Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] IMG: You and me at the top of the world

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: You and me at the top of the world
From: Peter Klein <pklein@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:00:55 -0700
Thanks, everyone. Jeff and Chuck: This picture was a grab shot. We were 
cleaning out my late mother-in-laws apartment. I noticed the light on 
the building and the couple on the roof. I ran out on the balcony, set 
the 14-45 Panny kit zoom to maximum, and took a few shots. This one was 
the best.

I was on a fifth floor balcony. The target building is obviously higher 
and a bit to the right of the camera position. So the camera was tilted 
up a bit. Since I've read many times that the most important thing with 
buildings is to get the vertical lines straight, I used the "tilt" 
correction to get a central line in the building straight. I used 
Capture One 6's Keystone correction tool to straighten the edges of the 
building. Each adjustment affected the others and there is some 
pincushion distortion. So the lines were never t perfectly straight no 
matter what I did. I experimented with straightening the rooftop, but 
then the whole picture looked flat. So let the perspective recede, as it 
seemed to want to do.

If I was Andreas Feininger, I'd have used a view camera with swings and 
tilts. But then the couple wouldn't have been there by the time I set it 
up :-)  To me, the most important thing was the moment of the couple 
facing each other on the rooftop on a gorgeously-lit building, with the 
city surrounding them.

The sky was much brighter the building. So I developed two TIFs from the 
RAW image, one "exposed" for each, and combined them with a mask. The 
B&W also employs a digital orange filter.

Anyway, if someone has a better idea on how to deal with the perspective 
and distortion, do tell.

--Peter


 > Interesting how quick associations affect how a picture is seen. When I
 > first saw it I thought the left side of the building was (the part 
with the
 > balconies opening to the left) was actually wider at the top. Looking 
more
 > carefully the black border prevented me from seeing that the right 
edge of
 > the building was also shifted to the left at the top. I think the 
picture
 > is just slightly rotated counter clockwise from vertical.
 >
 > My wide angle lenses have barrel distortion. I don't think at first
 > glance I would interpret any but the most obvious pin cushion 
distortion as
 > pin cushion distortion.
 >
 > Jeff
 >
 > On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Chuck Norcutt <
 > chucknorcutt [at] chucknorcutt.com> wrote:
 >
 > > Yes, I think the color version makes it easier to spot the people.
 > >
 > > I thought at first that the camera had been pointed slightly down 
giving
 > > some perspective distortion but I then realized that I was probably
 > > looking at some pincushion distortion.
 > >
 > > Chuck Norcutt
 > >
 > >
 > > On 7/15/2012 4:45 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
 > > > I like the idea of the title, Peter, and the colour one is my 
favoured
 > > version.
 > > >
 > > > Chris
 > > >
 > > > On 15 Jul 2012, at 08:51, Peter Klein wrote:
 > > >
 > > >> Best viewed full screen:
 > > >>
 > > >>
 > > >> I made a B&W version, too.
 > > >>

-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz