AirBrontosaurus
17th of March 2007 (Sat), 19:50
I was on a trip to Florida last week and took my camera stuff with me. I had a free day, so I wandered around the neighborhood we were staying at. Since I had my Peleng 8mm fisheye with me, I decided to shoot with it and see if I liked the results.
Well, after getting home and processing my images, I have come to the conclusion that, with the right PP knowledge, the Peleng 8mm is an amazing multi-tasker of a lens. It can go from extreme fisheye to perspective to nearly-rectilinear ultrawide in a few PP steps. I thought I'd share my findings with you guys.
First: Fisheye.
Since this lens is a fisheye lens, then it obviously should do fisheye shots well. However, there are some PP steps that I have found that make the shots a lot more pleasing on the eyes.
Starting with an image like this:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1861/hydrantvz7.jpg
It looks like a normal fisheye shot, but I don't think it is very impressive. The colors are sort of bland, it isn't too sharp, and the black around the edges looks really tacky to me. So, I first scale it up and crop away the black edges. Then, I use the most important tool when working with fisheye shots: shadows and highlights. Since the lens has such a wide field of view, in nearly every shot it will be intaking a wide variety of brightnesses and exposures. Thus, you need to make special care that you never overexpose something. Underexposure is ok (I'll get to that later) but overexposure is unfixable.
The final product is this (click for full-size image):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/424616365_4d74534a80.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/424616365_57d623825c_o.jpg)
The colors are much better, the sharpness is improved (I use the "convert to LAB color and sharpen the lightness layer" method to preserve details), the annoying black edges are gone, and the shot has a definitive fisheye look to it.
Great! But, what if you don't want that extreme fisheye look? It is distracting, and while fun, isn't too great for serious photography.
In that case, you need to use a de-fishing filter. I prefer the Lens Correction (http://www.photo-plugins.com/Plugins/Plugins/Lens-Correction-2.html) by photo plugins because it is free and works very well.
Starting with an image like this:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7063/sky1nf3.jpg
I want to get an image with a more landscape-y feel, but still have some fisheye effect (for an interesting perspective).
So, I apply a moderate lens-correction to the image (about 45-50 for strong correction, and 20-30 for fine tune). This corrects some of the fisheye effect, and gets rid of the black sides at the same time. You're left with a shot that looks more rectilinear, but still distorts enough to be "interesting."
Something like this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/424616539_36e4b522df.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/424616539_bd41ecd3d7_o.jpg)
Hooray! The entire sky and foreground is properly exposed, and the fisheye effect is present but not overpowering.
However, what if the shot required you to shoot into the sun? Since a fisheye lens has a HUGE field of view, shooting outdoors usually means that the sun will be in the shot. However, since the sun is so bright, how can we expose the shot well (without shooting an HDR)?
Well, this is where my previous comment about making sure to NEVER overexpose comes into play. Since a fisheye lens has such a large FOV, noise is not as much of a factor in an image as would be with a normal lens. So, you can afford to use the shadows-highlights tool to bring immensely underexposed sections of your image back into proper exposure without suffering too much noise.
Take this shot:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8859/housefc0.jpg
Looks pretty much ruined, doesn't it? I mean, there is hardly any detail in the foreground (massive underexposure), and the sky is pretty much properly exposed, but boring.
Well, breaking out the shadows/highlight menu can save this shot. In fact, it's the only way I found (barring HDR) to properly expose a shot facing into the sun with a fisheye.
Since the underexposed areas will have a lot of noise, it is important to use NeatImage first, and then sharpen using the LAB color technique. I applied a heavier de-fishing to this one, and was left with this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/424630608_488bdd896a.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/424630608_38b3a6bfc2_o.jpg)
There is still a small fisheye distortion present, but it is not overpowering, and the exposure has been (mostly) corrected! Whoopie!
Now, the final task: turning a fisheye into a (almost) true rectilinear. This technique requires special conditions when shooting the shot. Since the exact middle of the lens creates almost now fisheye distortion, you need to line up your horizon with that. And, since the vertical line through the middle of the lens (perpendicular to the horizon) also creates almost no fisheye distortion, you need to line up your subject(s) with that. For this shot, I chose a relatively straight road.
Also, since I shot into the sun, I had to make sure to not overexpose the sky, and keep the foreground underexposed.
The unaltered shot looked like this:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3223/roadhw6.jpg
You can see that the road and horizon are relatively straight, and the sky is mostly not overexposed. This is what you need in order to get a good rectilinear conversion.
Apply the photo-plugins filter to the image, fix the colors/contrast/saturation/sharpness, and you get this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/424616474_c7b1043679.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/424616474_73b368f267_o.jpg)
Alright, you're done! An almost perfect rectilinear shot from a $200 fisheye lens!
I hope you guys like my writeup, and hopefully anyone who is pondering buying the lens will do it. It's an excellent lens with a lot of potential, and with the proper technique and some time for PP, it can produce some amazing images.
Well, after getting home and processing my images, I have come to the conclusion that, with the right PP knowledge, the Peleng 8mm is an amazing multi-tasker of a lens. It can go from extreme fisheye to perspective to nearly-rectilinear ultrawide in a few PP steps. I thought I'd share my findings with you guys.
First: Fisheye.
Since this lens is a fisheye lens, then it obviously should do fisheye shots well. However, there are some PP steps that I have found that make the shots a lot more pleasing on the eyes.
Starting with an image like this:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1861/hydrantvz7.jpg
It looks like a normal fisheye shot, but I don't think it is very impressive. The colors are sort of bland, it isn't too sharp, and the black around the edges looks really tacky to me. So, I first scale it up and crop away the black edges. Then, I use the most important tool when working with fisheye shots: shadows and highlights. Since the lens has such a wide field of view, in nearly every shot it will be intaking a wide variety of brightnesses and exposures. Thus, you need to make special care that you never overexpose something. Underexposure is ok (I'll get to that later) but overexposure is unfixable.
The final product is this (click for full-size image):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/424616365_4d74534a80.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/424616365_57d623825c_o.jpg)
The colors are much better, the sharpness is improved (I use the "convert to LAB color and sharpen the lightness layer" method to preserve details), the annoying black edges are gone, and the shot has a definitive fisheye look to it.
Great! But, what if you don't want that extreme fisheye look? It is distracting, and while fun, isn't too great for serious photography.
In that case, you need to use a de-fishing filter. I prefer the Lens Correction (http://www.photo-plugins.com/Plugins/Plugins/Lens-Correction-2.html) by photo plugins because it is free and works very well.
Starting with an image like this:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7063/sky1nf3.jpg
I want to get an image with a more landscape-y feel, but still have some fisheye effect (for an interesting perspective).
So, I apply a moderate lens-correction to the image (about 45-50 for strong correction, and 20-30 for fine tune). This corrects some of the fisheye effect, and gets rid of the black sides at the same time. You're left with a shot that looks more rectilinear, but still distorts enough to be "interesting."
Something like this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/424616539_36e4b522df.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/424616539_bd41ecd3d7_o.jpg)
Hooray! The entire sky and foreground is properly exposed, and the fisheye effect is present but not overpowering.
However, what if the shot required you to shoot into the sun? Since a fisheye lens has a HUGE field of view, shooting outdoors usually means that the sun will be in the shot. However, since the sun is so bright, how can we expose the shot well (without shooting an HDR)?
Well, this is where my previous comment about making sure to NEVER overexpose comes into play. Since a fisheye lens has such a large FOV, noise is not as much of a factor in an image as would be with a normal lens. So, you can afford to use the shadows-highlights tool to bring immensely underexposed sections of your image back into proper exposure without suffering too much noise.
Take this shot:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8859/housefc0.jpg
Looks pretty much ruined, doesn't it? I mean, there is hardly any detail in the foreground (massive underexposure), and the sky is pretty much properly exposed, but boring.
Well, breaking out the shadows/highlight menu can save this shot. In fact, it's the only way I found (barring HDR) to properly expose a shot facing into the sun with a fisheye.
Since the underexposed areas will have a lot of noise, it is important to use NeatImage first, and then sharpen using the LAB color technique. I applied a heavier de-fishing to this one, and was left with this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/424630608_488bdd896a.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/424630608_38b3a6bfc2_o.jpg)
There is still a small fisheye distortion present, but it is not overpowering, and the exposure has been (mostly) corrected! Whoopie!
Now, the final task: turning a fisheye into a (almost) true rectilinear. This technique requires special conditions when shooting the shot. Since the exact middle of the lens creates almost now fisheye distortion, you need to line up your horizon with that. And, since the vertical line through the middle of the lens (perpendicular to the horizon) also creates almost no fisheye distortion, you need to line up your subject(s) with that. For this shot, I chose a relatively straight road.
Also, since I shot into the sun, I had to make sure to not overexpose the sky, and keep the foreground underexposed.
The unaltered shot looked like this:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3223/roadhw6.jpg
You can see that the road and horizon are relatively straight, and the sky is mostly not overexposed. This is what you need in order to get a good rectilinear conversion.
Apply the photo-plugins filter to the image, fix the colors/contrast/saturation/sharpness, and you get this (click for full size):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/424616474_c7b1043679.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/424616474_73b368f267_o.jpg)
Alright, you're done! An almost perfect rectilinear shot from a $200 fisheye lens!
I hope you guys like my writeup, and hopefully anyone who is pondering buying the lens will do it. It's an excellent lens with a lot of potential, and with the proper technique and some time for PP, it can produce some amazing images.