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

[Meganab]

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!

[Meganab]

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

[kvbarkley]

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

[RobertTheFat]

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.

[Meganab]

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.

[jrhoffman75]

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.

[Meganab]

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

[Waddizzle]

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.

[Meganab]

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.

[Waddizzle]

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@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.

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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.

[Meganab]

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