20 wideangle tips

1 How wide should you go?

Lenses are classed as wideangle optics when they capture a wider angle of view than we see with our naked eyes. Our eyes are equivalent to a lens with a focal length of around 43mm on a full-frame camera or 28mm on an APS-C format model, so any lens shorter than that is a wideangle. 35mm lenses and their APS-C format equivalent (23mm) are very popular for a wide range of photography genres, but especially street. Landscape photographers tend to prefer something a bit wider still, perhaps 24mm or 21mm, or occasionally even shorter. Corrected 12-24mm lenses are also popular, however uncorrected fisheye lenses that produce images with dramatic curves, or even circular images at focal lengths as short as 8mm, are best used sparingly.

2 Use a lens hood

It’s generally good practice to use a lens hood but it’s almost essential with a wideangle lens; in fact, some even have them permanently fixed on the front of the barrel. A lens hood helps to reduce flare – the hot spots and low contrast that are caused by the sun or other strong light sources casting light across the front element of the lens. Like a hand to shield your eyes from the low sun, a lens hood