Baltimore Harbor C&C Please

ADavis85 · Feb 2, 2012

C&C This shot from the Inner Harbor, Baltimore. Specifically, how do the colors look? Are they vibrant enough? Is the framing correct; i.e. capturing the reflections on the water etc. There is one bright spot, I know...on the National Aquarium Center. I tried to correct it, but it ruined the rest of the image so...there it is.

EXIF Data is as follows:

Taken with: Sony Alpha 100 | 18-200 f3.5-6.3
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f3.5
Exposure: 4 seconds
ISO: 100

Thanks in advance.

Robchaos · Feb 2, 2012

straighten the water line and show just a little more sky if possible.
It looks like it has a real slight slant to the right. Other than that, it is exposed properly and the reflections look good

The_Traveler · Feb 2, 2012

The World Trade Center has quite a lean to the right and looks odd, as if the top couple of floors are larger than those below.

2WheelPhoto · Feb 2, 2012

Also it appears WB is a little on the warm side, but may be my monitor.

Robchaos · Feb 2, 2012

It is on the warm side. Was shot at 8 or 9 pm IIRC, once the suns down completely, using auto WB things tend to get a warm I was with him when it all went down. As for the WTC distortion, all I can say to that is either try and fix that in PP, I don't know if gimp has distortion correction, look into it if it idoes. That or next time you stitch a pano together using that lens at the widest focal length, make sure that tall buildings like that fall in the center of the frame where there is less distortion.

ADavis85 · Feb 2, 2012

Thanks for all the input guys. The WTC does appear to be tilted, sadly I'm without a tilt/shift lens, or the ability to have made the tripod much higher to avoid that. The camera was not level when this shot was taken, leading to the appearance of a lean. Also, I realize that the 'lean' is only on the right side...like someone said, the top floors look wider than the rest. Looking at it, it would appear that the shape of the building (pentagonal {tallest "regular pentagonal" building in the world}) is lending to the misleading distortion as well.

Robchaos said:
It is on the warm side. Was shot at 8 or 9 pm IIRC, once the suns down completely, using auto WB things tend to get a warm I was with him when it all went down. As for the WTC distortion, all I can say to that is either try and fix that in PP, I don't know if gimp has distortion correction, look into it if it idoes. That or next time you stitch a pano together using that lens at the widest focal length, make sure that tall buildings like that fall in the center of the frame where there is less distortion.

Thanks Rob, I didn't think about a distortion correction...I'll look into that.

Also, this wasn't a panoramic. O.0

GeorgieGirl · Feb 2, 2012

I thinks its a really good effort...what PP program are you using...the biggie is just getting the building righted. To your question about all other elements, I think you are fine but I am not very nit picky.

ADavis85 · Feb 2, 2012

I use Gimp2.6 currently, although I'm in the process of migrating to PhotoShop CS4.

I'm definitely going to look into distortion correction with Gimp, to get that building corrected.

Also, thanks for the compliment!

iresq · Feb 2, 2012

All the buildings on the left are leaning right. Otherwise, very nice shot. I just took a bunch in Fells Point yesterday (and enjoyed some outside refreshments at Max's). Keep wanting to get there at night to take the shot you have. The reflections are very cool.

thebasedsloth · Feb 2, 2012

I didn't know there were so many members from Maryland on this site.. I like it!

ADavis85 · Feb 3, 2012

iresq said:
All the buildings on the left are leaning right. Otherwise, very nice shot. I just took a bunch in Fells Point yesterday (and enjoyed some outside refreshments at Max's). Keep wanting to get there at night to take the shot you have. The reflections are very cool.

Yeah, maybe it's just the entire horizon lol...I'll make an adjustment and re-post.

thebasedsloth said:
I didn't know there were so many members from Maryland on this site.. I like it!

Me either, actually...pretty cool.

Thanks again for the input everyone.

EchoingWhisper · Feb 3, 2012

Next time use a tripod. Set it straight and don't point up. Point front. Use the widest lens possible and correct its distortion in Lightroom then crop the bottom part of the image away.

bazooka · Feb 3, 2012

I had a go at it...

Corrected distortion globally and then locally on the WTC.
Increased brightness on clouds via masked curve adjustment.
Decreased brightness on small areas of the brightest parts of the image via masked curve adjustment.

It's still not straight up and down, but it's almost there. Just a bit more stretching would do it....

jowensphoto · Feb 3, 2012

The_Traveler said:
The World Trade Center has quite a lean to the right and looks odd, as if the top couple of floors are larger than those below.

Yes, first thing I noticed was the WTC.

I love Baltimore. Need to get back up there and get some Phillip's on the Habor

ADavis85 · Feb 5, 2012

EchoingWhisper said:
Next time use a tripod. Set it straight and don't point up. Point front. Use the widest lens possible and correct its distortion in Lightroom then crop the bottom part of the image away.

I did use a tripod...it was a 4" exposure? I think we can agree, however, that if I hadn't used a tripod for that...I did a damn amazing job of keeping it still. I would have loved to have kept it straight, but then your critique would say "The top of the trade center is cut off..." etc etc. I also used the widest lens possible (in my bag anyway) at 18mm. If I can get my hands on a 10-20, I'll use that next time.

bazooka said:
I had a go at it...

Corrected distortion globally and then locally on the WTC.
Increased brightness on clouds via masked curve adjustment.
Decreased brightness on small areas of the brightest parts of the image via masked curve adjustment.

It's still not straight up and down, but it's almost there. Just a bit more stretching would do it....

Brilliant! I tried, quickly, the distortion correction in Gimp, but I'm not handy with it just yet. I also recently acquired LR3, so I'll give it a shot with that, see what I can come up with. Probably want to read a tutorial first, but I'll give it a shot.

That said, you did a great job with it...it looks like a completely different picture. Thanks for the tips!

Jowensphoto, you should definitely come back to Baltimore. If you ever plan to, let me know.