Wide Angle Lens

The term ‘wide angle’ covers lens settings from, for example, 30° to 60° or more. Used carefully, the wide angle lens has great advantages … but there are drawbacks too!

Advantages

Zoomed out to its widest-angle, the lens will take in a great deal of the scene. If you were shooting with a ‘normal’ lens angle, you could only get this shot by moving the camera much further away. And that’s often impracticable, especially where space is restricted. It can be a great advantage to be able to show a broad overall view without your having to move your camera very far from the subject.

A wide angle lens appears to exaggerate perspective. Distance, space and depth seem to be emphasized. Everything looks further away than it really is. This can be a big asset in a small studio, where even a limited low-budget setting can look impressively spacious on camera.

Another plus is that smooth camerawork is much easier when you, use a wide angle lens. Any bumps and judders when, moving the camera (especially over uneven floors) are less obvious. It is a lot easier to focus too, because the depth of field is much greater.

Disadvantages

However, using a wide angle lens has its drawbacks. It’s.great to be able to show the whole of the scene in a single shot, but if you are not careful, you will see too much – overshooting the studio set, revealing the sound boom, lights, other cameras or bystanders tool On location, you may find that a wide angle shot includes a disproportionate amount of sky or foreground.

There are times when the way in which the wide angle lens exaggerates space can be an embarrassment; especially if a commentator refera to cramped living conditions … which are transformed by the wide angle tens to appear unnaturally spacious on the screen.

Another strange effect is the way in which the wide angle lens exaggerates the speed of movements towards or away from the camera; either as people move, or the camera dollies in and out

With a wide angle lens, details quickly become too small and distant. But move closer to see them more clearly, and strange distortions can developl Closeups of people on a wide angle lens are unflattering, even grotesque.

Close shots of print, music or graphs will show extreme geometrical distortion. Pan around with a lens of 50°or more, and you are likely to see verticals curving and straightening as they pass across the shot!

(A) Wide angle lens

For a given camera position, the wide angle lens gives an apparently more distant view, and a smaller image of the subject.

(B) The impression of space

Whereas a normal lens angle fe.g. 24°). provides natural perspective, the wide. angle lens shows apparently exaggerated perspective. (Camera distance adjusted hare for same size foreground subject.)

(C) Depth of field

Sharpest at the focused distance, the picture remains substantially sharp over a range of distances nearer and further away. This depth of field becomes deeper for wider lens angles (and as focused distance increases; and for smaller lens stops).