From Digital Camera World · · 1m 50s
A fisheye is a strange lens for portraits
A portrait shooter who avoids ultra-wides took Sony's first E-mount fisheye to a giant painted silo mural, and liked what came back.
In brief
A portrait shooter who avoids ultra-wides took Sony's first E-mount fisheye to a giant painted silo mural, and liked what came back. Fisheye distortion stops looking like a mistake when you match it to a scene big and loud enough to fill 180 degrees. Originally reported by Digital Camera World.
A lens she normally avoids
A portrait photographer who lives on a 50mm picked up Sony's first native E-mount fisheye anyway, curious what 180 degrees would do to a face.
“As a portrait photographer, I tend to avoid ultra-wide lenses like I avoid crowds in flu season.”
Circular at 8mm, full frame at 14
The FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G gives the classic circular fisheye image at 8mm, then fills the frame at 14mm while keeping the bent look.
The loudest wall in Michigan
She paired the lens with a Sony A7 V and drove to Shine Bright Saginaw, a mural across a set of silos, painted by Okuda San Miguel and local artists. It's the second largest in the US.
“why shoot with a 180 degree lens without an oversized scene?”
Distortion as the point
Fisheyes don't correct barrel distortion, they lean into it. Straight lines bow, and at the right angle the scene looks like a tiny planet turned inside out.
Get close, get huge
Perspective distortion makes anything near the glass tower over what sits just behind it. Minimum focus is 5.91 inches, so you can push the effect hard.
Nothing crops out
With 180 degrees in frame there's no room to trim clutter later. Posing and camera angle had to place the warp where she wanted it and nowhere else.
Watch your own feet
At 8mm the view is wide enough that her shoes, and even the lens hood, could sneak into the shot.
Straight out of camera
Every image here is a JPEG with no editing, beyond the itch to clone out background litter. Shooting it turned out to be far more fun than she expected.
What it means
Fisheye distortion stops looking like a mistake when you match it to a scene big and loud enough to fill 180 degrees.
