Straight or Warped Horizon

I have been doing a series of blog post on the fisheye lens. How I believe the the fisheye lens and nature photography are the perfect blend. That a fisheye has the potential to become your primary lens.

We all know that the fisheye lens can make a picture look warped and unnatural. But if you don't want to the picture to look like that you can stop it from doing that. It all has to do with how you take the picture.

The easiest way to explain this one is to show you with examples. here is a nature photo taken on a fisheye lens. You can not tell that the fisheye lens is being used. That has to do with the fact that the horizon line is straight in the photo.

Here is another nature photo taken on a fisheye lens. Notice on this one it is easy to tell a fisheye lens is being used because of the curved warping of the horizon line in the photo. The horizon line makes the world look like a small planet.

You can achieve the how much warping by where you place your subject and the horizon in your photo. For less warping move the subject to the middle. For more warping move them to the edges.

As you are taking the photo you can see how the photo will look in the view finder. Take some time to see what gives you the best result. Some times the warping makes a better photo. Some times it does not. The nice thing is that you get to decide what is the best in each situation.