Does an ultra-wide lens perform well in landscape photography?

Question

I own a DSLR for less than a year, currently shooting with my Nikon D90 and 18-70mm DX lens. Since the beginning of it, I am deeply in love with shooting landscapes photography: seascapes, skyscapes, cityscapes.

I am thinking of upgrade to what I believe the next best lens for landscapes photography: 10-24mm DX lens, but I received mixed messages makes me doubting and delaying my decision.

From what I see in web posts/pages and discussion with friends, ultra-wide lens photography is not about "fitting more in" but "putting subject into the picture": "covering more into photo" was what I after and this sounds like maybe this 10-24mm isn't for me.

Here's an example photo of my photography style:

(More can be found in my flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/travaganza/ )

So the question was, is an Ultra-wide lens going to enhance my landscape photography experience as I will be able to "cover more into picture"? Or will I end up with an expensive specialised lens that I will be annoyed by amount of distortion on edges (and post-correction will end up 'zooming' the end product)?

Thanks in advance :)

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Edit: The question title is way to subjective. I update the question title hopefully it points my question to a better direction :-/ The new question title is: "Does an Ultra-Wide Lens perform in Landscape Photography?", where perform as it: "whether it is designed for". Again, I'm fairly new to photography, don't be too harsh on me :S

Answer 1

Yes and No. That's the only true answer.

A lens has to be adapted to your vision and subject. Landscape is a very broad category and I know fine-art landscape photographers who mainly shoot with wide lenses and others mainly with telephoto lenses (ex: 70-200mm).

The angle-of-view of ultra-wide lenses really emphasizes the foreground. Moving back with a longer lens is not equivalent (as someone suggested) as it changes the relationship between of things at different depths.

In some locations you end up very close to the scenic vistas (beaches, nature trails) and there are interesting foreground details which deserve emphasis (flowers, seashells, moss, etc) in which case a wide-angle be easier to compose with. Other locations, the interesting things are far and without a long lens is becomes difficult to make an interesting shot.

Regardless of what angle-of-view your lens is, you have to be able to fill the frame with interesting things. Jay Maisel says 'Everything in your frame helps you or hurts you'. If I can crop an image without changing the aspect ratio of my frame, I consider that I failed to take the best shot possible.

Take the shots from you gallery for example and imagine if there was more to the sides and above or below. Would the shot be more interesting? Or would people start wondering what its about?

SUBJECTIVE PART NOW :)

Honestly, I consider myself a wide-angle shooter, most of my photos are taken wide but I also know that it is much harder to make a wide shot work. That does not mean, I should just shoot with a longer lens because what I see in a scene is how things combine and contrast, some people see details more and that is simply a different way of seeing.

Answer 2

What this question boils down to, no matter how you phrase the title, is "will buying a wider angle lens help me take the pictures I want to take?"

All of that discussion about "putting subject into the picture" is a bit of a red herring -- it really is about fitting more in. It's about getting all of what's "out there", but also getting what's "right here" at your feet. The contrast of scale makes that vast space out there much more impressive.

There are couple of cheap and easy ways to tell whether you'd be buying a tool or a decoration. The more direct of the two is to rent the lens for a weekend (assuming you have a decent camera shop available -- here in Toronto, we're blessed with a couple of good retailers, Vistek and Henry's, that will gladly rent you such a lens because they know you're much more likely to buy it after using it than while it's just an abstract notion).

The second is much cheaper -- all you need is a short ruler and a piece of cardboard with a 2-units by 3-units hole in the middle (4x6 inches or 10x15cm is a comfortable size to work with). Frame the scene through the hole so it looks the same as what you're seeing through the 18mm end of your lens and measure the distance between your face and the card. Carry the card and ruler (your viewfinder) with you for the next couple-three-four shooting expeditions. If moving the cardboard closer to your eye than the 18mm-equivalent distance makes a better picture often enough, your decision is made. (That technique, by the way, is how I used to decide which lenses/boards to bring with me when shooting 4x5 -- at something like five pounds apiece, mounted, you don't want to sacrifice film, at about a pound for every four exposures, to carry lenses you don't need when hiking.)

Answer 3

Until very recently my shortest lens was a 20mm. While I've always wanted something shorter, I never had the means to buy quality below that and still buy whatever else I needed more urgently.

That out of the way, anything can work for landscapes. One of my best (IMO) landscapes was shot using a 500mm tele, another one I really like was shot using a 28mm wide angle lens (both on slide film btw). I've used just about anything in between as well.

Answer 4

Landscape photography can be a very broad field, and can make use of focal lengths anywhere from 10mm up through 400mm. Not every focal length will work for every landscape photographer, and what you define as your own personal style will ultimately dictate the kind of landscape photography you do. Ultra-wide angle, wide angle, normal focal lengths, and telephoto lengths can all work for landscape photography. Generally speaking, you use ultrawide/wide to get close to your foreground, while still capturing expansive depth in your scene. The more you zoom, the more you can focus on a specific element of a landscape scene, subtracting the unnecessary and zeroing in on the elements that matter.

As a landscape photographer myself, I've tried not to limit myself. I have shots taken with 400mm telephoto, and shots taken with 16mm wide angle (its not quite ultra-wide on my camera, as I have an APS-C sensor currently.) I like many shots taken at 16mm/FF or 10mm/APS-C, as when done right, they can capture amazing close-up detail (such as pebbles under the water near a lake shore) while still bringing in the beauty of the surrounding landscape. I would say my favorite focal lengths are probably ultrawide (16/10mm FF/APS-C), 24/16mm FF/APS-C, 70/85mm FF, and 200mm FF. I think a lot of the best landscape photography rolls in around the 24mm (effective) focal length range, with the second most common being the 16mm (effective) focal length range. Those few very talented landscape photographers come up with amazing compositions at 180-200mm, however there are fewer such shots.

You might want to look at my answer to the following question: EF-S 18-55mm kit vs 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 for nature photography I have linked several great landscape photographs shot with ultra-wide angle lenses to demonstrate the value of wide-angle lenses.

Answer 5

If you want to fit more in, and assuming you don't have Ken Duncan's budget for a Linhof panoramic camera, you may do well with photo stitching software. Canon ships software for this with its DSLRs. I believe PhotoShop will also help you do it.

An ultra wide like the Tokina 11 - 16 I use will lead you to a whole different approach as your foreground becomes more pronounced.

Answer 6

I'd just add one thing: if you like the wide look, then you are probably going to want to pony up to a full frame sensor. Crop sensors like on the D90 are less wide then full frames for a given lens size. So you are going to be limited to about a 24mm full frame equiv on any crop sensor camera.

With a full frame camera, you can get rectilinear lenses down to about 16mm that are high quality. You might want to take that into account as you shop for lenses & only buy full frame capable lenses.