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mikergj

mikergj

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Mike
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A really quick question, I am a builder and have recently took some photographs of a job just completed. I only have a 18-55 kit lens (which I took the photos with) and a 70-300mm lens. I did take the pics of this particular job on full auto, but I would like some advice on what sort of lens I should use for this kind of photography. Ie , pics of rooms.I am assuming a fish eye lens.
 
You can use any lens but if you want to fit more in or even the whole room you'll probably need a wide angle lens, probably something like a 10-20mm.

These lenses can be quite challenging to use and if you tilt the lens upwards or downwards your verticals will end up at an angle but care and practice should get you good results.

Another option is to photograph the room in stages and stitch the shots together.

A fish eye will give you a very interesting view :) but I think that a wide angle lens would be a better option.
 
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I used my 8mm fisheye for the interior and my kit lens outside on a house im doing up currently altho they where snaps really as the house is for me and not work some pictures came out with little distortion some came out with loads not had a chance to try and fix the distortion yet
 
First, if you don't have a tripod - get one. In terms of lenses, I really like the 8mm Samyang for fisheye but it will be distracting to some people. Then again ultra wide angle lenses also distort space. When I sold my house, I took pics with the Samyang and Canon 10-22 - the agent didn't pick a single fisheye photo for the online ads :shrug:
 
I'm not so sure that a tripod is necessary although it'll depend upon the result you want and the use you have in mind. For a builders work in progress and before and after shots for web display, screen viewing or to print and put in a folder to show clients I personally think that DSLR's hand held at ISO's between 400-3200 give good results. If you want showroom quality large prints then that's another story and you'll want to look at keeping the ISO down, using lighting and possibly a tripod.

If the OP wants any sample building work shots taken with my 5D or 20D and 12-24mm to give an idea of what is possible with a DSLR and wide lens I'd be happy to email a couple over. Just let me know.
 
Thanks for your comments, did not give stitching a thought woof woof, and have never done it. A good time to try it. Also I would really appreciate it if you could email some shots taken with your 12-24mm lens.
 
Yeah i wouldn't use a fisheye, they are a bit to arty if you like for what you might want to be doing, the wider you can get the better to be honest, i would also get a tripod and make sure you keep your verticals vertical.

Canon 10 22, sigma 10 20...etc is what you want
 
I recently had my bathroom done and took pictures of it during the build using my sigma 10-20 worked pretty well. I was hand holding but using a flash so a tripod would be a good idea. You pick the sigmas in the classifieds for about £260 but make sure it's a good copy, to do this get the seller to send you jpgs and check that the left and right side of the frames look equal if one side is more blurred than the other stay clear.
 
Just been looking on classifieds for a 10-22 4737carlin. Thanks
 
I used to work for an estate agent before I retired and part of the job was taking internal photos.I used a Canon 40D,sigma 10/20 and a Canon 580 flash.
Camera to manual 1/125(ish) at f8,iso 400,flash to ETTL and bounce it off the walls and ceiling.
The only thing to watch is converging verticals with an 10mm lens.
A bit tongue in cheek,but the answer is a 17mm TS-E lens (the only problem is they are about £1700)
 
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mikergj said:
Thanks for your comments, did not give stitching a thought woof woof, and have never done it. A good time to try it. Also I would really appreciate it if you could email some shots taken with your 12-24mm lens.
Click to expand...

If you pm me an email address you'd like them sending to I'll send you a few work in progress / finished room JPEG's taken hand held.

Ref stitching... If you have the stitching capability it's really quite easy. If you don't have the capability Google "free photograph stitching software" and see what you can find as I'm pretty sure there are some free packages out there.
 
I've just thought of another way of doing this...

You could use a wide angle adapter. These don't offer the optical quality of a real wide angle lens, but the cost £20 not £300 :) I used to use one with my GF1 and the image quality woulod be ok for an A4 or smaller print, screen or web image IMVHO.

If you go for one of these you may need a step up/down ring so that it can be fitted to your existing lens, these are maybe £5, maybe £2 depending upon where you get them from. This set up may cause vignetting, I don't know, it depends upon the dia of your lens and that of the wide angle adapter. Here's one on my GF1...

IMG_3957-3.jpg
 
wide angle lenses for me cease to be practical below 28mm ref 35mm format
use crop factor to size your cameras requirements
mine is a 4/3 crop factor 2...so a 14 is the lowest i would go
the reason being that i would be doing interiors to show potential buyers of my house and not playing games with grossly deformed verticals
so there
cheers
geof
 
Couple of demo shots from 7D + 10-22 and fisheye:

10-22 @ 10mm:

i-fPg3cbS-L.jpg



and Samyang fisheye @ 8mm:

i-B8FsQs4-L.jpg


These were shot standing in the doorway to the room. The Samyang preserves proportions of object pretty nicely but of course everything is wonky-curvy. The 10mm on crop stretches stuff out (sorry Geoff!) quite a bit.

Hope it helps your thinking.. :)
 
vaizki said:
Couple of demo shots from 7D + 10-22 and fisheye:

10-22 @ 10mm:

i-fPg3cbS-L.jpg



and Samyang fisheye @ 8mm:

i-B8FsQs4-L.jpg


These were shot standing in the doorway to the room. The Samyang preserves proportions of object pretty nicely but of course everything is wonky-curvy. The 10mm on crop stretches stuff out (sorry Geoff!) quite a bit.

:lol:
Click to expand...

sure, and we are all a bit different, strokes for folks
actually i did use a 24mm....12 on a crop factor 2...for a lot of my early photography and liked the close approach to the world of distortion
cheers
geof

Hope it helps your thinking.. :)
 
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Thanks for the demo shots Jukka, Fish eye is definitely not what I want, I have decided that much. I am now looking for a second hand Canon 10-22mm
 
mikergj said:
Thanks for the demo shots Jukka, Fish eye is definitely not what I want, I have decided that much. I am now looking for a second hand Canon 10-22mm
Click to expand...

I'd also consider the Sigma 10-20. Used to have one with my 50D - its a lovely lens and good second hand prices. The Canon is a fantastic lens though so all down to how much you want to spend really
 
Please do not buy that.

The fish eye gives too much distortion, just get a 10-20mm or 10-24mm or something like that.

You don't have to get the Nikon/Canon ultra wide, Tamron and Sigma make very decent alternatives.
 
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BarryG said:
Please do not buy that.

The fish eye gives too much distortion, just get a 10-20mm or 10-24mm or something like that.

You don't have to get the Nikon/Canon ultra wide, Tamron and Sigma make very decent alternatives.
Click to expand...

The thing in Tony's link isn't a fisheye, it's a wide angle adapter (if that's what you were refering too.)

These things vary in quality, I had one which was really quite poor and one which was really quite good. If you buy a good one you really will not be able to tell that it's a cheapo thing when looking at smallish prints. I used mine on my GF1+20mm (as pictured above) and believe me, the images were quite good and didn't display any significant optical nasties.

A true real wide angle lens is always going to be better though and that's why they cost £xxx whilst the adapters cost £20 or £30.
 
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Hi Mike

Have a look at the Flickr photos below (signature)

I took these for a mate whos a Joiner, with my Sigma 10-20mm - I'm (and he is) very pleased with the results
 
I've used the Sigma 10-20 for interior shots, so wide angle is key.
4476699153_7bb28958fa_z.jpg


4473319603_40f8397859_z.jpg


I've also used HDR tonemapping for these images.
 
I bought the sigma 10-20. I am a kitchen fitter and have always struggled to get far enough back to get all the kitchen in, with the sigma I get it all in. Great lens, good price.
 
Digifrog said:
I've used the Sigma 10-20 for interior shots, so wide angle is key.
4476699153_7bb28958fa_z.jpg


4473319603_40f8397859_z.jpg


I've also used HDR tonemapping for these images.
Click to expand...

glad i got that 14-45 4/3 lens...equiv 28-90
those are impressive and well adjusted shots
lightroom as well?
 
mrtoad said:
those are impressive and well adjusted shots
lightroom as well?
Click to expand...

Hi Geof

They are 3 RAW files fed into Photomatix for tonemapping HDR, then the 16 Bit TIFF fired into CS3 for further (contrast, saturation & sharpening) adjustments.
 
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