I got the Canon 11-24 f/4L lens in August 2016. I had hesitated for a while getting the lens as thought that in many cases it is way to wide in the range 11-14mm since I had the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 already. In fact it is in some locations it is. I was in Tuscany in November and I did not shot a single landscape shot using the 11-24 (or the 16-35). I did not think I would use it much on Isle og Skye, expected some use in the Dolomites, a bit in Abruzzo and some in Lofoten. So it turned out that I liked to use it a lot more than expected on Isle of Skye especially in the Quiraing. A few in the Dolomites and Abruzzo, but a lot on Lofoten. The examples here are at 11mm and I will often use the range between 11mm and 24mm. The big front lens will easily pick up lens flare and I use the Canon 16-35 f/4L IS is such situations where 16mm is adequate. All photos in the following was shot using the Canon 5DSR.
The way to shoot this lens is in most cases to get low and close to a foreground subject and pay attention to vertical lines and stretching of things in the corners. In some cases I will shoot straight lines with an angle on the camera and then correct in Lightroom using the transform function.
On Isle of Skye in the Quiraing, I liked to get close to the foreground shooting heather and grass and the landscape behind. In the following I had the tripod legs not extended and probably stretched a bit wide to get close to the ground. Some lens flare in the following was removed with spot removal in Lightroom and some I left.
in the following again I went close to the ground and wanted to match some of the foreground to the landscape. In this case I even wanted to zoom slightly further out!!
If everything is distant without a close foreground a very vast scene can be captured like the following of the Carezza lake in the Dolomites.
but I find mostly that a scene with a foreground close is working the best like the alternative from the same location
Some cases can look quite surreal like the following of the castle ruin at Rocca Calascio in Abruzzo shot in October 2016
where in the following the scene looks much more natural and not surreal although very wide
The following is from Hamnøy on Lofoten which is a very popular spot and this was overcast and felt the very wide view worked well (slightly cropped from the sides but not top of bottm of the frame).
and here is one with the sun illuminating the red cabins. In this case the camera pointed downwards a bit to capture the waves crashing on the rock and it was the correct using the guided transform function in Lightroom
For the Aurora I also liked the very wide view at times like this shot where I could capture a lot without being forced to do a vertical
A number of places there was ice at lakes and with the 11mm view it was possible to get both the ice formations and rock in the foreground and mountains in the background.
In many cases there was rock and ice with the low sun as possible compositions like the following shot a Hamnøy
So as you can see I really like this lens and I think you can get compositions otherwise not possible unless you want to stitch panos. In some locations I would not find it useful as in Tuscany where I typically shoot a lot with a 70-200 and 24-70, but Scotland and Lofoten was nice with this lens. It definitely had grown on my so maybe I will revise my judgement as time goes. I hope this was useful for those of you who like me were doubting the usefulness of this amazing lens. Besides the very wide angle of view it is very very good optically and sharp into the corners even fully open. It vignets a lot fully open and I correct in Lightroom for this. Stopped down I did not use lens correction.
The gallery with the examples plus some more can be found here
http://hanskrusephotography.zenfolio.com/p237726957
