Selected by Karl Burkat - For such an in your face photo, the fill lighting here is surprisingly subtle. That, and who doesn't love watching CG blow stuff up?
cg is sponsored by dvo suspension, maybe this was taken before he got his hands on an emerald? or he had another reason to run a fox. either way, not going to advertize unless he's getting paid
Yeah I'm gonna say if this photo Hijacked the Picture of the Year Contest right now and won, that would be greeeaaaat... My vote is this picture. For this year. or next year.
Karl Burkat- I'd leave it to Claudio to confirm, but I'm pretty sure there's no "artificial" fill light happening here. Partly cloudy day and light colored sand to act as a reflector help to even out the light. (That, and 1/5000 tends to negate most off camera flash systems)
That's distortion from the wide angle lens (effectively a 16mm on a 7d). It will distort the angles of straight lines and exaggerate distance from near to far. Same reason his arms, hands, and both stanchion tubes appear to be different sizes.
@Bigburd a fisheye lens and a wide angle lens will both distort in a similar way. However a fisheye will curve straight lines while a wide angle keeps them straight but distorts the angle. Make sense?
A fisheye is just a very wide-angle lens, there is no distinction. A wide angle will curve straight lines too it is just less apparent than on a fisheye. It's called barrel distortion and it happens to an extent with almost every lens, but the fisheye is the most extreme effect due to being hemispherical (for the most part, some aren't quite).
Sure if you really want to split hairs about it, but there's something to be said about keeping an explanation simple for people who may not know all the technical jargon about lenses; and probably don't care to either. Give an explanation that is 98% accurate for the sake of simplicity and someone will always make sure to tell you the 2% you didn't mention. Never fails.
I disagree that it is splitting hairs, or that the ratio is 98%-2%. And I would always give an accurate explanation, rather than potentially cause misunderstanding. If someone asks then they probably care about the quality of the answer.