Wide angle photography using the budget EF-S 10-18 IS STM

Welcome to another video! I'm finally back out in Snowdonia again after a very long time. It's been far too long since I've managed to come out to Snowdonia, so I've come out today to use my wide-angle lens at last. For a long time I've said that I really don't like using my wide-angle lens and the reason for that is, as I said last week, I love simple pictures and it's so hard to get simple pictures with a wide-angle lens. So I did a little research and I took some of my own advice actually. A couple months ago I did a video all about why it's so important to copy other photographers and that's exactly what I've done. I looked at some locations that I knew about and that other photographers had been to and I found this spot here where a lot of people use a wide-angle lens. That means that I can use mine confident that I'll still get a good picture no matter what. Anyway I better get cracking because I've got to get all the way from my car here all the way just there. So let's get a move on and there we are. The car's just around that corner there. Views behind me here just like that. They're the best photos they are where there's literally just a two-minute walk to your spot. I rolled the dice with the sunrise this morning and at last it's failed me. I've had quite a few good mornings recently where I've caught the sunrise just perfect but today's not one of those days. But that's the good thing about photography, you never know what you're going to get. I mean there is a lovely bit of light happening just at the edge of the valley but with a wide-angle lens I'm not going to catch that. I might get my zoom lens out just for that one because there is some really nice light happening over there. It's going to look really small on a wide-angle lens. Which of those two do you prefer? I obviously haven't seen them yet in post. I've got a feeling I'm going to prefer the zoom lens photo but you may be of a different opinion and I'd really appreciate knowing. It's just catching some light now at the very top of Cadder Idris. Now the good thing about finding a location that other photographers have been to is that you kind of know what you're looking for exactly. So if you've got an area of weakness in your photography that you're aware of then if you can imitate other photographers that have overcome that weakness then that's a great way of learning how you can overcome that weakness too. So what I've done today is I found a few spots along a route that I know I can use a wide-angle lens with and I've got a few different ideas that I'm going to try out today. I've got all morning to give them a go so let's see what we can do with my wide-angle lens. In my research when I was looking for how I could properly use my wide-angle lens coming to a spot like this is a really good idea because you know you've got good foreground with the lake in front of you, you've got high mountains as well so you can really fill that frame. One thing I've learned over learning photography is that you really have to lean into those weaknesses. What do I mean by that? Well if you're lacking a certain skill like I have been with a wide-angle lens then use those disadvantages and turn them into an advantage. The fact that a wide-angle lens is complicated is the biggest thing for me. Trying to find simple compositions with a wide-angle lens I've said it before I'm not going to go on about it but I just find that really difficult. But coming to a location like this where it's naturally simple, lake, mountain, then that's me leaning into that disadvantage. What that means is I can really make the most of that wide-angle lens instead of just leaving it in my bag all the time. Somehow I get the feeling it's going to end up being one of my most used lenses. Now one of the advantages of a wide-angle lens is that you get a lot less camera shake. When you're using a long lens any little movement is really noticeable if your hands are shaking at all it'll be picked up by the camera. I know I've gone on about the stabilization within this camera and the long lens so it is good for handheld shots but you can't take slower shots whereas with a wide-angle lens because it is wide-angle your hand shaking isn't as noticeable in those images so it's much easier to take handheld shots with a wide-angle lens which I am a big fan of because I don't always want to be taking my tripod off every picture. For example there's light hitting this mountain now that I would have completely missed if I'd have had to take my tripod off because it's just going and because of that I would have missed that light but because I could take it handheld with a wide-angle lens I've got that light, no camera shake, win-win situation. On to the next location Sorry, I couldn't resist it. Another zoomed lock shot. I just pulled up at my second location there's absolutely epic view of Cadre Idris. I couldn't resist it. I'll go back to my wide-angle Now the reason I've chosen this is my second location it's quite cliched really there's a really cool road here that leads off up into the mountains and with a wide-angle lens that gives you a real sense of scale. Thing is it's really busy so I'm gonna have to run out into the middle of road when it's quiet make a fool of myself I'm really sorry but you're used to that by now aren't you. One of the advantages of using a wide-angle with a crop sensor is you don't have to worry as much about depth of field when you've got something really close and really far away it can make it really difficult to get everything in focus hence why I'm shooting at f16 but because I'm using a crop sensor as well it's much less of an issue than if I was using a full frame camera that's why full frame cameras are good for like portrait photos because you get that really nice background blur with the full frame camera but it's also an advantage to use a crop sensor camera on locations like this because you don't have to worry so much about focus stacking later on in photoshop which let's be honest most of us don't really want to do anyway and for location number three we've come back to my comfort zone the woods I absolutely love um and there's kind of a cliched shot that I want to get with a wide-angle lens I want to talk a little bit about why I like it though there's a couple of reasons why I like a forestry wide-angle shot this is exactly what I'm looking for the reason I came to a fir forest it's because all the trees are really straight you get really straight lines and with the lens distortion you get with a wide-angle lens what that means is you can create a really nice like circular pattern where the trees look like they're bending in around you it's quite a cliched shot but as I said earlier copying other photographers is a great way of learning how to overcome your disadvantages and your weaknesses as a photographer and this is a shot that I have I've never got before I see it loads of times on Instagram in people's portfolios I don't think this is going to be one of my portfolio shots but it's one I'm definitely going to get um because it's proof that you can overcome those challenges that you have as a photographer first thing I do though take my coat off because climbing up this hill has got me sweating lens distortion never thought I'd actually appreciate it as a artistic tool as it were turns out I actually quite like my wide-angle lens today has been a success well thank you so much for watching today's video I really hope you've enjoyed it I hope you found it entertaining or useful um and I finally used my wide-angle lens I'm so happy if you have enjoyed it please give it a thumbs up that would make a huge difference and if you're not already subscribed then please consider subscribing if this is your sort of content honest conversations about photography and how to do it affordably then you'd be more than welcome to join us we'd be happy to have you if you want to watch another one of my videos then watch this video here and I'll see you next time