Wide Angle Lens

Toni4j

Senior Member
I need a wide angle lens that can capture a group of 600 people. Someone had recommended the prime Nikkor 100mm f/2.8 and of course it does not fit my D750. Any recommendations?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
The 100mm f/2.8 lens is a telephoto lens which would make it difficult to fit a high number of people into an image.

Are you looking for a lens that will fit all 600 people into one shot? Or will you be shooting several images of smaller groups of people? One characteristic of a wide angle lens is any body parts that are near the edges of the frame will get abnormally stretched. So when shooting with a wide angle lens, be sure to keep people away from the sides, top, and bottom.

If you are looking to photograph all 600 people into one image, another problem is a wide angle lens will push the people in the back even further away than they really are - making them look even smaller.

So can you please give us a little more info? Will this be inside or outside? If it will be inside, it would be better to get some type of fast lens especially if the venue isn't well-lit.

What else can you tell us about the venue and how you are hoping to achieve this?
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
How far away from the camera will this mob be? And will they be all bunched together 20-deep, or spread out in a 600-person long line?

These will make huge differences in the field of view, and therefor your lens choice.

If you're not sure, might I suggest renting several lenses to cover focal lengths from fisheye to 100+ mm? That might be your safest option rather than guessing and spending $$$ to purchase a lens only to find you guessed wrong.
 

Toni4j

Senior Member
I'm looking to shot all 600 at one time. It will be taken outside. I'll try to find an example of one that was taken a while ago t9 give an idea.
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
In order to shoot that amount of people, its a good idea to get high and far away. On top of a roof, up in a manlift, something like that. 50mm is about what the eye sees on a full frame camera so 100mm is 2x "closer" than what the eye sees. The longer the lens, (more than 50mm) the further back you'll have to be. The shorter the lens, (less than 50mm) the more distortions (stretched faces) you'll have showing especially at the edges. You can do this a number of different ways, each is going to force you to choose the lesser of the evils. I would personally prefer to shoot at 85-100 to minimize distortion, but only if you can get far enough away. Also, unless you want to do a bunch of math to calculate hyperfocal distance, (or simply download the app) shoot with a closed down aperture, like f8-f11 or more to get the depth of field you'll need so the far faces aren't blurry, but that is also going to force you to shoot in bright conditions so your shutter speed can stay high enough to account for people moving. Try focusing on a person a third of the way into the group. That will maximize your depth of field as much as possible if you need to open up the aperture for poor lighting conditions.
 
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