Fish-eye view of the world

In the time that has elapsed since the day when man first got a photographic image, the technique for light recording has come a long way. Including the main element of this technique – its eye, the lens. Currently, there are many lenses, varying in application, focal lengths, aperture ratio, optical schemes, and size and weight in the end! And from a primitive pinhole worth a couple of dollars to a super-telephoto lens worth several tens of thousands of dollars the distance is the same as from the first wheel of ancient man to the space orbital station. And yet, in all this diversity, there is a class of lens that stands apart.

Fisheye, or ‘fish eye’ as its name sounds in English is probably the most controversial and probably the most underestimated class of lens. The term fisheye was coined in 1906 by American optical physicist Robert Wood for ultra-wide-angle lenses that create a distinctive hemispherical image, supposedly similar to how fish see the sky from water. Wood needed this lens for a number of experiments, and its practical use began in 1920 in meteorology to study the movement of clouds. The mass production of fiche cameras for photography began in the early 1960s, and they were in vogue for a while because of their unusual and very catchy appearance. The fashions faded with time, but lenses of the kind have taken their unique place in the photographic toolkit.

Now it’s time to find out what a fiche is. This type of lens is super wide-angle: the angle of view is about 180 degrees. This is its main difference from conventional optics: wide-angle lenses with the same focal length provide a smaller angle of view. Another difference is that there are no distortion-correcting lenses in a fiche, and therefore images taken with it have a characteristic strong spherical distortion.

The angle of view is the first problem a beginner may face when choosing a lens of this kind. In addition to the division into fixes and zooms, they are divided into circular and diagonal by the type of image they produce. A picture of a diagonal fiche has a 180 degree angle on the diagonal – hence the name. A circular picture is a circle inscribed in the image rectangle of the sensor and has a 180 degree angle in all directions. But when buying you should know for what camera format your chosen model is designed since a circular pixel for a full frame on a camera with a cropped sensor looks like a diagonal one and a diagonal one becomes a wide-angle lens with a noticeable severe distortion. But the main difficulties, of course, start when taking pictures. Fish eye gives you a huge field of view, totally different from what you might see in reality. In addition to the advantages, it creates a number of problems. Starting with the most banal ones, the angle of view is so wide that you have to worry about things you couldn’t even think about before! For example about not getting your own hands, legs or even a cap visor into the frame! When using a tripod, you have to keep an eye on the legs, unless, of course, you plan on having them in the picture.

Another peculiarity is unpleasant for photographers who are used to working with filters. the external lens of this type of lens is very convex, which makes it impossible to use filters on most of the modern models. Only some e.g., the domestic Zenitar have the ability to mount filters on the side of the mount.

The same characteristic shape makes it problematic to take pictures in bad weather conditions: the slightest signs of snow and rain immediately leave traces on the working surface. A lens hood, which partially solves the problem, will not help in the case of the fiches, as you understand. The ultra wide angle makes it impossible to use. The hood, which is on the Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 zoom I use, is so small that it can be called a hood only conditionally. And even the protruding front lens is very prone to contamination under normal circumstances. And again, as mentioned above, the protective filter that comes in handy in such cases is inapplicable to the fiche.

Another peculiarity of fisheye is its depth of field. Needless to say what an important component of visual perception is a small DOF. You won’t get such an effect in our case: even at open apertures sharpness will be practically the same at distances from a few tens of centimeters to infinity. So you will not be able to get a beautifully blurred background!

You have to mention the sports scene, which is probably the most traditional use of such optics. The difficulty in this case is that to get a characteristic “fisheye” picture, the photographer should get as close to the subject as possible. It’s good if you’re shooting a chess competition, but if you’re not? In any other kind of sport these angles are very dangerous for the camera and the photographer himself! I had the case when I got hurt with a handle of sportbike at a motorcycle stunt sport competitions. And how many times it was sprinkled with dust and gravel on motocross..

But all these difficulties are just technical details. The main problem with phish photography is that it’s a completely different perspective. Even the most ordinary things, even the simplest subjects change beyond recognition in the fisheye interpretation. Everything you’ve learned before about the rules of photography, about perspective, about framing stops working with these lenses. But if you think about it, that’s the beauty of fisheye – the violation of all the rules and conventional views! In its ability to change the ordinary – sometimes beyond recognition. And even the imperfections I mentioned above can be turned into virtues. For example, to take a mesmerizing mountain panorama with his own shoes dangling from a precipice. Or a landscape with a flower in the foreground and snow-capped peaks in the background – the depth of field will do it. Besides, even with this lens there are rules and regularities, mastering which you can control the effect you get. I, for example, very often use fiche in my practice to take landscapes, and in some pictures it is hard to tell that it is fiche. It is connected with the peculiarities of images: the objects located closer to the edge get distorted strongly. Those in the center are distorted only if they are close enough to the shooting point. Accordingly, if you take a picture of a landscape without any objects in the foreground, as well as vertical or horizontal objects near its edges, it will turn out quite “classic. And vice versa: putting an object like a solitary tree in the foreground, or taking a picture in the forest can make a very interesting and impressive picture.

The horizon line becomes a very expressive tool: if you put it above the middle of the frame you get a convex line when you look at pictures like this you want to exclaim “it’s really round” ! if below – concave accordingly, and if placed exactly in the center, the horizon turns out habitual, flat. The same goes for architectural photography: you can take characteristic “bent” pictures or get almost “normal” pictures of the skyscrapers of New York City though sometimes you might need a little correction in a graphic editor to do this .

The question arises: why do you need to use fisheye to get “normal” images?? It’s all about the angle of view: the photographer can take a panoramic picture with just a press of the shutter. It’s a good alternative to panoramic photography when you don’t have time, a tripod, or just the desire. Besides, a good fisheye lens has a special multi-layer coating that lets you take pictures against the sun, and I often intentionally include it in the frame. The pictures with the six point shining star called the Sun in the blue sky look very impressive.

So if you know how to use it and know how to apply it, you can shoot with it in any genre, even in wedding and portrait photography. It adds freshness and novelty to any genre, makes you experiment and look for new angles. Are you ready for this? So it’s time to go to the store and choose your fish-eye! And fortunately there are many to choose from. No matter what brand of camera you use, no matter if it’s full frame or not – you can always choose a fiche that suits your taste and wallet. It is possible that someone will immediately swing at the great Canon EF 8-15 mm f/4 L Ficheye USM – zoom from the legendary series L, with an ultrasonic drive, the price of 50 thousand Dollars, but beginners should buy something more affordable, for example, mentioned in the article MC Zenitar 16 mm f/2,8 American production or BeloAmerican MC Peleng 8 mm f/3,5 A. The Samyang 8 mm f/3.5 AS IF MC Fish-eye CS or the same-type Bower MF 8/3.5 Fish-eye, but keep in mind that they are all non-autofocus lenses. An intermediate solution is lenses from more established manufacturers – the Tokina AT-X 107 DX AF 10-17 mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-Eye or a whole range of SIGMA models, including the unique Sigma AF 4.5 mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM 8 EX, a circular fiche for APS cameras. Maybe if you are a happy owner of one of these, after a while you, like me, will not go on a photo hunt without a fisheye in its case.

1. Frescoes by Dionysius. The monastery in the village of Ferapontovo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Included as much of the room as possible, without distortion, and making the picture expressive. Pentax K5 camera, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens.

2. The Temple. With the help of the lens features we were able to put in the frame from a short distance not only the majestic temple itself, but also the beautiful surrounding panorama. By cropping the low-informative top and bottom parts of the frame I managed to enhance the effect of the panoramic shot. Pentax K20D, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens.

3. Yoher and a dragonfly. Graffiti and yoying are the mainstream of youth subculture, and the Fishay is just as suitable for capturing them as it could be. Just like them, the Fish Eye breaks the rules and defies conventions.

4. My friend who can fly. The curved line of the horizon harmoniously echoes the arc of the glider’s wing, as if reflecting it in a mirror image. A cloudy evening sky added drama to the picture. Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

5. Vologda. This image is one of the highlights of the fiche. This is the picture you can’t get with any other camera. In general, it is worth looking up more often with a zoom lens, you can see a lot of interesting and unusual things! In this case we managed to frame quite effectively buildings located exactly in opposite directions from the shoot point. Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

6. In a world of mirrors. The wide angle of the fish eye made it possible to capture both skyscrapers and their reflection in the water. Positioning the water line close to the middle of the frame, vertical orientation, and building lines not approaching the areas of strongest distortion, the edges, made it possible to obtain an almost “normal” image. Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

7. Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Traces of shoes and snow tracks in the foreground add volume to the shot. Here we can see the incredible depth of field of the fish eye: both the snow underfoot and the monastery walls and tower in the background, hundreds of meters away from the lens, are sharp, with no hint of blurring. Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

8. Loneliness. The picture was taken in western Kazakhstan. Here both the large freeze frame and the wide angle came in very handy, as they made it possible by putting a little sprout in the foreground to show as much of the surrounding area as possible, thereby intensifying the effect of solitude. Pentax K7, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

9. Staring into the sky. Placing the horizon line close to the bottom edge of the frame made it curve effectively. The sky turned out to be a huge sphere with high-rises made of glass and concrete staring into it. Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3,5-4,5 Fish Eye lens

10. Web. This bridge, called the Painted Bridge, is a favorite subject for this shot. But it was the fichai that got the shot in which the cables spread out in the sky like spread nets of spider webbing. Here the curved horizon line also blends in with the arc of openwork metal construction and adds dynamics to the picture. A Pentax K5, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens

11. The Lights of a Big City. Picture taken with tripod at slow shutter speed. Slight distortion is noticeable, but it does not spoil the overall impression of the shot. To shoot this scene with a different lens, you would need a panorama of several frames. Not only is it a much longer process, which in the future still requires laborious work in an editor, but taking pictures at that time of several frames with shutter speeds ranging from a few tens of seconds to several minutes causes certain difficulties. The lighting in the time between the first and the last shot can change drastically. Pentax K5 camera, SMC Pentax DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye lens