In my
review of the Ricoh GRD3 I wrote about how much I like the 21mm EFOV wide-converter. While many people find the 28mm EFOV focal length initially difficult to use — I did when I got the original GRD over three years ago — even more people are reluctant to try the 21mm EFOV wide-converter: many think it's difficult to compose with this focal lenght or that it creates an unnatural feeling of space. However, I have really gotten to like 21mm lenses and their look.
Let's turn first to use of "unnatural" space, with the following example:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 400 | f/1.9
Clearly, there is a lot of distortion in the angles of the motorcyclist's arms as well as the deep recession of space down the road; but this is what gives this type of photograph a psychological dimension, which I'll leave for the viewer to interpret. This type of space can be interesting as long as it's not overdone in a series of photographs to the point of triteness. Incidentally, this picture was taken at noon on a very hot (34° C), sunny day, with the light so bright that one is uncomfortable to look into it without sunglasses — a lighting situation in which even with B&W it's difficult not to blow highlights.
One can get a completely different type of look by closing up the space at the back of the frame, which results in a picture in which the viewer is hardly aware that such a wide-angle lens was used, as in the following two photographs:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 100 | f/4
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 100 | f/4
In general, the wide expanse of the view with the 21mm focal length provides a huge space in which the composition can be formed so that subjects spaced relatively far from each other are brought together in the frame, as in the following two pictures:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 400 | f/1/9
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 100 | f/4
Also, the expanse of the view can allow composition in which a single subject can be set in a wide scene as in this picture, which can have a strong psychological or emotional impact:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 100 | f/4
Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter ISO 200 | f/3.3
Another type of composition is the walkby shot in which the subject is near the edge of the frame, aslso as in the first picture above, and often is not conscious of being photographed because he or she does not realize that the lens has such a wide view:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 1mm wide-converter | ISO 200 | f/3.2
Finally, here's another type of shot:
Bangkok | Ricoh GRD3 | 21mm wide-converter | ISO 400 | f/4
—Mitch/Bangkok
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