The wide world of wide-angle

In the world of cinematography, wide-angle lenses have helped create some of the most memorable shots in film history. From Stanley Kubrick’s dramatic interior tracking shots to Terry Gilliam’s fantastical worlds, these lenses are far more than just tools for fitting more into the frame – they’re instruments of visual storytelling that every cinematographer should understand and consider.

There is power to showing context and subject together; actions can be extended with less cutting needed, grand vistas are given even more emphasis and power dynamics between characters can be greater supported with lens choice. On a practical level having a reliable wide-angle lens as part of a set means you can be confident in capturing the required action when space is at premium.

‘The Shining’ (1980) dir. Stanely Kubrick, cine. John Alcott BSC

The wide shot can be a director’s best friend. It’s an efficient way to show where your character is and who’s with them and invites the audience into the full scene, allowing them to absorb all the relevant information at once so that they have context for what’s about to happen.

However, using a wide-angle lens doesn’t limit you to wide shots, in the same way that a long lens placed far away from a subject can still give you a full-length head to toe image. But a wide-angle lens offers an image that doesn’t equate to what we see as “normal”, and this can be very powerful.

Wide-angle lenses don’t simply distort reality – they present a different way of seeing it. What many mistake for lens distortion is actually perspective distortion, a natural phenomenon that occurs when we move closer to subjects. The lens is merely capturing this reality across a broader field of view than our eyes normally perceive. Come with us as we expand upon the fundamentals of lens angle of view and perspective to greater appreciate the creative opportunities that abound with wide-angle lenses.

‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (2014) dir. Wes Anderson, cine. Robert D. Yeoman ASC

The ability of glass to bend light has always fascinated us, and seeing the whole world reflected back at us in a marble or dew drop was mesmerising long before cameras and lenses were invented. After all, the world around us exists in 360º but most lenses are limited to less and this includes the ones we’re most familiar with – the eyeballs in our head! Although human beings have a peripheral vision of 180º or even larger it is generally noted that the main field of human vision is about 60-70º (30-35º from either eye starting at the nose) with a primary field of focus at the centre of field of view for both eyes of about 30-35º.

Naturally it is extremely difficult to fully quantify these numbers – human vision is binocular and vision from each eye overlaps. Physiology aside, it’s generally accepted that the « normal » angle of view for cinematic lenses is roughly double the diagonal of the imager. This differs from stills which uses a single diagonal of the imager as « normal ». The difference between the two is due to the typical viewing distances of the images produced, stills in general being observed from much closer. This is a somewhat arbitrary convention that has become a standard through legacy. For most motion picture imagers this equates to a horizontal angle of view of approximately 23º. Wider than 50º then is categorised as being a “wide” lens in film. One of the first “wide angle lenses” was introduced in 1862 by Harrison and Schnitzer, this ‘globe lens’ gave a useable angle of view of around 80º.

Angle of View describes the area that is “seen” by a lens and is expressed in degrees – either horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Typically, the horizonal axis is the most important in motion picture photography as we’re dealing with mainly rectangular compositions. This value is fixed for a defined focal length and imager combination.

Field of View describes the physical dimensions, at a given focal plane, seen horizontally and vertically in an image – expressed in feet or meters. This will differ depending on the camera’s placement relative to the subject.

‘The Tree of Life’ (2011) dir. Terrence Malick, cine. Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC

A given lens will always cast the same image circle onto its intended imaging plane. The smaller the receiving imager’s size, the less of a lens’ projected image will actually be « seen » by that imager, resulting in a narrower angle of view being captured by that particular lens/imager combination. The converse is true. Two different sized imagers then will have noticeable different angles of view captured with a specific focal length.

As such the millimetre focal length that may be considered a « normal » perspective – one that approximately matches a relaxed angle of view of human vision – will differ for different imager sizes. A 50mm lens on VistaVision would be semi-wide but on Super16 it would be Long. The physical focal length of the lens hasn’t changed but the angle of view has narrowed because of the smaller imager the lens has been moved to. As such, combing a wide-angle lens that projects a large image circle, such as Cooke’s 18mm SP3 or 18mm or 21mm S8/i FF, and a larger sized imager results in an impressively wide angle of view. By way of example a 18mm SP3 on Sony’s FX6 camera at full sensor width gives a 90º horizontal angle of view.

Whilst the angle of view will be constant for a given lens and imager size, the field of view for this same combination changes depending on the lens’ distance to the subject. As such you can shoot a closeup with a 18mm lens very close to your subject and compositionally the same size closeup with a 135mm lens farther away. So how do you know which to choose? This brings us to the topics of perspective, relative distance and distortion.

‘Legion S01E01’ (2017) dir. Noah Hawley, cine. Dana Gonzales ASC

The concept of perspective is frequently misunderstood. It is a factor of the camera/lens-to subject distance and not something inherent in the lens itself. If the camera remains stationary, three different lenses: a wide, normal and long lens will show three different angles and fields of view, and three different magnifications, but the perspective will not change. The subject’s relationship to the background doesn’t change nor does the camera’s relative position to the subject.

If we use the long lens as our set composition and then switch to a normal and then a wide lens AND we move the camera progressively closer to the subject to maintain the same relative subject size and composition, our perspective will change. The camera’s spatial relationship to our subject has been changed and this alters the relationship of the subject to the background. Again, perspective is determined by the physical relationship of the camera/lens to the subject.

When we change the physical distance relationship of the camera to the subject, the perspective of the scene changes. This is entirely due to relative distances. When the camera’s physical distance to the subject is less than the distance between the subject and the background, that distance will be exaggerated or emphasised. When the camera’s distance to the subject is far greater than the distance between the subject and the background, that distance will be minimised or compressed.

It is a common misnomer that wide angle lenses have more image distortion than normal or long lenses. In most cases this isn’t true particularly in modern spherical wide-angle lenses that have been optimised to be eliminate distortion as much as possible. So why does a wide-angle lens close to someone’s face make them look unnatural? This distortion isn’t from the focal length but rather a factor of the lens’ relative spatial proximity to a subject.

‘Wonder Wheel’ (2017) dir. Woody Allen, cine. Vittorio Storaro ASC, AIC

Imagine standing six feet away from someone and having a conversation – the relative distance between the tip of their nose and the centre of their eyes is very small compared to their overall distance from you. If this person now steps to six inches away from you suddenly that nose to ear distance is equal or even greater than the distance between the two of you. This leads to a distortion in perspective of the subject. Our eyes and brains can compensate for some of that, but a camera cannot.

This same distortion would happen with longer lenses if they were able to focus at close distances, like wide lenses can, but you often don’t see the distortion because with a close, very long lens, we’d see such a small portion of our subject.

Because the relative spatial difference between the subject and the lens is accentuated, especially at close ranges, wide lenses tend to exaggerate movement toward or away from the camera. A vehicle traveling toward the camera with a wide lens will appear to be travelling fast than it actually is. This is great for sports scenes, action sequences, anything where accentuating that movement is important.

Lenses such as the Cooke SP3 18mm then allow us to capture and employ distortion and perspective through pairing a wide angle of view and minimal camera/lens to subject distance. Having a wide-angle lens with a very good close focus allows us to reduce the camera to subject distance even more for emphasised perspective.

It’s important to understand that no situation is ever the ‘wrong’ perspective. Although it may look odd when you are looking at the image from a normal viewing distance, if you were to put your eyes at the same distance to the subject that the lens was, you would see no distortion.  However, very few people will ever view images from such a close distance, so unless you’re going for a specific result, use this power of wide lenses wisely!

‘The Revenant’ (2015) dir. r: Alejandro González Iñárritu, cine Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC

Compression then is intrinsically tied to the perspective created by the distance of the camera/lens to the subject. How does that relate to the surge in larger format imagers we’ve seen in recent years then? Well, contrary to semi-popular believe, swapping to a larger imager AND increasing your focal length to maintain your field of view across the two imager sizes WITHOUT moving the camera will lead to no increase in image compression as the position of the camera/lens to the subject has remained the same. But, if you swap to the larger imager and then move the camera closer with your same 18mm lens to match your previous angle of view (a mid-shot for example) you’ll see more distortion. A reason to future proof your lens set by purchasing one that covers a large image circle even if it’s bigger than the format you currently shoot on.

Different lens series do of course have their own characteristics and look so there is something to be said for using a series that covers all the angles of view you’ll need. Swapping to a wide-angle lens from a different manufacturer could have radically different lens flares or aberrations compared to staying within the same series particularly on narrative work where such consistency is desired. Cooke is proud to offer 18mm lenses that cover full frame across the S8/i, Panchro/i Classic FF and SP3 sets meaning you can stick with your desired look within those series whilst still going wide! An honourable mention also to our S7/i FF 16mm for if you need even to go even wider.

As digital cameras continue to evolve with larger sensors and higher resolutions, wide angle lenses remain crucial tools for visual storytelling. Their ability to capture images from a unique perspective, maintain deep focus or capture dynamic movement makes them indispensable for modern cinematographers.

Whether you’re shooting an intimate dialogue scene or an epic action sequence, understanding how to effectively use wide angle lenses can dramatically expand your visual vocabulary and create memorable, emotionally resonant images.