Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L

Hmmm I cant find it.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/alabang/5213686​620/

^I lilke this shot Paolo. Everything is straight.

Thanks! But the left wall isn't 90 degrees. Makes me wish I started using this lens a year earlier rather than keeping it in the dry cabinet and focusing on long lenses.

I see. I didn't notice the left wall until you pointed it out. I too need more practice with this lens.

dolina wrote in post #11356378
Thanks! But the left wall isn't 90 degrees. Makes me wish I started using this lens a year earlier rather than keeping it in the dry cabinet and focusing on long lenses.

Yeah, it looks like you had your camera tilting downward ever so slightly, which is not a major problem to fix in post.

With taller buildings, a bit of upward keystone distortion is actually a bit more natural looking as the human eye sees many larger objects with real-world vanishing points anyway.

Case in point, a church I shot a while back....

The Ghost of FM wrote in post #11356568
Yeah, it looks like you had your camera tilting downward ever so slightly, which is not a major problem to fix in post.

With taller buildings, a bit of upward keystone distortion is actually a bit more natural looking as the human eye sees many larger objects with real-world vanishing points anyway.

Case in point, a church I shot a while back....

If you look at the verticals in this shot, they're not perfectly straight, but the building still comes away with having a fairly natural look to the perspective.

Cheers!

Couldn't you just back up and crop so you wouldn't have that weird look in the verticals?

When doing shots do I really need to attach a bubble level?

jdizzle wrote in post #11356580
Couldn't you just back up and crop so you wouldn't have that weird look in the verticals?

I was across the street and backed up as far as I could. Ideally, this church would have looked most natural shot with a 50mm lens from about 2.5 times further back then where I was but that would have been impossible to do because of other buildings in the area. So a bit of the normal UWA distortion is going to factor into the shot. UWA lenses create a shorter vanishing points because of their wider then real life view or 104 degrees compared to the human eye's FOV of around 45 degrees. For those that are real sticklers for completely natural perspectives, the TS-E45mm would probably be the best tool for the job. Problem is, you may not be able to back up far enough with a 45mm lens in many circumstances.

Cheers!

dolina wrote in post #11356594
When doing shots do I really need to attach a bubble level?

It couldn't hurt!

Cheers!

The Ghost of FM wrote in post #11356624
I couldn't hurt!

Cheers!

A bubble level helps! I finally found mine the other day rummaging through the drawers.

This lens definitely takes a lot of getting used to. The one thing I'm struggling with is how I bracket for HDR. When you tilt the lens down in landscape, you have to adjust your exposure down. Its not as bad in when the camera is flipped to portrait.

I just jumped in and shot a 9 frame bracket and blended these in enfuse.

Per my previous question, there is definitely a limit to the tilt, but there is no doubt that it is extremely helpful. Im going to shoot some buildings that are a bit higher next.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Looks pretty good, Tim!

I think the overall shot, horizontally could stand a .5 degree counter-clockwise adjustment but beyond that it looks about right!

About the metering issues, yes, it can be extremely tricky to meter a shot once the tilt adjustments come into play. The best advice I could give you is to shoot in manual and meter the shot prior to any adjustments and leave those settings as your 0 exposure level and then bracket up and down in one stop increments to ensure you've come away with at least one good/usable exposure. I'm not sure if the shot you posted really needed 9 exposures as you had the sun cooperating with your composition but extra kudos for pulling that off!

Cheers!

thanks for the tips. The 5dmkII is a stinker when it comes to more than 3 brackets - I've been using the custom settings to do 3 sets of 3 but your probably right - for this lens just do 3 at +1 and -1 or something like similar till I get the hang of it. Also - I didnt get to that spot till 10:30 am - probably late. there were a ton of shadows. Some that I liked some that I didnt. Hind sight is 20/20.

Ghostfly wrote in post #11357301
This lens definitely takes a lot of getting used to. The one thing I'm struggling with is how I bracket for HDR. When you tilt the lens down in landscape, you have to adjust your exposure down. Its not as bad in when the camera is flipped to portrait.

I just jumped in and shot a 9 frame bracket and blended these in enfuse.

Per my previous question, there is definitely a limit to the tilt, but there is no doubt that it is extremely helpful. Im going to shoot some buildings that are a bit higher next.

Thanks for this, I was about to ask whether anyone was using the lens for HDR. I'm still agonising over whether I sell the 24TSE and get this... it's just the filter thing that has me spooked. Then again I was thinking I'm getting more and more into HDR so maybe I shouldn't care

^Looks good Ghostfly. I too agree with Jeff's recommendation on the horizon.