Wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses: Angle of view, perspective effect and portrait trade-offs

Focal length, angle of view and perspective presentation

Lens focal length is related to angle of view; Nikon's Getting Started guide notes that magnification increases as the angle of view narrows, and lists perspective and compression as effects that can be used depending on the frame's goals. When understanding these relationships, you should consider the specific sensor and viewing range, and do not regard focal length alone as the sole cause of all perspective effects. 〔G-UWA-01, G-UWA-04〕

Super wide-angle wide viewing angle and scene selection

Nikon lists 8–24 mm as the ultra-wide-angle example range in its article, listing uses such as landscape, architecture, and creative footage; the column also describes a very wide viewing angle and noticeable perspective effects. Viewing angles vary from frame to frame, so this range is an example of classification in the source and should not be taken as a boundary common to all camera systems. 〔G-UWA-02〕

Close portrait and facial ratio

Nikon reminds that when shooting human faces with a wide-angle lens, facial features will appear perspective distortion. Before shooting, you can decide whether you want this effect, then try shooting and check the facial proportions; if it does not meet the target of the picture, change the shooting distance or focal length and recompose the shot. The source does not give a safe distance, edge percentage, or fixed stretch value that applies to all shots and people. 〔G-UWA-03, G-UWA-04〕