted elements. So should you sell that ultra-wide-angle
lens because it’s a worthless piece of junk? Absolutely not! In fact, wide-angle lenses are some of our
favorites to work with, but there are some things to keep in mind when you’re using them.

Wide-angle lenses shrink the size of the elements and magnify the distances between elements in your
photograph. Say you have a nice bunch of flowers leading back towards the mountains in the distance.
When taken with a wide-angle lens that bunch of flowers can shrink to an insignificant blotch of color
that’s so far from the distant mountains your image is mostly uninteresting negative space.

To make an effective wide-angle subject, the flowers would have to
either be large, in an enormous, tightly-packed bunch or both. And
you should be shooting them from very close. When using a 17mm
lens, we would be shooting the flowers from less than 6 inches away.
Your background, if you choose to include it, should either be
relatively close or very large if it is to show up as anything the least
bit interesting. You obviously want as much depth of field as possible,
so shoot at the smallest aperture (largest f-stop) your equipment and
conditions will allow.

When you’re in a situation where there are large, simple shapes and
not a lot of clutter (the Colorado Plateau with its arches and rock
formations comes to mind), a wide-angle lens can work well. Remember
not to overlook your foreground. Too many times photographers
don’t notice how a wide-angle lens has distorted the distances within
their image, and they end up with lots of empty space in the foreground.
Pick a subject in the foreground and get close to it. Try to use a shape
or shapes in the foreground to lead to other centers of interest within
the photo.

If you’re trying to make sun stars, a wide-angle lens is your best
choice by far, since it makes it easier to avoid lens flares
(only because it makes the sun appear smaller). To make a sun
star, close your aperture down to at least f-16 (f-19 or 22) is
better. Find some part of the scene you want to shoot that can
be used to partially block the sun. Part of an arch, a tree, or
even a person can make effective elements in your image.

If you don’t block any of the sun you will get lens flare unless the sun’s low on the horizon, and even then if
you’re shooting in the arid West. How much of the sun you need to block to eliminate lens flare and still give
you a good star depends on many things--elevation above sea level, humidity and amount of particulates in the
air are the biggees--but it’s fun to experiment.

When you’re shooting those grand scenics, don’t hesitate to use a wide-angle lens. Just remember a few simple
rules. 1) Pick a subject in the foreground is big enough or you can get close enough to make it interesting in the
photo. 2) Get close to that foreground subject. 3) If the background isn’t really big, keep it close to the
foreground subjects. 4) Choose a small aperture for lots of depth of field. 5) Close your aperture down to at least
f-16, and partially block the sun to make sun stars.