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Tips and Technique

Washington Union Station—a PC view.

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Exposed on Kodachrome using a Nikon F3T with 35mm PC (perspective control) lens.

In the 1990s, I often worked with a Nikkor 35mm PC (perspective control) wide angle lens.

This allowed for a degree of correction using a shifting front element to minimize the effects of convergence of vertical lines on the film plane.

In this November 1992 view of Washington Union Station, I made good use of perspective control to keep front of the building from the appearance of falling away from the viewer. (A common complaint with wide angle architectural views).

While a very useful tool, I eventually sold the lens because I felt that it wasn’t sufficiently sharp in the corners, also it was comparatively slow (just f3.5 at its widest aperture.).

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Washington Union Station—Daily Post.

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May 2002, Hologon View.

It’s always fun to play with a new piece of equipment. I’d just bought a 16mm flat field Hologon super wide angle lens for my Contax G2 and I used this to make some dramatic photos inside Washington Union.

Washington D.C. Union Station as it appeared to me in May 2002. Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Contax G2 Rangefinder with 16mm Hologon lens.
Washington D.C. Union Station as it appeared to me in May 2002. Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Contax G2 Rangefinder with 16mm Hologon lens.

This lens is specially corrected to eliminate barrel distortion (commonly associated with super wide lens design) but it must be kept completely level to avoid perspective convergence to vertical lines in the image. A bubble-level is provided in the clip-on viewfinder to aid with the leveling process.

For this image, rather than make any effort to keep the camera level, I happily embraced the effect of perspective convergence to make for a dramatic image of Washington Union’s magnificent barrel-vault ceiling.

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