Wedding photography: Is wide angle necessary?

[tim11]

As the title goes. Is wide angle, like 11-24, necessary? What's your opinions? :)
To capture the ceremony, reception and all.

[Rhys]

It's nice to have but beware of subjects being too close - the perspective gets distorted very easily.

[tim11]

What widest angle do you use Rhys? I am wondering if I should add a 11-18 to my lens list but don't want to spend unnecessary.
So you are saying if the subjects are too close it will distort the image but too close is the primary reason we need wide lens, isnt' it? When we can't stand back far enough.

[Turn]

i love wide angle at weddings.

[faisal]

Wide angles have a lot of distortion on the edges....so even if you shoot where the space is limited, you can't frame a person on the edge....

Here's an example...Shot with the Canon 10-22 which I think has more distortion control compared to others...

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/faisal7/400D/IMG_6050.jpg
10mm, 1/50, f5.6, ISO 200 (slightly cropped on the left)

[Rhys]

What widest angle do you use Rhys? I am wondering if I should add a 11-18 to my lens list but don't want to spend unnecessary.
So you are saying if the subjects are too close it will distort the image but too close is the primary reason we need wide lens, isnt' it? When we can't stand back far enough.

At the moment 17mm is my widest. It's wide enough for everything I do. I could get wider but that's such a specialist lens that it just wouldn't get used often enough to merit the money.

[cdifoto]

11mm is more like ultra-wide than wide. It's nice to have but not necessary. I wouldn't want to shoot without having at least 18mm at my disposal on APS-C though. That's "normal wide" in a sense.

[tim11]

hmm.... while it's nice to fit so many people in the photo I see the funny perspective there. The man on the right is twice the size of everyone else. Thanks everyone.

[Nickcanada]

I wouldn't call it necessary either. I've seen some great ultra wide wedding photos but I shoot at 35mm mostly for the few weddings I've done. 18mm is the widest I have and I used it once at the last wedding I did. It was a group shot. depends on your preferences I suppose.

[cdifoto]

I wouldn't call it necessary either. I've seen some great ultra wide wedding photos but I shoot at 35mm mostly for the few weddings I've done. 18mm is the widest I have and I used it once at the last wedding I did. It was a group shot. depends I your preferences I suppose.
Yeah you can do some dramatic stuff with it but you can to some dramatic stuff without it too. Wide (or ultra-wise I should say) is something you should do in moderation, like fisheye. IMHO.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Whilst I like the image Faisal I doubt anyone would buy it. Also I like 1 image like that, if there were any more than 1 in the set then I'd think I hired a cruddy photographer.

[Honest Gaza]

Whilst I like the image Faisal I doubt anyone would buy it. Also I like 1 image like that, if there were any more than 1 in the set then I'd think I hired a cruddy photographer.

I think that was Faisal's point....he was highlighting the fact that you do get distortion.

[faisal]

I think that was Faisal's point....he was highlighting the fact that you do get distortion.

Yes I was.... :)
Bad-bad-bad idea to shoot group shots with a ultra wide at 10mm....unless you want that effect or if you frame them all in the middle of the image....

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I was reading a wedding photography book where the author did some beaut group shots with an ultra wide. He climbed up on the church roof to take the pic looking down into the group.:)

So you can use them but selectively is all I was getting at. It's not going to have a great P/E ratio like your 24-70 F/2.8 & 70-200.

[tim11]

I wonder what sort of distortion will we get if you are to frame them all in the middle of the image? Will we get 'curvy' effect for the 2 people at both ends of the image?

[cdifoto]

I wonder what sort of distortion will we get if you are to frame them all in the middle of the image? Will we get 'curvy' effect for the 2 people at both ends of the image?
The further from the center you get, the more distortion is apparent. Distortion will pretty much always be a problem since not everyone can be in the center. How much distortion the people on the ends will get depends on how close to the ends they are. If you're gonna shoot a group with everyone in the center 1/3 of the frame or so to crop later you may as well just use a longer focal length and skip the cropping.

[tim11]

Thanks everyone for your inputs. Thanks Faisal for that shot - it says more than a thousand words.

[ander75it]

IMO you need at least 24 (on FF) for group shots - sometimes 28 is not enough
more is OK, if that's your style, but not required