Fisheye

An extreme ultra-wide lens that takes in about 180° at once. Ordinary wide lenses correct the bending so straight lines look straight, but a fisheye deliberately leaves it in, so the image looks round and bulging. There is the circular fisheye (about 8mm on full frame), which draws a round circle inside the frame with black corners, and the diagonal fisheye (about 15mm), which fills the whole frame. What defines a fisheye is less the mm number than whether straight lines bend.

Camera position seen from outside. The blue camera sits close, about 1.2 m in front of the bunny at eye level. The bending shows only in the camera view, not in this drawing.

Camera view. As if looking into a ball, the frame bulges round, the straight edges of buildings bend outward, and the four corners go black. In the comparison it switches to a 16mm ultra-wide and the straight lines stand straight again.

How it feels

Surreal
Energy
Dynamism
Peering in
Exaggeration

When to use it

Fitting a driver, the dashboard and the windshield in one frame inside a car
The point of view of someone doing an extreme sport like skateboarding
Looking up at a forest of skyscrapers from below
A scene like looking out through a peephole
A short, punchy moment (used for long, it starts to look like a gimmick)

In the movies

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) · Source: Warner Bros. Classics (YouTube) · Original video

Not to be confused with

Ultra-wide Lens: An ultra-wide is built to keep straight lines straight; a fisheye deliberately lets them bend round. Both take in a very wide view, but they differ in whether straight lines bend.
Lens Distortion: Lens distortion covers every way straight lines bend. Fisheye bending is barrel distortion, which bulges outward, pushed to the extreme on purpose.
Wide Lens: An ordinary wide lens takes in a wide view while keeping straight lines straight. A fisheye takes in far more, but the image curves.

Prompt

Keyword

fisheye lens

Descriptive

Circular fisheye lens, 180-degree view, strong barrel distortion. The street curves around the subject inside a round frame with dark corners.

Try these combinations

Fisheye + inside a car: driver and dashboard at once
Fisheye lens view from inside a car, capturing the driver and the entire curved dashboard and windscreen
Fisheye + extreme sports: the moment of liftoff
Fisheye view of skateboarder mid-trick, distorted perspective, dynamic