Outdoor Photography How To

Conventional wide-angle lenses are usually the weapons of choice when shooting landscape photos and other expansive vistas. The more specialized ultrawide options are less well understood and require a different approach for optimum results.

This tutorial from William Patino demonstrates how to take advantage of your fancy glass to capture spectacular outdoor imagery. Patino is a professional landscape photographer based in beautiful Fiordland, New Zealand and he's a very passionate instructor. He considers an ultra-wide lens his go-to workhorse when shooting in the field, and he demonstrates why in barely seven minutes.

What we're talking about here are lenses with a focal length of 12-24mm, 16-35mm, 14-24mm and others that are wider than those in the more common 28mm or 35mm range. As he says, "these lenses are meant to be used in a very specific way, and in this video I'll provide some tips for using an ultra-wide, how you can get the most out of it, and really give your images a three-dimensional look."

Patino says that when photographers mount an ultra-wide lens on a camera for the very first time they tend to be "overwhelmed" by the view and can be unsure how to lead a viewer's eye to their main subject because there's so many other elements in the frame. He provides several tricks for solving the confusion and dealing with the so-called "pin-cushion" effect that often occurs in the centralized portion of a shot.

You'll also learn how to leverage the "diminishing perspective" of ultra-wide optics to exaggerate the effect they provide to capture images with an attention-grabbing 3D look. The power of this trick has to do with how large shapes get progressively smaller and roll into the distance the further away they are from the camera position.

In this regard, ultra-wide lenses enable you to get really close to interesting foreground objects and still fit in a compelling midground and background, while "stretching out all those details." At this point you're only halfway through the video, and Patino has much more knowledge to impart.

Bottom line: If you're going to invest in a premium ultra-wide lens, you should put Patino's advice to work so that you can take advantage of everything these remarkable lenses can do. Patino's instructional YouTube channel is full of lessons for anyone who shoots in the field, so be sure to pay a visit when you have time to explore.

And don't miss the tutorial we featured recently with another accomplished pro who demonstrates how to create depth and dimension in landscape photographs with four "must-know" shooting and post-processing tips.