When people think of a fisheye lens, they probably conjure up thoughts of extreme sport videos, or maybe some hyper-colored, uber loud club footage, or maybe even just GoPro videos where the camera falls from an airplane and lands in a pig pen, or that insane catwalk where models are literally jumping off cliffs.
Regardless of what a fisheye lens means to you, the look and effect of one in your photos and videos can add an incredibly different & fun element to your social media posts!
Whether you're grabbing grub with a friend, snapping some "candid" modeling shots on the street, doing some bike-riding, flying high in the sky on your vacation, or just chilling with the family, there's room for a fisheye lens to take your iPhoneography & social media content to the next level.
Here's how you can shoot a lil' social media gold (and step out of your mobile photography comfort zone!) with a fisheye lens.
- Fisheye + Food = <3
- (Not-so) Extreme Sports
- Fisheye? More like party-eye!
- Change your selfie game
- Snapchat? Instagram Stories? Messenger Day (lololol)? Fisheye!
Fisheye + Food = <3
If you're someone who frequents Instagram quite a bit, then you've totally caught a glimpse of someone's dinner on your timeline. If anything, food shots are one of the most common flavor of photo on social media, as certain restaurants (& even people at home!) sure do a hell of a job making your burger look like it was sculpted by Zeus.
While food photography (aka, food porn) can be beautiful to look at, seeing meal after meal after meal after meal can get a bit repetitive and dull. Enter: the fisheye lens to spice things up! (your iPhoneography, that is… not the meal you're photographing).
By attaching a fisheye lens to your iPhone, you're able to capture your food shots from a different point of view, turning your regular, boring pad-thai into an explosion of color and texture you didn't know was possible to capture with an iPhone!
By using a fisheye lens, you also increase the chance of snapping your dining partner's meal, too, without straining and awkwardly moving bowls around in a busy restaurant to get the perfect shot!
(Not-so) Extreme Sports
If there's one thing the GoPro has over regular ol' DSLRs and iPhones, it's its durability factor. You can take a GoPro in the ocean, with you as you jump out of a plane, spelunking in caves, doing backflips across a gorge, and so, so much more, all while still capturing your footage in a beautiful fisheye setting.
Unfortunately, there aren't any fisheye lenses or cases for your iPhone that can even remotely hold a candle to the resilience of a GoPro, but if you want to shoot some action shots that don't require literally free-falling from the top of an office building, then you might be able to get away with shooting with a fisheye and an iPhone!
Depending on the type of iPhone you have and the quality of fisheye lens, you can use a mount to shoot your bike ride, capture some underwater footage of a crazy family pool party, or even record some slo-mo video of your pal doing some sick tricks at the skate park – that'll be sure to get you some likes on Instagram!
You just have to think outside the GoPro!
Fisheye? More like party-eye!
Well, party party party / I wanna have a party / I need to have a party / You better have a party (Andrew W.K.)
Fisheye lenses have been known to be used in nightclubs and night-life photography for the sole reason that you get a wider angle of the room which equals more people partying, dancing, drinking, and acting a fool. Typically these shots are captured with a DSLR fisheye attachment, but you can use your iPhone and an external fisheye lens to get the exact same shots!
By attaching a fisheye lens to your iPhone and shooting at a party, you will…
a) Instantly have a conversation starter because people will be all like, "Woah! What is that on your phone, man?!"
b) Capture probably the coolest photos out of anyone at your party or event without even really trying (protip: high angles + fisheye = effortless masterpiece)
c) People will repost and tag you in their photos online, further spreading your fisheye freshness to the social media masses!
If you're worried about bringing your fisheye lens to an event and having it fall out your iPhone and break, try looking for a lens that attaches to a case like the SNAP ! Pro for a more secure shooting experience.
Change your selfie game
Are you stuck in a selfie rut? Constantly taking the same, boring old self-portrait in the same, boring old place in the same, boring old lighting with the same, boring old background? Isn't it time you show your social media followers a new angle of yourself they've never seen before?!
Then use a fisheye lens and change your selfie game!
By attaching a fisheye lens to your front-facing camera, you can instantly stop with your dull selfies that you've shot 100 different times in 100 different outfits. A fisheye lens will force you to play around with angles and distance, so you could even set up your iPhone and use a self-timer to really get the perfect shot.
Fisheye lenses are also great for capturing Boomerangs or selfie-rangs, because shooting the same flat photo over and over again gets real old real fast.
Snapchat? Instagram Stories? Messenger Day (lololol)? Fisheye!
It seems like every few months, there's a new 24-hour messaging app like Snapchat that suddenly becomes intertwined with your already existing – and already functioning LIKEYOUDON'TNEEDTOCHANGEANYTHING (COUGH MESSENGER DAY COUGH) – social media that you use every day.
While these apps provide things like face filters, geo-tagging, doodling, and more, almost everyone can agree that the dog face has been done way too many times and that hearing high-pitched rants can get a bit repetitive.
By using a fisheye lens with 24-hour messaging apps, you not only break up the mundane filters and doodles that everyone else has, but you're also able to show the world a whole new perspective, even if you're just going for a walk or Snapchatting your pita being made for lunch.
Also, if you really like the fisheye effect and are a huge Snapchat fan, check out Snapchat Spectacles that were pretty much made for this exact purpose!
How do you use your fisheye lens?
Are you someone who is absolutely head-over-heels in love with their fisheye lens/can't stop fisheye-ing? Or do you think the look and feel of a fisheye is outdated and, well, kind of super stupid?
Let us know what you think of using a fisheye lens to shoot your mobile photos and videos – and if do you love your fisheye, let us know how you use it in the comments below!
