Wide Angle Photography With Gavin Hoey

Olympus UK has just released another Facebook Live video as part of their "Learn with Olympus" series. Their Ambassador, Gavin Hoey, talks about wide-angle photography.

Suitable for photographers using any brand of camera, not just Olympus, this light-hearted and informative hour-long lecture covers all aspects of wide-angle photography, including how wide-angled lenses can add context and drama to portrait shots. He continues to talk about how they exaggerate perspective and the myth of distortion. Their drawbacks are also discussed, with problems such as getting your feet in the picture. He also looks at correcting such issues in Photoshop.

Besides addressing the potential difficulties of shooting wide-angle, he speaks about their benefits too. For example, he declares enthusiastically how they lend themselves well to creating starbursts.

For those who want to learn more about depth of field, included in the video is information about getting front-to-back sharpness. He illustrates his talk with a range of superb portrait and landscape photos, as well as a (kind of) wildlife shot.

Many of the photographs are captured with the excellent Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO Lens. For UK-based photographers, Olympus is offering a generous cashback deal with their wide-angled lenses. The details of that are in the video.

If you don't already subscribe to Olympus UK's twice-weekly online presentations, it is worthwhile doing so. They are, of course, using Olympus kit, but the tutorials and discussions with professional photographers are informative and fun to take part in no matter what you shoot with.

Most of the sessions are aimed at beginner to intermediate photographers, but they also welcome more advanced questions. If the question is too involved or technical to answer during the live session and relates to the Olympus kit, Olympus UK invariably offers free one-to-one sessions with their technical experts. This is an excellent service that I have taken advantage of a couple of times.

Gavin's excitement, plus the banter he has both with the viewers and with his wife, Sam Hoey, who works behind the scenes, make them a particularly enjoyable watch. It's also worth keeping an eye open for the regular presentations from their other experts all of whom give superb presentations.