Pre Widwed: Wideangle Distortion

This is a shot of my car. I call it the "little red terror".  It doesn't look quite this striking or terrifying most of the time but my wide angle lens has distorted it somewhat. Combined with wide angle lenses' natural propensity to exaggerate perspective, this is an example of "barrel distortion" which (to a greater or lesser extent) is also a performance characteristic of ALL wide angle lenses and zoom lenses set to wide angle. The extent to which distortion like this is visible depends upon a number of factors:

- The focal length of the lens. The shorter the focal length, the more obvious distortion is seen, especially at less than 24mm (ff equiv)
- The proximity of straight lines to the edge of the frame. The closer to the edge, the more distortion
- The angle of tilt with respect to the straight lines. The more tilt, the more distortion
- The proximity of vertical straight lines to the camera. The closer, the more distortion

Another example of barrel distortion is the building in EXTRA 1. Notice how the distortion increases as you move closer to the edge of frame. A further example is EXTRA 2. This is divided into two images. In the left one the camera is facing along a plane parallel to the floor. In the right one, the camera is tilted toward the floor to an angle of approximately 45 degrees. Notice how tilting increases the appearance of distortion.

Example 1 offers images which apply wide angle distortion to faces in much the same way as I have to the car. Example 2 offers images which apply distortion to architectural subjects.

PLAY THE MUSIC

"Mr Phelps .... your mission, should you choose to accept it ... is to utilise wide angle distortion as a feature of your image in the Wideangle Wednesday Challenge, tomorrow".

Wideangle Wednesday: Wideangle Distortion (widwed64)

To all of you for whom this information is old hat, please forgive me. To those of you for whom this is new information, don't forget to experiment before finalising your blip ... and (most important of all) don't forget to have fun. OH!! One final point. If all else fails, most phone cameras have quite suitable wide angle lenses. :o))