SECTION HEAD
The
Mission
- Learn to use a wide-
angle lens in conjunction
with an ND filter
Time
- Two hours
Skill level
- Intermediate
Kit needed
- Wide-angle lens
- ND filter kit
- Tripod
- Remote release
Take it wide and slow
Adam Waring fits more into his frame with a wide-
angle lens and slows down time with an ND filter
Wide-angle lenses enable you to
cram much more into your scene,
with a wide angle of view that
sucks more than the eye can
see into the frame. The widest
angles available in non-fisheye
lenses used to be around 16mm
for full-frame cameras, but
recently we’ve seen lenses that
stretch to 14mm, like Nikon’s
14-24mm f/2.8. A few more
millimetres of focal length might
not sound like much, but the
effect on viewing angle at this
end of the zoom range is a big
deal, at 114º as opposed to
107º with a 16mm lens.
Such ultra-wide viewing angles
come with a caveat: bending suchvast angles of view onto the
sensor has necessitated bulbous
front elements that make using
regular filters impossible.
However, thanks to the new
Z-mount, Nikon has managed to
create the world’s widest ultra-
wide lens with a flat front element
in the form of the new Z 14-30mm
f/4 S, enabling the use of screw-in
filters or filter holders.
Wide angle lenses and filters
go hand-in-hand – particularly
ND filters, which enable you to
create longer shutter speeds to
blur moving elements, such as
running water or clouds, for
dreamy slow-shutter shots. We
headed to Tarr Steps, in ExmoorNational Park, using a 10-stop ND
filter to lengthen a shutter
speed measured in fractions of a
second to one over a minute long.
You can, of course, try this
with other wide lenses and a
DSLR rather than a Z system. On
an FX Nikon SLR, a 16-35mm or
wider lens will also enable the use
of filters, while a 10-20mm or
similar lens will do the same for a
DX, giving an equivalent focal
length that starts at around
15mm. And if you do have a wide
angle lens with a bulbous front
element, there are filter adaptor
kits, such as the Lee SW 150
system, but these are bulky and
can be fiddly to use.ESSENTIAL GEAR SKILLS
P rojec t^ three:^ Essen tial^ ge
ar^ skills
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