Bought a secondhand Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 for my Canon 60D today
After I picked it up I went to the nearest park and shot for about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, about 2 minutes in an elderly local English teacher glommed on to me and, asked if I minded her practicing her English with me for a bit, and then followed me around for the next hour and a half. Nice lady but I couldn't get to the backwoods parts of the park because she seemed determined to follow wherever I went and I didn't want to end up dealing with her breaking her hip in the back woods. Anyway, I'm very happy with the lens but going to super wide angle feels a little like learning a new instrument – composing for it seems to require a very different way of thinking. Any recommendations for articles or tutorials?
Oh, and I got invited to the elderly lady's next choir concert.
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I've been thinking about getting this lens also for my 60D. Funny story with the elderly lady.
I've been thinking about getting this lens also for my 60D. Funny story with the elderly lady.
So far, I like it a lot, but I can tell it requires its own way of thinking about composition. Like the picture of the Sphinx from the side, showing almost the entire body? I was about 10 inches away from her shoulder. Looking through the lens is like having space flung out at you, like peering into a box that's bigger on the inside than the outside. I usually think of photography as reductive – simplify reality down into this little slice I see – and it's definitely harder with the super wide angle.
The main things I'm thinking of using this lens for, then: Roman ruins in Turkey, where I'm headed next week, to the give the impression of vastness; campfire-lit historical re-enactor encampments (which is why I went for the f3.5 instead of the cheaper version); and exaggerating perspective on my husband's Viking club to make them look larger than life.
You really need to have good foreground elements – the pictures I took that didn't were mostly very dull. And foreground practically means a couple inches away from your lens! So takes some getting used to. Good for the creative juices, though.
So far, I like it a lot, but I can tell it requires its own way of thinking about composition. Like the picture of the Sphinx from the side, showing almost the entire body? I was about 10 inches away from her shoulder. Looking through the lens is like having space flung out at you, like peering into a box that's bigger on the inside than the outside. I usually think of photography as reductive – simplify reality down into this little slice I see – and it's definitely harder with the super wide angle.
The main things I'm thinking of using this lens for, then: Roman ruins in Turkey, where I'm headed next week, to the give the impression of vastness; campfire-lit historical re-enactor encampments (which is why I went for the f3.5 instead of the cheaper version); and exaggerating perspective on my husband's Viking club to make them look larger than life.
You really need to have good foreground elements – the pictures I took that didn't were mostly very dull. And foreground practically means a couple inches away from your lens! So takes some getting used to. Good for the creative juices, though.