topic Re: Wide angle photos in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS Rebel SL1 Wide angle photos are blurry

kuzushi — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 18:27:29 GMT

Hello all. I just purchased a Canon EOS Rebel SL 1. I do plan to slowly learn how this camera works, but my immediate purpose is to take wide angle indoor photos of my rental property so I can post awesome pictures to Craig's List and Zillow! I usually sit in a corner of the room to show off how large the rooms are. I also want to pick up the beautiful wood flooring.

I attached the lens that came with it and zoomed out but the pictures are blurry. Please tell me the step by step process to make this work. What setting do I use? Do I use flash? Do I have to do anything else? What about the f stop? Obviously I know nothing except how to turn on the camera and put on a lens. Please set me up to do this so I get this house rented soon. Thank you in advance.

Re: Wide angle photos

kvbarkley — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 16:53:06 GMT

What lens?

You will probably need one of the EF-S wide angle lenses, the 10-18 or the 10-22.

Re: Wide angle photos

wheeble — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 17:22:41 GMT

18 mm is not the widest lens, but its what your camera probably has. To get wider pics for the interior using that lens, you need to mount on a tripod and take two overlapping panning shots and then use the photostitch program that came with your camera to join the images into a wider shot. (it is an easy program to use).

As a new user of this camera, set it to the green box on the dial and make sure the lens AF switch is set on.

Re: Wide angle photos

kuzushi — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 17:36:59 GMT

The lens that came with the camera is am 18-55mm. I would be happy if I could get wider shots than my small Nikon Coolpix camera. That just had a small lens that barely expanded.

Re: Wide angle photos

kuzushi — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 18:27:01 GMT

If I widen the lens out what settings should I use. Based on my efforts so far I am doing something wrong.

Re: Wide angle photos

kvbarkley — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 18:34:53 GMT

If you use green-square mode, set the lens to 18mm and auto focus, that is the best you can do. We do not know the conditions you have. If depth of field is an issue, use Av mode and set an f/16 Aperture.

Can you post some sample pics?

Re: Wide angle photos

kuzushi — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 19:32:50 GMT

Kvbarkley. What are depth of field issues? Please give an example. Thank you.

Re: Wide angle photos

kvbarkley — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 19:41:55 GMT

With wide apertures - like when shooting in low light - the plane of focus can be pretty narrow. For example, only things between 6 and 8 ft of the camera will be in focus. Everything else will be blurry. If you decrease the aperture to f/16, then a wider range will be in focus, say 1 foot to infinity.

This is an extreme example, but see how the concrete a foot away or so is blurry? Even the body of the bug is starting to go out of focus. A smaller aperture would have fixed that.

Re: Wide angle photos

ScottyP — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 22:06:54 GMT

As suggegsted above, if you want everything in the room to be in focus, you need to use a narrow aperture. Since you are indoors, the camera will be trying to widen the aperture to let more light in in auto modes, so get out of auto mode and narrow the aperture and compensate for the loss of light by using a long exposure. Long exposure however is impossible handheld due to handheld camera shake being visible with slow shutter speeds. Compensate for the handheld camera shake by not handholding; put it on something solid. If you don't have a tripod, pull a coffee table or something over into the corner.

Zoom out as far as you can.

Put the camera in Av mode on the mode dial. That lets you select the aperture size but the camera still does everything else.

Select a high number like f/11 for a small aperture opening in the lens. That will make everything in the room come into focus but doesn't let light in very fast.

This reduction of light does force the camera to use a long exposure, so handholding will be impossible without blur. So put the camera on something really solid.

Take picture.

Re: Wide angle photos

Waddizzle — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 22:28:06 GMT

@wheeble wrote:
18 mm is not the widest lens, but its what your camera probably has. To get wider pics for the interior using that lens, you need to mount on a tripod and take two overlapping panning shots and then use the photostitch program that came with your camera to join the images into a wider shot. (it is an easy program to use).

As a new user of this camera, set it to the green box on the dial and make sure the lens AF switch is set on.

Buying a decent tripod to implement the above suggestion is cheaper than buying a new lens. Roll the camera to portrait mode when you take a series of shots. Make the shots overlap by 1/3 for best results.

[EDIT]. You will get the best results taking a series of panoramic shots if you use the same exposure for all shots, which means shooting, which means shooting in Manual mode. Take a shot in Green [A] mode, write down the settings if you like exposure. Use those settings in manual mode to take a series of shots as you pan the camera across the room.

Re: Wide angle photos

StanNH — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 13:31:16 GMT

This may be a case where, especially given the inexperience of the OP, a smartphone camera might be the better choice.

Re: Wide angle photos

ebiggs1 — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 14:47:16 GMT

An iphone will have less AOV than a DSLR.

In this case a tripod is the best solution. Set the SL-1 to Av as suggested and f11 or f16. ISO at 100 to 400. SS will be done by the camera. AF on something about half way through the room. This is not hard to do, it just needs some adjustment in technique.

The addition of the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens would also make better shots possible.

Re: Wide angle photos

StanNH — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 19:09:15 GMT

The advantage of a smartphone in the OP's situation, where he is looking for a simple solution, would be that all smartphones have a panoramic option built in to the camera. Select Pano mode, take a few shots, and you have your panorama without using external software. There is virtually no learning curve, and given the OP's lack of any experience with a DSLR or software, this just seems like the path of least resistance. Since these are going online, there is also no need for very high resolution images.

Re: Wide angle photos

ebiggs1 — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 23:47:35 GMT

There is no way in this old dog's world I will ever recommend anybody use a smartphone to take anything but a snapshot for viewing on the smartphone. iphones are just gadgets. They are no way a real deal DSLR in any manner of the word. If the 10mm lens is not wide enough and I can't believe it isn't, how hard is a few mouse clicks in LR to create the same but far better pano? It is totally automated. That's just me!