# Help with Wide Angle Lens



## Mattieuk (Oct 26, 2005)

I've been having a go with a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens which I bought last week, but out of all the pics I took only two imho are any good. Is there any techniques or rules of thumb to consider when using a wide lens?

Here the two pics I was sort of happy with


----------



## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

What was it that you wern't happy about in the other pics?


----------



## silver bmw z3 (Apr 30, 2007)

Looks like some tricky light conditions to expose correctly for there?


----------



## Mattieuk (Oct 26, 2005)

swiftshine said:


> What was it that you wern't happy about in the other pics?


They just looked washed out with no real feeling of the view.


----------



## Mattieuk (Oct 26, 2005)

silver bmw z3 said:


> Looks like some tricky light conditions to expose correctly for there?


It was overcast with rain clouds looming. Maybe that's why the others looked crap?


----------



## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

Hey Matt, I have the same lens and in all actuality its my favourite at the 'mo.

I think you might be suffering from some metering confusion (but can't say without seeing the pics).

As previously said the light looks tricky and I would hazard a guess that the cam has metered for the sky and washed everything out?

Don't despair mate, have another crack and see what you think. The lens is a beauty!!

This was a 10-20mm shot I took on the D80 and I was happy (!) with it, keep at it!


----------



## -ROM- (Feb 23, 2007)

Problem you've got there mate is the sky is brighter than the foreground so it is trying to expose for an overall balanced exposure of the sky and the tower resulting in a dull image due to the fact that the camera does not have enough dynamic range for the lighting conditions.

You can meter off the ground in front of the castle but the problem is you'll "blow" the sky and it is better to expose for the highlights than the shadows as you can retrieve detaiols from underexposed areas but not overexposed areas. A bit of photoshop magic should bring them out...

Before:









After:


----------



## Mike V (Apr 7, 2007)

Hey guys, I really want a nice 10-20mm lens for my D70, I cant keep borrowing the one from uni. Do you have any recomendations on where to buy one from? I want the best price! A nice sigma one will do fine. I have found they are great for car shows!










HDR Wide angle!!! The car is all one colour I assure you, just the effects of the camera!!! :lol:



















These were all done with the Sigma 10-20mm lens!

Please dont give up on it matey, It is a great lens!


----------



## silver bmw z3 (Apr 30, 2007)

Would exposure bracketing have helped him?


----------



## Mattieuk (Oct 26, 2005)

rmorgan84 said:


> Problem you've got there mate is the sky is brighter than the foreground so it is trying to expose for an overall balanced exposure of the sky and the tower resulting in a dull image due to the fact that the camera does not have enough dynamic range for the lighting conditions.
> 
> You can meter off the ground in front of the castle but the problem is you'll "blow" the sky and it is better to expose for the highlights than the shadows as you can retrieve detaiols from underexposed areas but not overexposed areas. A bit of photoshop magic should bring them out...


So would using centred metering (focused on the tower) instead of matrix helped at all? I struggle to get my head around this metering business:lol:


----------



## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Depends on the conditions. As RMorgan said, if you spot meter on a darker part of the scene (i.e the tower) then the highlights in the sky would be totaly blown. I was at a talk with Roger Reynolds (he's good) and he said when he was taking pics in yosemite in winter he relied on evaluative metering using canon bodies.
You could try evaluative, but I would probably try spot metering on the lightest part of the scene which would keep the highlights and then recover the darker parts in PS. Also try braketing (sp). Maybe 2/3 - 1 stop above and below and see which you like the best, but my number one peice of advice would be check your histograms as soon as you have taken the shots. If you see either the highlights or the lowlights off the scale adjust the metering to compensate.


----------



## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Or buy a grey card, but they seem a bit of a faff to me!!


----------



## KevJM (Jul 8, 2008)

You could use a tripod expose for the land then the sky and then blend the two exposures using photoshop if you like spending hours on the computer or try an ND grad filter slightly rotated..


----------



## -ROM- (Feb 23, 2007)

Mattieuk said:


> So would using centred metering (focused on the tower) instead of matrix helped at all? I struggle to get my head around this metering business:lol:





swiftshine said:


> Depends on the conditions. As RMorgan said, if you spot meter on a darker part of the scene (i.e the tower) then the highlights in the sky would be totaly blown. I was at a talk with Roger Reynolds (he's good) and he said when he was taking pics in yosemite in winter he relied on evaluative metering using canon bodies.
> You could try evaluative, but I would probably try spot metering on the lightest part of the scene which would keep the highlights and then recover the darker parts in PS. Also try braketing (sp). Maybe 2/3 - 1 stop above and below and see which you like the best, but my number one peice of advice would be check your histograms as soon as you have taken the shots. If you see either the highlights or the lowlights off the scale adjust the metering to compensate.


What he said, this is where HDR comes in to play so you can expose for both the highlights and shadows, or you could get in to graduated filters!


----------



## Naddy37 (Oct 27, 2005)

Mattieuk said:


> I struggle to get my head around this metering business:lol:


Try metering with aviation photography then. Tiz a bleeding nightmare...


----------

