What makes a fisheye a fisheye

This is useful in cityscape photography or even in landscape photography. The upward angle of the lens gives a sense of height when viewing buildings, trees, and other elements.

Some photographers also use fisheye lenses for other types of photography, like portraits the subject needs to be centered, and the edges will be distorted , astrophotography, and behind-the-scenes photos which can capture a more complete view of what's going on behind the scenes.

Circular subjects are also well suited to photographs captured through fisheye lenses, as the spherical nature of the images works well with the round nature of a fisheye lens.

One more, slightly obscure use for fisheye lenses is in mobile photography. Mobile fisheye lenses create images that are enclosed in a distinct circle, and some creative photographers find this an interesting way to capture their subjects. The outer edge distortion and center focus are still present, as with other types of fisheye photography, but the obvious mobile nature of the circular mobile images is a genre of its own.

Post-processing can play a couple of different roles in fisheye photography:. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads.

Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Jerri Ledford. Writer, Editor, Fact Checker. Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since Twitter LinkedIn. This results in a circular image, with the edges of the frame being black.

Circular fisheye lenses cover degrees in all directions, but have black edges. Image by Piero Fissore. These more extreme fisheye lenses tend to be used for artistic purposes such as skateboard photography or for shooting unusual landscapes and cityscapes.

A full-frame fisheye lens only captures a degree field of view along its diagonal. The horizontal and vertical sides of the image are less than degrees typically around degrees horizontal and degrees vertical.

Full-frame fisheye lenses cover degrees along the diagonal only, producing a less wide-angle, rectangular photo without the black borders.

Although they do not cover such a wide angle, photos taken using a full-frame fisheye lens are rectangular and do not have black edges. This makes them more suitable for practical purposes such as traditional landscape photography and shooting building interiors.

For cameras with a 35mm sensor or film, a typical circular fisheye lens might have a focal length of 8mm to 10mm. Full-frame lenses have slightly longer focal lengths, usually 15mm to 16mm. As with all lenses, the focal length is effectively increased for cameras with a sensor smaller than 35mm. To find the equivalent focal length of a lens, you need to multiply its focal length by the camera's "crop factor". For example, a 10mm fisheye lens on a camera with a crop factor of 1. This will produce a narrower field of view.

Because of this, many manufacturers produce fisheye lenses designed specifically for cameras with smaller sensors. These have even shorter focal lengths, sometimes as low as 1mm, so that they produce a full degree photo. A "true" fisheye lens is considered to be one that can capture degrees at the widest point. However, some manufacturers sell lenses which go even further, up to degrees. These lenses tend to be very big, heavy, and expensive, and so are generally only used for specialist, technical work.

If you want to capture more than degrees, it is possible to stitch more than one fisheye photo using software such as Photoshop. This allows you to create images which cover as much as degrees, making for some very interesting, abstract compositions. Fisheye lenses suffer from "barrel distortion", where subjects at the centre of the frame appear to bulge outwards, and straight lines curve wildly.

This type of image is known as a "curvilinear" image. Fisheye lenses produce noticeable barrel distortion, but this can be used to great artistic effect. Image by Tom Harnish. In normal wide angle lenses, this can be corrected to produce a "rectilinear" image, where the perspective in the scene looks normal, and straight lines are straight.

However, a fisheye lens produce an angle of view which is too extreme for this type of correction. Once you have the photo, you'll have to consider another signature characteristic of the fisheye lens: Even though your camera uses a rectangular sensor or piece of film , the image will come out as a circle.

Remember, you're seeing the rays of light that were funneled into the lens rather than those captured straight-on by a rectilinear lens. You may decide to crop your image to a rectangle or square, or could keep it spherical to preserve the full effect of the heavy distortion around its rim.

Either way, your artistic sensibility and vision will be the guide for how to best present the final images. While considering your final presentation, it's worth it to note that the digital editing that can turn a rectilinear lens into a fisheye-esque shot can work in the other direction as well.

Most photo editors include some type of straightening filter, which identifies distorted straight lines and flattens them. While the end result will still have more distortion than an image shot with a rectilinear lens, it will showcase the ultra-wide angle of view that gives the fisheye lens a guaranteed place in the gear bags of many photographers.

Photography's dual nature fascinates me. True, a painter can capture a scene in a range of ways, from dead-on reproduction to work that is unrecognizable but for the emotion it evokes. The writer can describe a moment in journalistic prose, or can light his words on fire with the rhythms, links and patterns of poetry. But no other medium can perform photography's Jekyll-and-Hyde trick: one click of the shutter catches a discrete moment in time, exactly as it happened, while a simple change of lenses and another shutter click alters a scene into a distorted other-world, as far removed from reality as a Cubist painting.

That's what makes fisheye lenses and other extreme lenses — such as high-end macro lenses — so interesting to me. These finely tuned devices don't just let us capture the world around us; with practice, they can let us twist the reality in front of us to better translate the deeper messages that inspire us to frame the scene and click the shutter.

They're powerful tools when used right, and happily, the journey to becoming an effective photographer is as enjoyable and fulfilling as it is long. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Photography Tips. What is fisheye lens photography?

Fisheye lenses create an illusion of extreme depth — objects close to the center of the lens will appear huge while all other objects in this case, the bull's body and the hilly landscape appear to curve off into infinity. What Is a Fisheye Lens? The Digital Angle. Taking Effective Fisheye Photos " ".