Comments on: When Does Wide Angle Become Too Wide?

By: M. D. Vaden of Oregon

M. D. Vaden of Oregon — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:18:50 +0000

The letter provided in the opening post is exactly what came to mind last night after reading another related blog elsewhere, using a 10mm lens example. It occurred to me that expectations could be blown out of proportion.

I was thinking that an 11-16mm or 12-24mm might be a slightly better alternative. Providing wider views, but not excessive.

But in a wider room, like 40 feet wide, an even wider lens like Fisheye might be in order, because it would be hard to exaggerate it.

MDV

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:37:26 +0000

If people are not complaining about the downright bad photography of a homes, I guess we have a while before they start complaining about it being “too good”. Seriously, this is advertising! As a Listing agent, I’m not making a documentary. I’m trying to get people in the door. Despite how good, or bad, the marketing was that led them there, it will not sell the house. The house (or location in some cases) will sell the house.

As far as the wide angle lens goes, I mostly shoot around 28 and I rarely have to spend a lot of time editing. If I need a wider angle I’ll stitch or just use the video camera to get a pano or a shoot with some motion in it. As far as the 16mm in the sample photo, I personally wouldn’t have gone that wide. Then again I probably wouldn’t have shoot head on like that either…

By: Jeff Cospolich

Jeff Cospolich — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:58:34 +0000

yes great points. from my experience in the RE photography field, our main purpose is to shoot images that are compelling enough to get someone to come and see the property. period. ethics comes into the equation when people are not representing the property even close to what it is in reality. but I think these are few and far between. I shoot almost every interior image at around 11-12mm, and play with my verticals and such to make them look good.

By: Marc Lacoste

Marc Lacoste — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:27:08 +0000

You can’t “correct” perspectives. It exists, that’s it. You can adjust it if you aren’t leveled, but you can’t simulate a longer focal after the shot and have the whole room with a 50mm like you had put down walls behind you.

I think people are more and more used to very wide angle shots perspectives. See the press photographers, they use 16-35mm zooms (and have another body with a tele zoom) and are often around ~20mm instead of previous photojournalists focal, 35mm and 28mm.

By: HighPix Commercial Photography BRISBANE

HighPix Commercial Photography BRISBANE — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:06:59 +0000

In Australia, Queensland in particular most Real Estate Photographer use 10-22mm, in my opinion it does distort the rooms in some cases beyond recognition. I believe this will change soon as the governing bodies of the Real Estate industry are receiving more and more complaints about misrepresenting properties.

“Article 35 of the REIQ Standards of Business Practice. (REIQ- Real Estate Institute of Queensland)

Article 35 – Photographic Representation
Members must not alter or permit to be altered photographic images of properties, digitally or by other means, such that the images no longer truthfully and fairly represent that property.
Notes: Whether the alteration of a photographic representation is misleading or deceptive will depend upon all of the circumstances. For example, digitally adjusting the exposure of a photograph so as to brighten the lighting of the photograph taken on a dull day may well be legitimate. However, removing television aerials or power poles adjacent to the property; brightening up paint work on a house or over-stating the views that might be achieved from the property may well amount to misleading or deceptive conduct. Members may well be liable for misleading representations contained in photographs that have originated from external sources such as an advertising sub-contractor or the seller. The passing on of such photographs by agents to potential buyers can amount to misleading or deceptive conduct by a Member. Members would be well advised to ensure that their contracts with advertising sub-contractors include provisions to ensure that the sub-contractors do not engage in misleading and deceptive conduct, including in connection with marketing representations contained in photographs.”

By: Adam Maurer

Adam Maurer — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:19:29 +0000

Perspective distortions created by ultra-wide lenses can be corrected easily in Photoshop CS2.
There are a number of plugins available (free) off the net, if you do a search.
The two I have installed are “Panorama Tools” and “ePaperPress” which both will perform perspective adjustments (as well as other things too).

After tweaking the perspective, you will need to crop the sides of the images, so you tend to loose the advantage of shooting that wide to begin with. Walls should always be vertical, this is how the eye sees them, and verticals that aren’t vertical just look wrong… unless it’s for artistic reasons, which would not apply to most RE shots.
$0.03

By: larrylohrman

larrylohrman — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:17:53 +0000

MVUS,
Sorry for the confusion, when I use focal lengths I always use 35mm equivalent focal lengths. You are right, otherwise I’d also have to say what camera I was talking about.

By: Jeff Kubacz

Jeff Kubacz — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:13:18 +0000

I use a 10-20 wide all the time. The 18-55 I started with would not reveal the size of the the masterbath or a home with large spacious rooms and views. Large rooms can not be properly revealed with an 18mm lens. The important thing is to use the wide with disgression! It will make small rooms look bigger than they are! Proper use of a wide will give you the edge over photographers/agents who do not. I want large views of large rooms, gardens, yards, and views.

By: MVUS

MVUS — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:46:30 +0000

larrylohrman Says:
“Now days here is my rule of thumb: I try not go below 24mm unless there are unusual circumstances like a small powder room”

Are you talking about using a 16/17mm lens on a standard 2/3rds snesor digital DSLR ie. 24mm?

My point is, does the same room shot at 12mm look more distorted on a 2/3rds sensor like a Nikon (=18mm) than an 18mm shot on full frame camera like the Canon 5D?

By: William C. Hutton

William C. Hutton — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:36:16 +0000

The photo shown in this entry would be improved greatly by simpling placing the table parallel to the wall. Photos of rooms framed with an ultra-wide field-of-view often appear larger than life. While careful framing can minimize this effect, customers can get the wrong feel for a room even when the framing is optimal.

If realty web sites accommodated portrait format images, then this room’s attractive windows and high ceiling could be showcased using a longer focal length. Many realtor web sites do not accommodate photos with a 1:3 landscape aspect ratio (two stitched 2:3 images). . How could stitching highlight the the best features of this room (high ceiling, attractive windows, built in book shelves)? Stitching images is not a complete solution

One alternative to including the whole room in the image is to photograph the room from two or three views that either show the relationship of the room to the home’s floor plan, or include the room’s important features. Of course this means more web images per listing.

To my eyes, ultra-wide field-of-view, fun house-mirror look is even worse in some 360 tour presentations. Is a 360 tour practical for most homes using a medium-wide field-of-view (30mm or greater focal length or greater based on a 35mm format)?

Anyway, I think the room shown in this entry requires two photos – one with an ultra-wide field-of-view to highlight the windows and high ceiling and another to more accurately give a feel for the room size while showing off the built-in shelves.

Because of this entry I will pay more attention to how to use the minimum possible field-of-view. I agree with Gary, when an ultra-wide field-of-view gets the job done, I’ll use it. But I’ll double my efforts to plan the framing in order to minimize the disadvantages of these focal lengths. There is so much to learn, remember and apply. But the joy of interior photography is overcoming the challenges.