I could make it work for landscape, interiors / cramped spaces or macro (if I had macro UWA), but I just can't make it work for anything else. Sometimes I feel like my 17mm is in an awkward spot where it's either too wide or not wide enough, but I'm probably just bad at it.TL;DR how do I git gud?
>>4524726Using UWA = Your background carries equal if not greater weight to your subject. Even with shallow DoF apertures like f/2.8 you're still getting most of everything in reasonable focus, so you no longer have the ability to blur out undesirable elements. Telephotos kind of always give you the option to have a single subject and fuck all else, which is simpler to manage.This makes things inherently challenging. You need more stars to align for the photo to look good, or more planning. Even Ren Kockwell's lead-addled mind put it together correctly when he surmised that UWA lenses aren't for getting everything all in. Sure you can do that, but there's far more potential at hand.Take your pic rel for example. What the fuck did it being ultrawide add to the photo? There's nothing interesting about the background other than it's open and empty, which could have been shown with a narrower focal length while also making the people and birds more prominent. If the point was to focus on the vast ocean then there's too much going on with the foreground to draw the viewers attention that way in the first place.
>>4524731>Telephotos kind of always give you the option to have a single subject and fuck all else, which is simpler to manage.That is true, although I rarely do that. There's something else.>What the fuck did it being ultrawide add to the photo?If I were to try and make a positive case, it adds context of the vast and empty ocean as well as of the shore to the photo. It depends a lot on the medium, you wouldn't do this for a 4x6, but it makes a lot more sense for big formats where the edges are in the viewers periphery. Though I don't know what Mr. Schwier's intentions were.I'd think UWA can help create a strong leading line in the sense that it connects with the viewer (you can imagine if the rope in the image was a bit bigger).Maybe the issue is also that it requires specific conditions to work, and then I'm lugging the lens for little benefit most of the time, as well as little in the way of experience.
>>4524739>it adds context of the vast and empty ocean as well as of the shore to the photoThe people in the shot distract from this too much. If it was one or two people not in motion then I could get behind that idea, but as it stands the photo is a bit all over the place in terms of where the viewer is meant to focus.>I'd think UWA can help create a strong leading line in the sense that it connects with the viewerThis is true if you can leverage how UWAs make close subjects appear larger. Otherwise there's nothing it being ultra wide has added.The final thing I can say in terms of usefulness, is that they tend to show the viewer the perspective of the shooter. That can be a double-edged sword.
https://www.voigtlaender.de/lenses/vm/15-mm-14-5-super-wide-heliar-asphaerisch-iii/?lang=en
>>4524743>The people in the shot distract from this too muchI think you misunderstand. What I mean is that when the medium gives you the space (like a big print in a hallway), you should be able to use wider context as your border where it is not meant to be the subject. I mean this more generally though; in case it wasn't clear from the watermark, that's just a random photo off the internet, since I needed some for OP.
