On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:50:17 GMT, "Yi-Zen Chu; Yiren Qu" <yizen@attbi.com> wrote:

>Perhaps I'm not understanding the difference between real distortion and

>the effects of perspective due to being close to a subject. I'd like to

>take the following shot as example:

>

>http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1765/easy-rider-10

>

>The man on the bike has relatively proportional features, yes? But if we

>look to the side we see a man and woman. These people appear stretched

>out and "sheared" slightly - am I understanding correctly that this is

>distortion?

>

>So I guess the lesson is not to put your subject way off center? The

>thing is I see my Sigma giving me images that look like the man and

>woman, just slightly milder. That makes my subject look rather strange

>sometimes.

>

>Yi-Zen

"MC" has it right (and also see "z's" post, below). You

may prefer a wide-angle lens with considerable barrel

"distortion" to minimize extreme WA effects with rounded

subjects (though this will not "correct" too-close

a viewpoint...). For more on why even a moderate WA lens

with no "distortion" can make people look bad, and a

VERY much wider fisheye can show people near the edges

looking "OK", see:

www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/articles.html#perspective and

www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/perspective-correction.htm.

BTW, the WA "distortion" appearance is due to the

perspective difference between the perspective type of

most lenses and the perspective type of our vision,

which is closer to "fisheye"...