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Lough Neagh
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Some pictures from the first weekend with my new Sony A100. C&C welcome (go easy)…
http://www.pbase.com/curran/image/66024767
http://www.pbase.com/curran/image/66024979
http://www.pbase.com/curran/image/66028637Brian,
I can’t see your first image but one thing about your other two, the barrel distortion. Get yourself a copy of PTLens for $10 There seems to have been an explosion in this problem with the introduction of digital wideangles. It really needs fixed.
I think your 3rd image is the best. Subtle colour, calm atmosphere and a small but effective focal point.
Get that horizon fixed and it will make all the difference. I’m beginning to feel like the horizon police. There is no excuse for it in this digital age.
Andy
Number 2 is WOW, very moody, I love it, although I am not sure it was taken with the sony! Also something funky going on with the horizon.
amcinroy wrote:
I’m beginning to feel like the horizon police.
Lol. And I’m begining to feel like the Sherif’s deputy!
carl you’re right, number 2 was taken with my dynax 7 flim and then the print scanned.
amcinroy I know what you mean about the horizon police…. PTLens is it a PS plug-in or can it run as a standalone package.
There are downloads for both. I use the standalone because I don’t use photoshop. The one problem with it is that the standalone only works with jpgs.
So my workflow basically involves doing everything in the RAW convertor, processing to JPG, correcting distortion on PTLens then a final resize and sharpen in Paintshop Pro.
Andy
Andy, how do you find paintshop pro for printing re: colour accuracy etc? I would seem to me to be a great cost effective alternative to photoshop.
I’m not sure about the barrel distortion. When you see a photograph, surely the lens plays a big part in that process. Looking back on a lot of the classic stuff they didn’t try to correct what appeared to be faults. Straight horizons have their place but on your picture the curve works, for me anyway. There is a difference between a painting and a photograph. Breaking the rules is GOOD. Otherwise we will have to look at the same stuff all the time. I must say that when I am out on the sea I have never seen a straight horizon.
carl wrote:
Andy, how do you find paintshop pro for printing re: colour accuracy etc? I would seem to me to be a great cost effective alternative to photoshop.
It does everything I need to do. I generally only use it for for final resizing, sharpening and the occasional final curves adjustment.
Valentia, lenses have always had all sorts of distortion. However the prime lenses that the classic masters used would have fairly low distortion characteristics whereas now everyone want a zoom lens that can go down to 14-17mm. You can’t expect these lenses to be jack of all trades so something has to give and in general there will be noticeable distortion on both end of the zoom range, and I’ve seen this on Canon L glass!!. I’m not saying that the straight horizon rule needs to be followed religously, but if your going to break the rule you need to go at it all guns blazing (e.g with a fisheye), otherwise it will look like a lens flaw and a mistake.
I agree that horizons are never completely straight in real life. However I never see horizons curve upwards.
Now thats my last comment on “straight horizons”. :?
Andy
There is a strong blue cast in the first image. Can I post a version with the cast removed?
I agree with Andrew about the horizon. There are no excuses for things like colour casts and wonky horizons. If you are going to display your work, you should display it at its best. This includes sharpening for display.
Removing a colour cast: http://www.udel.edu/cookbook/class/Tricks/color-cast.pdf
I like the 3rd shot with the yacht best. When I look at a photo, I tend to say, “Do I wish I’d painted that?”. I was a (bad) watercolourist before I was a (bad) photographer, and I like images that look good enough to eat. Does anyone know what I mean? The yacht is perfectly placed in the blandest bit of the picture so that the eye is encouraged to take in the clouds, the foreground and the yacht. I like the colours aswell.
The first shot could have done with a big crop, to my eye. The second photo … sorry… I just can’t see past the bucket-shaped horizon.
SteveD wrote:
There is a strong blue cast in the first image. Can I post a version with the cast removed?
SteveD, yes of course you can, go right ahead.
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