Correcting Camera perspective distortion

[DebT]

Hi,
know the shots are rs (hand held amongst big crowd- planning on late night attach with tripod etc) but would appreciate C&C on my 1st attempts at correcting Perspective distortion . Shot with Sigma 10-20 on 40D - using Photoshop Elements attempetd to get verticle alingment a bit more realistic but not really sure what I should be trying to achieve ...ie what makes a good shot of close up architecture ? how far is too far ?
Origional


edited


Northern Lights - North Tce Adelaide PS display extended to end of March for anyone in town

Rgds DebT

[photohiker]

Hi DebT,

It looks over-corrected to me - the walls seem to be sloping outward, and the top of the building is bigger than the bottom...

Do you know what time the Northern lights run to? Does it run all night? We drove past last night at about 10PM and the crowds were amazing, even in the heat!

Michael

[DebT]

Hi,
yes think your right about overcorrection just had a quick play this morning so looking for how to advice
a bit less done

I believe the lights are on until 1:30 and heard that the date has been extended to the 31st (but only word of mouth)
Definately worth a look. We were there until 11:30 last night and the crowd was still too large for clean shots -although the Fringe was on also on so town was really busy .. I'll be trying mid week.
Rgds Deb

[gstark]

Hi Deb,

You've only done half the job. What you really need in order to do this properly is something like this, which will let you do it in the camera.

Failing that, correcting this distortion you need to act upon both the horizontal as well as the vertical axes; in this image you've only worked on the vertical, and as noted by Michael, you've slightly overdone it - look at the rh edge of the illuminated building and tell me if it's straight up and down.

I'm also of the opinion that this is perhaps overexposed, but that's a more difficult call. I think that the lighting here is actually more difficult than it seems, and with the variations that they seem to be employing, what you have ended up with is almost a caricature of the building. Try observing the cycles through which the lights proceed, and then select just a few subsets of them and see how you go. I suspect that with less, rather than more, lighting on the building, you will end up with a better set of images.

[photohiker]

Found it:

Northern Lights is free and will run from sunset until 2am each night until March 30.

Whole story (The Advertiser) here.

Michael

[DebT]

Thank Michael - suggest you allow at least a couple of hours
Rgds Deb

[colin_12]

Your second go is much better Deb.
Regards Colin

[DanielA]

Hi Deb,

[...] but not really sure what I should be trying to achieve ...ie what makes a good shot of close up architecture ? how far is too far ?

I have only done perspective correction a couple of times (shown below), and I found my attempts still look too fake.

For these I used Hugin.

You can certainly straighten the image, but it might be better to leave a bit of perspective effect in there.

A quick search showed a few examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_correction
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/perspective.htm
In each case they look better when the shot was taken from (or looks like) a long distance away. I think you'll always have trouble with 10-20mm.

Daniel

[DebT]

Thanks Daniel appreciate the info
Rgds Deb

[Flash in the pan]

Hi Deb
Saw your post and thought I would try another tool in Photoshop. I don't know if 'Elements" has Warp in Edit>transform>Warp. I had a go at fixing the perspective in your shot. For my money I don't mind some distortion.




You have taken a nice shot. I must see thee lights before they go. They look great.

[DebT]

Thanks Flash,
I'll have a hunt round Elements and see what I can find that may be the same , I'm learning things all the time and really appreciate the leads from forum members. Would recommend going in - this was just a quick practice snapshot to get a feel for a new lense so hoping to nail a few shots over Easter - thought about tonight but its a bit cold & windy, think Iv'e gone a bit soft after the warm nights.

If you are intersted in getting an idea of what to expect here are a few shots by my work friend http://gallery.shrinkpictures.com/v/northernlights/

and Utube had a fun thing called Adelaide festival northern lights

Looking forward to your posts
Rgds Deb