topic Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment... in EF & RF Lenses

Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment...

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:09:00 GMT

New to photography and have a large family shoot coming up and I dont think my 18-55 kit or my 75-300 will cut it. I cant afford a wide angle lens right now so im wondering what everyone thinks about the wide angle adapters? Pro's? Con's?

Thanks!

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

kvbarkley — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:13:11 GMT

It is probably better to just create a panorama when you need the extra wide angle. 18 should be plenty wide for a group shot.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:22:13 GMT

How do I do that? LOL

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

kvbarkley — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:26:48 GMT

Just take a series of overlapping shots. You can use software like Canon's PhotoStitch to combine them into one.

Photoshop Elements gets more fancy and just keeps the faces with the eyes open, etc.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:32:29 GMT

I just looked at a photo stitched picture and I dont like the lines. Is it possible to do a panoramic and just manually "spin" the camera? Kind of like how you would on a cell phone?

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:34:17 GMT

Plus, I dont think photo stitch would really be an option for me being that there will be 20+ ppl in this photo and half being kids.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:00:50 GMT

Any of those wide angle or telephoto adapters really degrade image quality.

You can rent a Canon 10-18mm wide angle zoom for $21 for 5 days. We can't link to business sites, but Google for lens rentals.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:02:16 GMT

Perhaps you could try the video mode, pan the group, and then try a frame capture. Or see my post on renting.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:12:26 GMT

Renting was my next choice, I think ill just do that instead of risking something ive never tried thanks!

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:23:27 GMT

The 10-18 is a nice lens. You may decide to keep it😀

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:52:47 GMT

I just checked rentals in my area, and the daily amounts arent bad but the deposits are ridiculously high. So no go there.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

kvbarkley — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 20:15:23 GMT

There are good online places that do LENSRENTALS if you google that you might get an answer that will pleasantly surprise you.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

RobertTheFat — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:16:57 GMT

Megan,

I wonder if you aren't overthinking this whole issue. 18mm is pretty wide; I've taken lots of group pictures at 17mm (on an APS-C camera, which I assume you're using) with no problem. You just have to keep the subjects close enough together and stand back far enough. One thing to consider is that group pictures usually need flash, and most flashes are ineffective on lenses wider than yours.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:21:54 GMT

This is very possible lol I do that alot. I just constantly compare my work to others and I want the turnout they have. I just don't know if it's possible with a rebel and kit lens.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:30:33 GMT

Much depends on your intended end use. 40x60 wall hangings would not be realistic, but quality 13x19 prints can be had. Good technique goes a long way.

Can you control the shoot? Three rows of seven aren't as wide as a single row of 20. Use a tripod so you can use a small aperture to get good DOF and focus on the middle row. Three or four people can help you pre plan the shoot.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:34:57 GMT

I will definitely be purchasing a tripod before the shoot. I figured I'd do rows, I'm just worried about clarity having to stand back kinda far to fit everyone

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Waddizzle — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 22:18:09 GMT

My suggestion has already been posted. Do a panorama. There are two things to do that really help to insure success, not including practicing the shoot a couple of times.

One, and probably the most critical, is to accurately level the camera on the tripod. Make sure the camera remains level throughout the entire panning motion of the panorama shot. This step is more crucial and critical than it might seem.

Two, rotate your camera on its' side for portrait mode, and take your shots like that. Three or four shots will combine into a shot with an aspect ratio close to regular photo. Of course, you can crop the resulting panorama output to standard aspect ratio.

Canon Photostitch can do a fairly decent job at stitching together photos, but it needs all of the head start that you can give it.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 22:39:40 GMT

I love the panorama idea, but I just don't think that's suitable for a shot with multiple small children. There's no way they'd all stay still for me to get several shots to later stitch together. It's hard enough to get one shot with everyone looking and holding still.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Waddizzle — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 22:43:44 GMT

@Meganab wrote:
I love the panorama idea, but I just don't think that's suitable for a shot with multiple small children. There's no way they'd all stay still for me to get several shots to later stitch together. It's hard enough to get one shot with everyone looking and holding still.

Use a remote trigger, or a VERY steady hand. Put the camera into continuous shooting mode, start on the left, hold the shutter and slowly pan the camera. Odds are high that you will only need half of the shots if you go slow enough. Make at least two passes in front of the live crowd of people.

Hopefully, the moving kids will not be in the parts of the photos that overlap. You need about 1/3 of the photo to overlap with the next one for best results. Like I said above, practice doing it a couple of times.

Re: Any suggestions or comments on wide angle adapters? Cant afford a wide angle lens at the moment.

Meganab — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 22:54:19 GMT

I didn't think about continous shooting mode. I will give it a try thanks