Another one of London’s subterranean gems. As a wide-angle lens is rectilinear, if you were to shoot the same scene at 12mm on a fisheye, and then 12mm on a wide-angle, you would see considerably more of your scene with the fisheye. The effect is more pronounced the wider you shoot. This is known as barrel distortion and results in curved lines around the periphery of your photo. A fisheye, however, is a curvilinear lens because it gives you a hemispherical view of the world – the distorted view a fish sees. This is the category most lenses fall into, including wide-angle. A rectilinear lens captures straight lines as straight lines, reproducing what the eye sees.
In photography there are essentially two types of lenses – rectilinear and curvilinear. Often with these types of scenes, there will be a marker on the ground that indicates the dead centre point (as there was here), so it’s worth looking around. If you are even just a little out, the lens will emphasise the error. Just make sure you compose your shot so the centre of the ceiling aligns perfectly with the centre of your photo. This photo of the glass roof of Leadenhall Market would have been impossible with a wide-angle lens. Since you can’t get any further back than the ground below your feet, a fisheye enables you to fit an entire scene into a single shot, achieving effects normally only possible by shooting a panorama. There will almost always will be one.įisheyes are ideal for shooting ornate ceilings.
To find the dead centre point to position my camera, I looked around for a marking on the ground below. This is one of those great examples of a really old market (it dates back to the 14th century), transformed into an arcade. Here’s one of Leadenhall Market taken on an early morning shoot over Easter when the crowds are few and far between. Work with that distortion and you can create something very special. However, thanks to the way a fisheye curves lines at the periphery, used in the right way it can help you shoot images with a unique twist on common views. Thought you couldn’t live with the distortion from a fisheye lens? Think againīecause of the unusual images they create, fisheyes are often unfairly dismissed as special effects lenses.
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