Fisheye lenses are really cool. It’s just one of those specialty lenses that you just have to have in your bag, just in case. But often times for me, the odds that I will actually pull out my fisheye to take a shot is very rare because nothing really pops out as a “this will look great with a fisheye.” If you have a fisheye lens and not getting enough use out of it, here’s a list of ideas that’ll hopefully have you reaching into your bag for the fishy next time you’re out.

People

Getting up close and personal with a fisheye lens can produce some fun pictures. Although it’s usually unflattering, often times that’s the best part. You could take a picture inches away from the subject and distort the face to the point where their forehead becomes the larger then their whole body or step back a couple feet and take a picture of them with an almost panoramic view of their surroundings. Ever try taking a group picture in a tight space? A fisheye lens is perfect for that.

Yourself

Do you like taking pictures of yourself but have no friends to do it for you? I feel your pain, that’s why I got a fisheye lens. With a fisheye lens, you only have to keep the camera at arms length in order to get a shot of yourself and your background. Take a shot looking down at the camera, looking up, or not looking at all. Taking Myspace pictures to a whole new level.

Animals

Nothing is cuter then an animal with huge puppy dog eyes or a big wet nose in your face. The distortion from a fisheye lens does just that with pets. Get up and close just like you would with a person and start firing away. Making your pet do tricks or jumps while shooting with a fisheye lens gives you a little more room for error because you’ll be sure to get them in the frame without too much work.

Bug’s eye view

Because most circular fisheye lenses have a 180 degree angle of view, simply putting your camera on timer and placing it on the ground (or a bed of flowers for example) can give you a bug’s eye view on the world. Find strange places where you can put your camera and take a shot.

Stars and clouds

Developed for meteorology and astronomy, it only makes sense to use a fisheye lens for what it was originally designed for. Taking a 2 hour long exposure of the stars with the lens pointed directly at the north star will create a spiral of light produced by the star trails.

Panoramas

Doing panoramas with a fisheye lens is extremely easy. There are plenty of techniques of stitching photos together so that the resulting image can look like it wasn’t even shot with a fisheye lens. There is also stitching techniques that takes full advantage of the distortion from the lens to create results like the above picture.

Create a planet

Taking a complete 360 degree panorama of your surroundings and using similar stitching techniques as you would with a normal panorama, you could easily create a little mini planet with your fisheye lens. Here’s a tutorial.

Related Posts:

Family vacations, going beyond the ordinary

There is still time left this summer to squeeze in a vacation or two...

Reverse lens, the poor man’s macro lens

Often times if you want to do macro photography, you'll have to get a...

Becoming a better photographer with prime lenses

One of the questions many photographers ask themselves when buying a new lens is if...

Hidden L lenses, quality for cheap

If you buy any of the lenses in the Canon L series, you are...