Fun with Fisheyes

[STM]

I love shooting with my 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye AIS Nikkor, it never seems to disappoint when it comes to interesting images. Below is a stock file photo I found on the web of the water tower at our beach water tower. It is painted to look, appropriately enough, like a beach ball.



I stood at the base of the water tower and pointed my fisheye almost straight up to get a really unique perspetive distortion of it. This one was shot with the D700. The sky was already a beautiful deep blue, but since digital sensors are relatively insensitive to blue light, it deepened the sky even further, to what one might expect using a polarizer. The lighting almost gave a pearlescent quality to the white paint of the tower.



But all is not fun and games with fisheyes. It can be used for serious work too. I took this image for a model shoot, also using the fisheye. Amber was maybe 8 feet away at the most, from me for this shot. I used fill flash to add light to her because I had exposed for the ambient light and she was backlit. I intentionally pointed the lens down somewhat so it would give the horizon an upward bend. This older lens is so well designed and coated that although though the sun is directly in the frame, there are NO ghosts whatsoever. Gotta love that old classic Nikkon glass! This image was eventually used in a travel brochure for our beach.

 

[Dave_W]

I really like the 3rd image, I really like this milder form of fisheye images. Did you use any PP to lessen the bulge on this one?

 

[stmv]

yeah,, I am still using my 15mm 3.5 as my wide-angle, I would like a more modern lens, but have to say, the 15mm can still take a fine image.

 

[STM]

I really like the 3rd image, I really like this milder form of fisheye images. Did you use any PP to lessen the bulge on this one?

Nope, except for cropping to 8x10 proportions, which I do with all modeling shoot images. the image is completely unmanipulated. The horizon was reasonably close to the middle of the frame, where fisheyes don't distort, so the distortion was less than what you would get at the edges. I shot the image below of the I-110 overpass through our downtown with this lens and a D700. It really turned the roadways into an almost surreal image (they are all straight), and the bent light pole in the left half of the frame is a perfect balance for the bent roadways in the right half!

 

[STM]

yeah,, I am still using my 15mm 3.5 as my wide-angle, I would like a more modern lens, but have to say, the 15mm can still take a fine image.

I have been looking at 15mm f/3.5 Nikkors on Fleabay for quite a while but I doubt I will be able to provide a substantively sufficient argument to convince the household purchasing agent to turn loose a purchase order for $1200 for one in the kind of shape I want. Those lenses are very unique in that although they take in a huge angle of view, their distortion is minimal. The only downside to that lens, and it is entirely expected given the number of elements, is it can be prone to ghosts if you have a bright light source in the frame. Is yours multicoated or just single coated? I have heard both sides of the argument that either they were or they weren't. In most photos I have seen of them they do not appear to be multicoated. If ever there was a lens which needed it, it was that one!

I would LOVE to get my hands on the 13mm f/5.6 Nikkor but Nikon only made like 350 of them and they are like hen's teeth to find and are VERY expensive!

 

[Sandpatch]

I shot this with my Dad's early-70s era Nikkor 8mm f.2.8 Fisheye mounted to my N2020. It was converted to AI by Nikon. It was a high quality lens with five buil-in colored filters and it worked great, but it weighed a ton and I rarely carried it anywhere. I sold it to raise money to purchase my D5100.

 

[crycocyon]

Great photos guys. I didn't even know there was a 15 3.5 lens, very cool.

"household purchasing agent".....hehe well just tell her about all the money you can make shooting with a lens like that

 

[STM]

Another unique perspective afforded by a fisheye: