Welcome to my corner at Steve’s Digicams. Steve and I have known each other since we both started web sites about five years ago and we thought you’d be interested in some commentary, do-it-yourself pieces, and articles that will sharpen your digital photography skills.

If you’ve read any of my work in Digital Camera Magazine (I’m its feature editor) or other publications, you know I enjoy cutting through a lot of the fog that swirls around digital photography. I’ve been a photographer, writer, and educator for over 40 years and I’d like to share some of my knowledge with you every two or three weeks. Let’s begin.

Most amateur photographers lust for longer focal length lenses so they can bring distant subjects and objects nearer. But most professionals will tell you if they had to choose between a telephoto or a short focal length lens, they’d take the wide-angle every time.

First, it’s a very versatile lens with great inherent depth of field. You can disengage your camera’s autofocus, set the camera to a fixed distance –10 feet, for example, and even if the camera shoots at a moderately large lens opening, everything will stay in focus from up close to far away. For digital cameras, this means less shutter lag and faster shot-to-shot time because the camera doesn’t have to waste time focusing.

You can mingle at a party and concentrate on the action without worrying about your shots being out of focus. You can also get more people in a group shot without having to scrunch them together or back so far away that your flash won’t reach. And wide-angle lenses minimize camera shake, even at slow shutter speeds.

Wide-angle lenses also give a marvelous feeling of space. Telephoto lenses compress things— like shots you’ve seen where the baseball pitcher seems as if he’s right against the center field fence. Wide-angles, on the other hand, expand the spaces between objects and subjects. And this can be used to create visually exciting images the eye usually doesn’t see.

You can frame your shot so that parts of the picture in the foreground become large and imposing while the background falls off into space. Of course, this also can produce distortion, but so what? Sometimes our eyes need to be forced to see the world with new vision.

Enjoy the distortion. Some of history’s greatest artists painted distorted views of reality and most of us appreciate their unique way of seeing. If Van Gogh had been a photographer, he’d have gone nuts using wide-angle lenses. So should you.

If you have a zoom lens and its widest focal length is the equivalent of 35mm (on a 35mm camera), that’s not enough. Buy an inexpensive auxiliary wide-angle attachment that screws into your lens or onto a lens adapter. Get one that has a magnification factor of at least .7. When you multiply .7 by 35, you’ll suddenly have the equivalent of a 24.5mm lens. With a .6, you’ll end up with 21mm— for even more dramatic results.

Now, with your new wide-angle lens in place, move in close and see how different subjects and objects look. Shoot some exterior or interior scenes with the camera tilted and revel in the distortion. You may even want to try some wide-angle close-ups of your family, friends, or pets for humorous results; the parts of their bodies closest to the camera will be huge while the rest of them will be tiny.

Until recently, digital camera manufacturers have shied away from fitting cameras with lenses that had true wide-angle capabilities because electronic sensors like to be hit straight-on with light rays. Wide-angle lenses direct light at more extreme angles with the result that some definition can be lost and the corners of the image are sometimes underexposed.

But that’s a small price to pay for the dramatic pictures you’ll get from wide-angle lenses. And better wide-angles, specially designed for digital cameras, are beginning to appear. Once you get the knack of wide-angle shooting, telephotos will seem tame and you’ll begin to see why most pros agree that wider is better.

Arthur H. Bleich is a photographer, writer, educator, and feature editor of Digital Camera Magazine. He teaches online classes and conducts digital photography and imaging workshop cruises. He invites you to visit his Digital PhotoCorner.