Wide Angle Education Needed

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alexoki

alexoki

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Okinawa, Japan
I am constantly reading about the use of wide angle lenses for uw photography and how wide angle cameras are better for uw use. I thought the most important factors would be speed of lens, low/dim light focusing, shutter lag speed.
Could someone explain the full benefits of using a wide angle lens as opposed to the standard 35mm equivalent.
 
One reason. If you want to photograph a large object, with say a 100mm lens you have to back away from the object to get it all in the viewfinder. This will result in two things 1/ distance is to great for the strobe to be effective 2/ more water between the lens and object thus giving more backscatter.
 
Like cdiver2 says...a WAL reduces the amount of water between you and the subject.

More water...less red...more blue...strobes are ineffective = bad.

Less water...more red...less blue...strobes light the subject = good!

With a WAL, you can get in someone's face and get all of the diver in the frame.

(You can also do some interesting things with wide angle close focus.)
 
jlyle:
Like cdiver2 says...a WAL reduces the amount of water between you and the subject.

More water...less red...more blue...strobes are ineffective = bad.

Less water...more red...less blue...strobes light the subject = good!

With a WAL, you can get in someone's face and get all of the diver in the frame.

(You can also do some interesting things with wide angle close focus.)
Click to expand...

Could not have said it any better

chris
 
also, the wider the lens, the greater the depth of field! more of what you are shooting will be in focus.
 
Thanks for the replies. Another related question regardind wide angle lenses. When using a strobe what is the general rule of thumb regarding maximum and minimum distance from your subject, whilst still achieving a correct exposure?
Apologies if this question is too generic but i have been bitten by the uw photography bug so I'm trying to get my head around some of the basics.
 
Ok I think I know what you are asking but I can only give you what I was taught with film. With a 20mm lens, subject about the size of a basketball and it should cover at least 2/3 of the picture area this should put you at aprox 3ft from the subject (this is about the max for a strobe to cover correctly). If your subject is smaller then you need to get closer, again so that it covers at least 2/3 of the picture area.
If you get as close as a foot or less then I would think about going into TTL
 
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