Fisheye lenses were originally developed for use in meteorological study, to enable a larger part of cloud formations to be included in the image.

Fisheye lenses are wide-angle lenses that take broad, panoramic, hemispherical images.

Photographers, being such creative souls, soon began using fisheye lenses to create skillful images with very different perspectives – fisheye lenses achieve extremely wide angles of view which give images a convex appearance.

There are two main types of fisheye lenses. A circular fisheye creates a circle within the film frame, so the outermost parts of the image remain dark.
A full-frame fisheye enlarges that circle to cover the entire frame. The first full-frame fisheye lens was produced by Nikon in the early 1970s.

As always with photography, subject, lighting, angle and many other factors come into play to get the perfect shot with a fisheye lens.

In this article we are featuring some stunning examples of photographs taken using a fisheye lens. Notice the subjects are often similar, as are the angles – there is quite a well-defined method of acheiving great images with fisheye lenses.

First off, here is an example of a shot using a fisheye lens used for meteorological purposes. The convex effect allows for all of the sky area within the tree-formed circle to be studied.

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I hope your eyes are not bulging or twirling after viewing these stunning photos!!!
Please leave any comments or links to outstanding examples of fisheye photography that we may have missed below.