Tips on How to use a Wide Angle Lens

Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
NikonShutterBug said:
What would be the highest ISO recommended for the D7100?
Click to expand...
This is something you have to decide for yourself. The main factor would be "How large do you want to print". In some situations, it's better to end up with a bit of noise than a blurry shot. I've gotten good results with my D7000 at 6400 iso. Now that doesn't mean that I would use this high iso as a standard, but that it can be used to "save the day" sometimes.

The 20mm being such a wide angle, you should consider forgetting about the focusing and using the hyperfocal (getting everything in focus from a fixed distance to infinity depending on aperture selection). But when taking picture of people or moving subjects, maintain a proper shutter speed.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
NikonShutterBug said:
Ya low light is a problem. This is why I would like to get into a full sensor. I had ISO at 1600 and f2 to try to get a faster shutter speed.
Click to expand...
I would have let the ISO go at least twice as high in order to keep the shutter speed at an acceptable level. All three sides of the exposure triangle have their "downside" but only one of them, to my way of thinking, is correctable and that's the digital noise you get from using a high ISO. Digital noise is relatively easy to correct in post-processing unlike motion blur or a soft shot due to a shallow depth of field. When I'm in doubt, I'll boost the ISO as high as I need to in order to get the shot and deal with the noise in post'.

...
 
N

NikonShutterBug

Senior Member
Thank you gentlemen, I will put into practice what we discussed tonight. I will revisit this thread tomorrow morning. I am interested to learn more of what Marcel had said.

Marcel wrote: The 20mm being such a wide angle, you should consider forgetting about the focusing and using the hyperfocal (getting everything in focus from a fixed distance to infinity depending on aperture selection). But when taking picture of people or moving subjects, maintain a proper shutter speed.
 
M

Metal Jacket

Banned
I don't consider 20mm to be wide on DX 10mm yes . are you not confusing depth of field with out of focus? It starts to loose sharpness over 5.6 on DX
 
Last edited:
M

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
NikonShutterBug said:
Horoscope, I see your point. I was not sure of going over 1600 ISO. It looks as though I need to do some home work.
Click to expand...

There are many factors that dictate the highest acceptable ISO,the biggest is probably correct exposure and not having to pull dark areas up as they will show the most noise,you really do need to make a few test exposures and decide what noise level you can live with.
 
B

Blacktop

Senior Member
Marcel said:
What I suspect since I've had this happen to me is that the lens has a curved focus field. I used to use a central focus point and then reframe, but I did notice that some of my shots were not sharp. So I changed my method and moved my focus point in order to avoid having to reframe. This gave me less out of focus shots. It's more pronounced with my 55 1.2 but I think it might happen with a 20 1.8. I think it's called "lens field curvature" or something like that.

Hope this can help a bit.
Click to expand...

I believe that this applies when using a wide aperture. Using a narrow aperture like for landscapes it won't matter as much. I actually watched a youtube video on this very same thing a few weeks ago, but I can't remember what it was called.
 
N

NikonShutterBug

Senior Member
Thank you everyone. I read up on HyperFocal Distance and the many ways to achieve it. Wow great info, I like the Double The Distance Method. Below is a link to methods of achieving HyperFocus Distance. Also, I employed all that we discussed and am seeing great improvement. Thank you again Nikonites.
[h=3]https://photographylife.com/hyperfocal-distance-explained[/h]
 
Top