* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #849 / Revived #069 on 2024 07 24 *

Beer garden

Please do not edit this photo

Time together

An interesting photo for me because I would never have seen this train station otherwise.
I looked carefully at the perspective corrections on this photo.
What all corrections have in common is that the appropriate distance from the building is missing.
Your photo as it was taken seems much more natural to me.

This photo is beyond my imagination.

I see your image as a very nice artistic effect on the scene but as is, is definitely not what I would see if I stood at the same spot you did when you took the photo, especially the slope and slant in the buildings on the left and right.

The corrected and stretched versions posted later look much more natural to me.

So I suppose it depends on whether you intended to create an artistic or a documentary image.

Personally, this view has more impact on me.

I'm not convinced the child was actually interested in the sculpture but he does provide interest as part of the background. The left and right sides of the image are a little too dark with dull colours for my liking.

I would have gone with something like this.

Anyway, just some food for thought.

LOOP THE LOOP

Certainly a capture to form the basis of correction discussions.
Am I correct that you took the photo from a low position? To get the lines of tiles in the pavement to appear to converge? I feel the keystoning would be less if taken from a standing position.
Either way I don't mind the image as it is because we still see the fascinating architecture of the buildings. Unfortunate about the rain drop on the lens but as you say, not a keeper.
With regard to the correction attempts, I wonder if, instead of removing all keystoning, a version that left some might be the happy medium?

I was not crouching.

But I did use the iphone’s wide angle lens to get all of the building (center and wings) in my shot.

I like that my (then revolutionary, now old) iphone 11 PRO has a “x0.5” wide angle and a ”x2” tele setting and lenses next to the “x1” main lens. That main lens is the best one (most resolution and best in low light). The other lenses allow me to use the phone for more adventurous shots. But specifically the wide angle lens has more distortion (keystone AND barrel) than a well-constructed REAL wide angle lens (like my beloved Oly 7-14 or 9-18 or 8-25 lenses) would have.

So the image was not taken from a low position but from closer than you might expect. There is a kiosk on the center of the station square so I could not get back any further and use the “normal” lens.

There is no absolute right or wrong answer for the removing of keystoning. The amount to remove is dependent on the intentions of the image creator for the final image (documentary or artistic) and their personal preferences.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the center of the image is right under the clock which means camera has been tilted up. Therefore such a bad distortion in addition to the lens' native distortion. I wander if this image would be for a client, would it be accepted as is? 😀

Of course not.
But it wasn’t (intended for a client).
Believe it or not, but sometimes I shoot just for fun. 🤪

(More on vantage point:
Of course the shot was pointed up, because I was on ground level (the square) and I am slightly less tall than the building. Even if I raise my camera, I barely reach 2 meters.
For buildings, the ideal position is in another building, opposite the subject and on a floor halfway up. That is rare.
Another solution is more distance and a longer lens, but so much open space is rare too. Hence the use of tilt-shift lenses…)

Kestrel and Prey

During Covid, and especially during lock-down, I couldn't really go anywhere, except within walking distance of home. However, the variation in the route was limited, so taking a camera was important to help break the monotony. I started dabbling in bird photography, and discovered it was fun, but more for the process itself and attempts to improve rather than the results themselves, which were awful initially.
I still look for birds whilst walking to this day, and although I now have better gear, it is still a challenge to get anything that is worth showing.
Anyway, here is a kestrel with a mouse I took earlier this week.

Pete

Third solution is to shoot several images and stitch. Fourth solution is to correct distortion which was shown in this thread.
I always shoot for fun, except when I shoot real estate for my wife or daughter. I also shot images that were distorted because of the nowhere to back up. But I never left them uncorrected if I wanted to show them. YMMV.

A great image, but a horrible moment for the mouse!

Rich

So many metallic structures, the boy on the bike brings this photo to life.

The bird shows its best, the color scheme is very good, as is the composition.
I would emphasize the neck and head of the bird a little in post-processing.

This photo is outstanding!