Wide-Angle Landscape Photography: 5 Mistakes to Avoid

Landscape Photography  •  Photography Tips

Taking photos using a wide-angle lens can be tricky. The short focal length means a larger field of view, which allows for more distracting elements to creep into the sides of the frame. Plus, there are many other challenges that come with using wide-angle lenses, which can make new users prone to making mistakes with them. In today’s video, photographer Nigel Danson talks about five mistakes he used to make with his wide-angle lenses. If you’re new to using wide-angle photography or thinking of getting into it, you should definitely watch through it:

“With wide-angle, you can often shoot too much and it can leave less to the imagination.”

The instant realization when using a wide-angle lens is just how much of the view it can fit in the frame. This seems like a good thing for shooting landscapes, but if you’re not careful, your images can appear too busy. In other words, photos will appear distracting. Your primary goal thus should be to reduce the amount of information in your shot.

If you look at the images formed by a wide-angle lens, you’ll realize how elements closer to the lens will appear larger, while background elements will appear tiny. So if you want to exaggerate the foreground element, tilting the camera downward will do the trick. And if you want the background element to appear bigger, don’t be lazy—walk forward a few meters whenever possible. You’ll soon realize how moving even just a little can make a significant difference to your image. So don’t be in a hurry to snap what you see—be sure to move around first.

Using a wide-angle lens also requires a bit more technical know-how. But once you are over the initial hurdles, the creative opportunities are endless.

Be sure to watch the complete video to familiarize yourself with the mistakes you should avoid when starting out with a wide-angle lens. It’ll definitely help you out.