Kansas Studios | Kansas Pitts Photography » Santa Rosa Beach Family Beach Photographer Serving 30-a, South Walton and Beaches Worldwide

Fisheye vs. Wide Angle Lenses | A Quick Comparison

Although I didn’t set out to take comparison pictures at my sunrise maternity session at the beach Sunday morning, I had my 16-35 mm lens on for the first ones and wasn’t quite getting the look I wanted so, you know me I threw the 8-15 mm fisheye on to get what I reallllllly wanted….that gorgeous curve, more of the clouds, more of the sunrise, the gorgeous environmental aspect with my beautiful client right in the midst of it. So when I was looking through Callan’s images I noticed that I taken the same image with almost the same settings and wanted to share because I get lots of emails and messages regarding the difference between a fisheye and a wide angle lens and how I get the fisheye “look” with my images and which one they should purchase.

 

Here are the two images, edited exactly the same (recipe and links to my actions below and maybe even a little 24 hour coupon code if you don’t own them). Take a look at the two images and decide which one you are more drawn to (and I would love a comment or Facebook comment explaining which and why; I love a good debate). Keep in mind I take tons of close up images, ones that aren’t “distorted”, etc. so this is just a small portion of her session and I consider this to be an environmental portrait to capture her in the setting; after all, what is the point of doing beach images when you can’t see the beach?

CallanMat-2P I N

 

And now here they are side by side with settings…

 

ComparisonP I N

A few things you will notice and need to pay attention to when shooting with a fisheye…As you can see the items in the top of the frame are smaller while the ones in the foreground appear larger, you obviously have the curve in the fisheye image (and your focal length will play a role in that as well as the tilt of the camera when you take the image). The color is a bit different even though they are edited the same way…To me, the fisheye is a more dramatic look…I love the wide angle and the 16-35 was my first wide angle lens but then I wanted to go wider. I can’t even recall what prompted me to purchase the 8-15 but it quickly became my favorite for beach images as well as a general carry-all lens with my kids. I can literally take a selfie with my kids holding the camera with the fisheye, I can get them all in an image when we are sitting together and they are right beside me, because of the wideness of the lens. And I just love a dramatic image…I love close ups that capture the beauty of my clients and they love those too but I find that the wide angle images are the ones they print big to make an impact on their walls. It is also what gets noticed more on social media (on my stuff anyway) because it is eye catching and stands out in the newsfeed.

 

Anyway just wanted to share a little fun information with you guys this Tuesday morning. Don’t hesitate to share, comment, give me feedback, etc. More information on the lenses here:

Canon 16-35 f/2.8 L

Canon Fisheye 8-15 f/4 L

(my Nikon users…I have to admit that I have not found a lens that Nikon makes that is 100% comparable to the Canon version…but you can try one of THESE)

As promised, I edited these with Deep Golden Brilliance (LR preset from The Spring Collection a/k/a the Sunkissed Collection) and then Bold Beautiful Skies, Arise & Shine, Warm Spotlight, and SharpenNoise from the Kansas Collection (for PSE/Elements HERE). You can use Tuesday15 for 15% off for the next 24 hours!

 

By the way, here is another from that session that I have edited…taken with my Canon 135L (which I absolutely love and its a great price point for this type of look) and see the rest of her session HERE (you must go look-they are TO.DIE.FOR):

CallanMat-1P I N

SHARE TOF A C E B O O K____________SHARE TOP I N T E R E S T____________SHARE TOT W I T T E R ____________