New Wide Angle Gallery

[pstewart]

I had a gallery called antique_store, which contained just items from a huge antique store on Route 47 in Illinois. I since bought a Sigma 15-30mm wide angle lens and a new flash unit to handle the wider angle shots, so I returned and photographed whole rooms in this enormous store! The store has about two dozen separate rooms plus a long main aisle filled with smaller displays. Most, but not all, of the rooms are included in these shots.

http://www.pbase.com/pstewart/rooms

I used the 15mm setting for nearly all these photos...see what you think.

Many needed some degree of perspective adjustment in Photoshop. Most had shadowy corners and some had darker left and right edges, since the flash claims to handle wide angle lenses up to 17mm and I was using 15mm, pushing the limit a bit. Not too noticeable on some pics, and I brightened most of the dark edges/corners in Photoshop or cropped them off (mainly for the sake of a less cluttered photo in each case).

This sample pic shows how well the 15mm performed, since this display is set up along the wall in the ladies' restroom, which is only about 7 feet wide, so I couldn't back up very much.

http://www.pbase.com/pstewart/rooms

[jcboyd]

Very impressive Phyllis. Shooting super wide with a flash is challenging. The light falls off so fast, depth into a room is sometimes a problem, but not for you. Great images at this gallery and your other galleries as well. I have visited many times. When I look at my “Favorite Artist” section, I always look to see who has uploaded the last images. You are generally near the top. Hard to keep that Don N. from the top spot. Again Phyllis, great images - john

[pstewart]

John, thanks for the nice words. The flash I bought is the Sigma EF-500 DG ST. I was looking for something affordable that would handle wide angle and this one had all the features I was looking for, so I ordered it. I was amazed at how powerful it is... bounce flash off the ceiling lit our whole huge rec room perfectly, giving a wonderful natural look.

I did try bounce flash in the antique store, but it didn't work in the huge open areas since there were no walls for the light to bounce from and the bounce from the ceiling wasn't enough. Worked okay in the smaller rooms, but since none of the walls were white, I decided not to deal with the color cast and differing amounts of light (from wood walls etc.) as I didn't have much time that day to play around and redo pics, so I went with straight-on flash. I will try the bounce again with different settings however, since the dark edges and corners won't be a problem then.

But this Sigma unit does a pretty good job with wide angle and straight-on flash too, although as I said there was some darkening at corners and right and left sides at 15mm...easily removed with Photoshop.

It does seem to reach easily into the depths, as you say, especially when they are near the center. I credit this in a great part to the fact this particular antique store is so well lit to begin with, unlike most antique stores I've been in. For some of the really distant and/or off-center areas a bit of brightening in Photoshop was a quick and easy fix.

I would definitely recommend both this external flash unit and the Sigma 15mm-30mm lens. Both performed beyond my highest hopes. And both were reasonably priced for the quality and features.