Making a new thread because I can't just squeeze this into the gear thread.
So I'm in some kind of a photography rut. I started photography with a 50-200 zoom lens and never went below that. Most of my subjects were moving or at a distance and it felt just right, even went more into long range with 300mm, 400mm and a 1.4x TC.
Now I'm feeling it is becomig boring but whenever I use my wide to standard zoom lens I tend to use only the long end, and I finally started to figure out my problem.
Since I started with long lens I developed a certain sense that depends on the subjects movement, keeping a sort of mini-camera in my head running and seizing the moment to get a snap. When I use wide angle I just can't picture the scene in my head, I always focus on the smaller details, never getting a full frame in my head. Whatever I do I just can't get my head wrapped around the wide angle scene to make a composition.
How do you guys deal with wide angle, how do you make the composition? Does anyone have any idea how to do some sort of mental exercise for the wide scenes? Without cutting my own head off?
Alternatively, wide angle thread to get the inspiration flowing.
OP photo is obviously not mine, but doing some landscape would be a nice break from squatting at the track.
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Tried moving your eyes around in their sockets?
>feels good man
>>2835811
Yeah man, and immediately they focus on the small and distant detail.
I work as an engineer and my day-to-day work relies on me focusing on details and piecing together small stuff to make the "big part". I know it sounds cryptic but when I'm working on an integral part of an engine I usually determine crystalline structures and atomic structures. I'm just not really familiar with the concept of taking in a wide scene.
This is what I want to change and it is driving me nuts.
I remember when I was an overanalyzing snowflake...
Just stop being a faggot. Worked wonders for me.
>>2835819
This post made me add you to the filter list.
Save your insults for the gear thread and the numerous brandfag threads next time.
>>2835810
put all this in a single sentence.
>>2835816
You need to condition yourself to think in terms of compositional devices - foreground, mid ground and background all need to have their own features linked by arabesques, leading lines and sinister and baroque diagonals. Eventually you'll start to recognise scenes with all these features and be able to work them into coherent wholes.
Just remember the wider the lens the harder it gets - start with about 28mm.
>>2835824
OH, NO!
Seriously, your problems are simple:
1) Narcissism
You are obsessing over yourself, and what you perceive to be your unique perspective when you're in fact just a normal person.
2) Overanalysis
It's so simple you already answered your own question: You need to practice, just like you did with the 50-200, hence your comfort with it.
>SBAF
>>2835824
and the fact that you did also just made another tripfag - me - who feels your feels decide not to respond to your question.
tl:dr; OP can't into wide-angle hurr durr
Wide angle isn't about getting the most shit into one shot. Also landscape is not relegated to only wide angle shots and vice versa.
read some Bruce Barnum he outlines wide angle pretty well. It is one of the most difficult types of photography because many things shot on wide angle are not relegated to single subjects in the image (naked women, people or still-life and other hot button insta-like pictures) many times on wide angle stuff you are forced to deal with what light you have unless you're like me and wait on lighting conditions to improve, because it's Florida and if you don't like the weather wait like 10 minutes.
>hurrrrrr shooger you posted it again
fuck off
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>>2835824
This is 4chan.
He's giving advice with a wallop of crude decisiveness.
>>2835810
You need to watch a play.
During the party notice how the characters (individual pieces) come to form a scene.
Sorry if this file is too big
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OP, start watching some beautifully shot Panavision films and you'll find inspiration.
2.35 ratio with a wide angle lens is the best combination ever.
>>2835860
Are you upset I didn't name my camera brand and lenses? I think this is more related to opening up my perspective than generic /p/ bullshit about brands and Zeiss superlenses.
>>2835858
Let's assume I did the usual insults/greeting for your person.
What am I looking at here? What is the subject? Is it the cloud in the distance? Or the reflection on the road? Or the sparse traffic?
I'm just getting lost in that shot and not in the good way.
>>2836046
It would be easier to recomend a specific lens if we knew what stuff you have.
I mean, do you still have the original kit lens that came with your camera in the back of a drawer? Which one? Or else you need to buy a new one because you only have the zoom? It's easier to recommend specific courses of action if we have that info. Maybe the kit lens is not wide enough and you might need a different one, dunno.
In any case, stop being a special snowflake and start shooting wide angle, as simple as that. You'll get better at identifying lines and optimal compositions with time.
>>2836057
I bought the camera used and it came with the 50-200mm only. I spent some time on it until I got a 16-45mm. It is a very sharp, very nice lens and I don't feel like buying more lenses until I finally manage to use the wide end comfortably.
Oh, and the camera is APS-C.
>>2836062
Good enough. You have the stuff you need then. Go out and use it, photography is like drawing, you get better at it by doing it. Make sure you leave your tele at home so you're forced to use the wide.
>>2836066
It's sad that you have to give someone such basic, common sense advice.
>>2835831
>taking off your trip just to keep abusing someone with absolutely no thought to actually helping or giving advice.
Wow, I've always known you were a huge piece of shit, but at least TRY to hide it for the new guys.
>>2836194
>holding an engineer's hand
>>2835810
With a long lens, you take photos of things. With a wide lens, you take photos of PLACES. You aren't trying to capture rocks, or birds, or motorcycles flying through the air, you're trying to capture an entire scene.
To change your shooting style you have to change your mental goals. If you're purposefully trying to capture a whole scene, then you know instinctively that taking a photo of a single tree isn't going to get you there, at all.
Once you've shifted your mindset, you realize that every single "scene" within 10 miles of your home is fucking shit, which is why you've been cropping it all out for so long. So now you have to get in your car and drive to someplace that will all look good, at a 120 degree field of view, that your viewer might actually care about.
Then you realize that even when you find a pretty/cool/interesting scene to shoot, that it looks like shit, becuase you got there at 3pm, and it looks washed out and bland, and oh man, I need to get a better lens... No, you don't. You need to be there at a time of day when there's nice light, and wait for the right day for good weather, etc.
Just changing your lens won't do anything. You have to change what you're trying to take photos of, and then pick the lens that matches it. You can use wide angle lenses on the street too, or for anything really, but you have to adjust your approach. It's not "capture that thing!" it's "Capture this scene for this moment in time" and that's harder to make look clean and interesting. But when you learn to pull it off, it can be a lot MORE interesting than those detail shots that are usually just "look at this one thing I saw one time" with no context or background.
>>2836211
TL;DR: use your fucking eyes and some common sense.
>>2835860
Man, samefagging hard huh.
Pro Tip: "Move your eyes around" and "Stop being a faggot" are not advice. At all. Certainly not advice with enough value to outweigh the retarded abuse doled out with it.
Abuse is not useful. Abuse is not valuable in and of itself, and if you truly believe that it is, you should start every day by punching yourself in the face as hard as you can, to help you build character.
>>2836217
I only hope that OP didn't get fed up with all your shit and bail before he could read my actual advice. Put your trip back on.
>>2835816
you absolutely cannot make that kind of connection with your profession and photography....never read so much bs in my life
>>2836227
ill add that for me what works when taking wide angle is considering whether or not it's something i would frame on a wall. It helps me consider the photo as a whole rather than the single subject
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>>2836218
Shut up isi, I'm not sugar
You're the one perpetually same fagging and blaming others.
I didn't hate trips until I stumbled across you.
protip: wideangle photo is literally compositionless.
>>2836218
I don't samefag... I want my name attached to every single post I make, because I have confidence, and want people to know who they are speaking with.
Samefagging is for betas who can't hold their own. Other things for betas are hiding behind anon (you) and filtering (OP)
>>2836282
Fucking WHAT?
>>2836227
This Anon gets it.
This is exactly why I was so rude in my response. I assumed it would be obvious to any adult; we all remember being a cringy preteen who thought this way.
>I'm so special
>so deep
>so unique
>these abilities, they only hinder
>please help
This is why I called OP an overanalyzing snowflake, and a narcissist. To still think this way at his age is very unhealthy. It smacks of social retardation.
Exact same logic:
>I work at KFC, so when I try to do wide angle photography, I and up throwing my camera in a deep fryer because that's what I'm used to
Utterly stupid.
>>2836211
Places are overrated. There's a reason why most of them are shit.
>>2836561
It's no surprise you can only use KFC as an example. Real careers require people with a specific character. That can have a real effect on your photography style.
>>2836574
>specific character
You mean tunnel vision? I really hope OP doesn't drive.
>>2835810
>How do you guys deal with wide angle, how do you make the composition?
I like to look through the viewfinder a lot when I use my ultra wide.
Only way to see what the camera can see.
It's called autism, OP.
No cure, sorry. But hey, autists make excellent engineers so be happy.
>>2836211
>With a wide lens, you take photos of PLACES. You aren't trying to capture rocks, or birds, or motorcycles flying through the air, you're trying to capture an entire scene.
That's not true at all.
Wides are great for taking pictures of objects.
You can put the surroundings in the background to give your subject some context, which generally makes it more interesting than having just the object over a blown out background.
Just capturing the entire scene, with nothing in the foreground, is usually very boring.
>>2836593
How do you shoot without looking at what the camera sees?
I use wide angle mainly for architecture
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>>2836618
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>>2836618
OP here.
What exactly am I looking at? All I see is a man walking past a brick wall.
>>2836618
Man, my freshman year, I had freshman orientation in that building every single day at 7:00am, and I was staying in park hall. Man, that trek sucked. But it was a cool building!
>>2836621
If you're not trolling, I have bad news about your autismo. Maybe you should actually stick to your tele lens.
>>2836623
>>2836621
I was an architecture major so I spend every day in that building for almost four years. Living on south campus didnt help either.
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>>2835858
>Bruce Barnum
I guess you do need a wide angle to get all of him in
Wide angles can be very difficult when first starting out in photography but I think the images can have the most impact once you've mastered composition with wides.
Many years ago I had a theory that beginners often just crave telephoto so they can zoom in and get the easiest compositions possible. New photographers often lust over bridge cameras with 50x zoom or big white 600mm lenses as people often think that was professional. We've probably all been there. They are a great way to learn composition and follow the rules. But if you're a landscape enthusiast you probably eventually decide to try wide then you realize all your wide images look like shit and are a completely cluttered mess. There's now a whole new challenge to have a clear composition while using a wider lens and people often give up here or learn to take on new angles and see layers in a photo differently. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with shooting telephoto, I sometimes envy those who can find incredible shapes in the distant details of the landscape while I'm shooting wide.
Don't just think about one subject when using a wide angle, but more about how that subject interacts with the other shapes, tones, and layers in the scene. Take this example image I just developed where the grouping of trees is off to the left yet the shadows, the lines in the snow, and the approaching upper clouds all pull your eyes into the center where the sun glows into the image. I also framed the sun evenly within the valleys of darker mountains. This was fairly wide with a 75mm lens on 4x5, equivalent to about 21mm.
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>>2836687
It can really help to look at the entire scene before you and pay attention to how all the elements interact with each other. I think mountain valleys really call for wides not only because the peaks are tall and hard to fit in with a longer focal length, but because the main focal peak at the end of the valley can be framed wonderfully with the darker mountain sides or pine trees in this situation. Move yourself around to a point where you find balance in the scene. It's amazing how often it will work out for you.
This was with my all-time favorite focal length, 90mm which is equivalent to about 28mm.
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>>2836691
Wide angle lenses do so much more that just fit stuff into an image. They allow for a greater feel of perspective and also bring broader gradients of light and colors into the scene. Could a rather similar shot have been taken by standing further back and using a longer lens? On some levels, yes. A similar composition could have been done and you could have probably placed the road in the same area of the image with a longer lens, but you wouldn't have had the same feel of both near and far wheat and you wouldn't have captured as much sky. Without the additional sky, you would miss out of the pleasing color gradients that bleed through the entire foggy scene.
Again taken with the 90mm, a focal length that I feel creates the look that I'm standing right there and looking into the landscape.
I could go on about wides for a while, but the point is they create a very different dynamic to your images. They aren't for everyone and take some practice to learn how to make order of the natural chaos, but you can get there if you want to.
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>>2836778
ok, camping is not strictly required but it helps for some situations or may be necessary if it's far out and very early/late
Semi-ross post from video general:
What focal lengths do you guys typically use? I've always relied on my trusty 55mm to get the job done but I can finally afford a wide lens and I'm wondering what to get.
Particularly, I'm trying to decide on getting a 28mm vs a 35mm. I love getting right up close to my subject, so the 35mm has the bonus of less distortion and more DOF whereas the 28mm is a more drastic shift and would make my kit less homogeneous. Kind of leaning to the 35mm right now.
>>2836781
full frame or crop
also what do you shoot
>>2836783
Full frame; commercial ads, music videos, short films, basically everything
>>2836788
so... people or not-people?
>>2836791
People, yes
