curved horizon.

[cgesteland]

Tried to cheat here. This was taken from atop the Empire State. (My first tript to NY!! What an exciting, beautiful, and invigorating city!)

Does it work or is just lame?

http://www.vanert.net/gallery/album72/aai

[maple]

It's truly AMAZING! I loved that shot... the New York skyline has always been something so fascinating and unforgettable for me, and your picture has captured exactly that.

Your b/w pictures of the park were also exceptional, especially the one of that guy sitting on the bench - taken at a very creative angle. To tell you the truth, as a result of having visited your updated gallery, I feel like taking a bus down to NYC again!

[cgesteland]

Thank you, maple.

Took a look at your gallery. You have definitely been around! I particularly enjoyed the shot of the yellow fish. Beatiful and humorous at the same time. Good stuff!

And thanks for your sweet comments. :)

[Conk]

Nice photo Clio. I too took a look through your gallery. Excellent!

[eland]

Clio

This is just a personal comment.

I would have been tempted to sharpen the detail and
would have removed the haze to gain impact.

Shooting through glass presumably (I haven't been up there
for years) and city haze have softened the image somewhat.

Just my 2 cents worth but an excellent photograph.

Note: another interesting and effective technic is to shoot
downward as you have done , but holding the camera level.

With the wide angle lens the effect then is to have the
buildings on the left leaning left, and the ones on the right
leaning right. The center ones stay vertical.

eland

[bigdave]

That's a wonderful photograph! You should be proud to have shot that magnificent scene. Of course I'm just a beginner at photography, but tilting the horizon really worked. I did notice something odd though. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks, but look at the tallest building on the left. Follow the straight line of windows down to the bottom. Does it kind of curve at the bottom where the building meets the border, or am I seeing things?

[cgesteland]

"I did notice something odd though. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks, but look at the tallest building on the left. Follow the straight line of windows down to the bottom. Does it kind of curve at the bottom where the building meets the border, or am I seeing things? "

I think you're the only one who noticed what I meant, BigDave! I used a spherical filter to curve the horizon, to make it look like I had taken the shot from a higher angle. Unfortunately it looks like doing that also caused severe warpage at the bottom of the shot. I can easily crop that out though.

eland, what you see is what the shot looks like AFTER I increased the detail and saturation to counteract the effects of the haze. Thing is, all I have to work with is an s300. There are inherent limitations.

Did noone else notice the curved horizon?

[eland]

Clio

Thank you for your comment.
The S300 is indeed a modest camera but with many of
your fine shots, I wouldn't have been surprised if you
said that you were using a 1D !

You have exceptional talent.

eland


{ I saw the curvature but thought it was edge distortion
caused by shooting through very thick glass. ]

[slejhamer]

cgesteland wrote:
eland, what you see is what the shot looks like AFTER I increased the detail and saturation to counteract the effects of the haze. Thing is, all I have to work with is an s300. There are inherent limitations.


Hi Clio. Here is a handy "haze removal" trick that I found on the web.

Use "unsharp mask" in Photoshop with these settings: amount 20, threshold 4, and then vary the radius between 30 and 60.

I ran it twice on your image, once at radius 40 and again at radius 30, and the haze went away almost completely, at the cost of some slight noise in the sky. But that may have been because I was working with your 72ppi image; your high-res original may not get as noisy.

Works best if you convert to LAB mode first and sharpen only the lightness channel, but not at all a necessity.

[eland]

From eland: That's a useful tip, Mitch. I've made a note of it.
.....................
Actually I also had a play with your picture Clio.
I simply pushed up the Contrast and the haze disappeared,
Also the colors of the buildings are more intense.

It looks really 3 dimensional now.
Almost makes me giddy like I'm going to fall into it.
You have taken a very effective picture

You might like to experiment with both methods
of solving the haze problem, Clio.

Regards
eland

[cgesteland]

Thank you both, eland and Mitch. I'll give both those tips a shot.

I love this forum!

[Leighow]

CLIO

I like it very much. I sort of see the curve -- but the offset angle is so strong that I hardly notice it at this size. Might pop out at 2 ft by 3 ft.

I worked in the region when I was you age Clio bue have not been back since. I love the color, and the new buildings on the cityscape ate amazing.

Hey. I though that you were a west coast girl!

See Yah

HOWIE

[cgesteland]

Leighow wrote:

Hey. I though that you were a west coast girl!

See Yah

HOWIE

I am! Just went there to visit my brother for a week. I could have stayed forever. *Sigh.*

Thanks for all the helpful comments everyone. :)