Troubleshoot Wide-Angle Lenses

When attaching a lens with wide-angle capabilities to your camera, it's a pretty straightforward process. However, because wide-angle lenses provide such a different look than standard lenses, you may experience some problems when using them. Use these tips to troubleshoot use of your wide-angle DSLR lenses.

• You may experience problems with the autofocus feature working properly with wide-angle lenses because the distortion sometimes throws off the autofocus capabilities, especially when the subject is small. If the camera will not lock onto the subject with autofocus, either switch to manual focus or focus on another object similar in distance from the camera to the small object on which you want to focus. Then use the focus lock to set the correct distance and recompose the photo, centering the small object again before shooting.

• If the lens is not functioning properly, make sure the CPU contacts are clean. Do not use liquid to clean the CPU contacts. A dry cloth used gently is OK, however. Attempting to add extension rings to some wide-angle lenses also can damage the contacts; be sure to check the user manual for the lens to see whether extension rings are allowed.

• To further protect the lens, remove it from the camera when you won't be using it for a while. Be sure to attach the lens caps to the front and back of the wide-angle lens whenever it is not in use or attached to the camera.

• The flash unit might not work properly with a wide-angle lens, as the flash may be unable to provide light to the entire scene that a wide-angle lens can record. If you must shoot with a wide-angle lens, try to avoid situations where you must use the flash, or make sure you're close enough to the subject to allow the flash to provide the needed light.

• Use some trial and error when learning to use a wide-angle lens, as you'll probably experience some odd distortion, depending on the angle at which your shooting, and especially when shooting photos of people. For example, when shooting a child from above, the forehead tends to elongate. Consider crouching to the child's level to avoid this type of distortion. (On the flip side, such distortion can lead to some interesting photos.)

• In addition, if the image has horizontal or vertical lines in the background, you have to take extra care that those lines aren't skewed by the distortion a wide-angle lens sometimes causes. Adjust your angle to the subject to remove the lines from the background.

• Be careful when shooting a subject with a strong backlight when using a wide-angle lens, as you'll often end up with purple halos around the subject. Again, adjust your angle to the subject to change the positioning of the backlight.

• If you end up using a fish-eye lens as your wide-angle lens, keep in mind that most fish-eye lenses create a circular image. However, a few types of fish-eye lenses will fill up the entire frame. If you aren't sure which type of fish-eye lens you have, check the user manual to avoid problems.

• One final note about fish-eye lenses: They require a little different thinking when composing photos. Be sure you understand how the fish-eye lens will distort the scene and take that into consideration when framing photos, or you'll end up with poor results.