Photography tips

Using a wide angle creatively

View of the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower in Lucerne with Mount Pilatus in the background under a cloudy evening sky.

Key tips

Select an ultra-wide angle lens with a 12 mm focal length to effectively frame the vast sky and cloud formations.
Use an ultra-wide angle of 12 mm to capture a vast landscape, such as Lake Lucerne and the Pilatus massif, in its entirety.
Use a wide angle lens to frame your main subject between foreground elements.

Photographs on this topic

6 photographs with tips

The exact camera settings for each shot are shown below it - a starting point for recreating the look yourself. Click through to a photograph for detailed photography tips on that specific shot, under "Photography tips for this image".

All subjects City Architecture Mountains Landscape Lucerne Pilatus Lake Lucerne Central Switzerland

View of Mount Pilatus from a ship during sunset

12 mm · f/4 · 1/1000 s · ISO 200

Bürgenstock mountain ridge over Lake Lucerne in violet evening light

12 mm · f/4 · 1/400 s · ISO 200

Night view of Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus with light trails from boats

12 mm · f/4 · 1.6 s · ISO 1000

View of Mount Pilatus and Lake Lucerne through two ship bollards

22 mm · f/14 · 1/160 s · ISO 200

View of Mount Pilatus and Lake Lucerne at sunset

15 mm · f/22 · 15 s · ISO 800

Panoramic view from Mount Rigi over Lake Lucerne with the Weggis peninsula and Mount Pilatus

15 mm · f/9 · 1/1250 s · ISO 400