Working With A Wide Angle Lens

Wide angle lenses increase the sense of depth in a photo. Long lenses do the opposite – they compress distance.

If you get close enough with a wide angle lens the photo will make the viewer feel involved in the scene,

But you have to get close enough.

Larry Burrows photographed during the Vietnam War in the heat of battle. I don’t know what focal length lens he used but it is obviously a wide angle lens. I read that maybe he used a 21mm lens. That was on a 35mm film camera.. To capture this scene of wounded soldiers he must have been standing no more than twelve inches (30cm) from the soldiers on the left here.

So I really gave myself a job when I bought a 16mm lens for the Canon R6. It is so wide angle that I have to be just a hand’s width away from a face to film the frame. But I wanted to experience getting close, and it is a quick learning curve because it is addictive.

I’ve got a lot to learn, and an appetite for learning it.