#Fisheye lens pictures manual#

You can do this by incorporating an off-camera, diffused flash unit that you can hand-hold right besides your lens to illuminate the parts of the subject that are in underexposed.Ħ. Therefore, if you want to bring attention to your subject, while also revealing its colors and details (like the head scales of the panther chameleon pictured above), it is crucial that you include at least a touch of fill flash during the exposure. In fisheye macro photography, you will rarely encounter a situation in which the subject is naturally more brightly lit that the background, especially if the background is a whole landscape. Examples are diagonal branches, streams, or groups of individual elements (like rocks or leaves) arranged in a linear pattern.ĥ. To solve this problem, you can include lines that lead the observer from the background to the subject. When you use the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 to photograph macro subjects like herps, you often come up with an image that includes a foreground and a background that are both in focus, but unlinked and competing for the attention of the observer. When photographed using a fisheye macro, they appear as though they were 'lost' in the frame.Ĥ. Tiny frogs and some lizards fall in this category. Everything smaller than this is better photographed using a standard macro lens. If it does not, then try using another lens.ģ. If, without the subject, the overall composition still looks balanced, eye catching and interesting, then it makes sense to use the fisheye lens. Try imagining the picture without the animal. For example, I usually set the distance on 15 cm unless the subject does not fit in the frame.Ģ.

#Fisheye lens pictures manual#

You can compensate for this by setting the lens on manual focus and choosing the focusing distance that will give you the desired magnification. The abilities of this lens to autofocus near its minimum focusing distance are extremely poor, and in fact, the lens often fails to 'find' subjects that are 10–20 cm away from the front of the lens, which is the most appropriate distance to photograph frogs and small lizards. Set the lens on minimum focusing distance (15 cm) and focus manually. For this reason, in this article, I present you 10 tips that you can use to harness the creative power of the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 lens while coping with its disadvantages.ġ. However, the lens comes with its own drawbacks, like chromatic aberration, unusual angle of view, and slow focusing capabilities. You can even use it on white background photography of herps to give special importance to certain body parts of the subject, like the head or claws. You can also use it to present the animal you want to photograph in a creative and unusual eye-catching perspective that emphasizes its dimension against other elements in the image. ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong visual distortion) lens with 1:3.8 magnification that you can use to create close-up images of amphibians and reptiles while showing the environment where they live.

Meet the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye. Fisheye macro photography of herps using the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 lens