Vertical Verticals

Mark — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:32:01 +0000

The one thing that bothers me the about some of my photos and the photos of others is having straight lines that are not parallel to the vertical and horizontal plans. What I mean is vertical lines should be vertical and horizontal lines should be horizontal. The exception to this is converging lines like train tracks. The further away the closer together the lines appear.

You will see many really good photographers shoot buildings from a low position creating a distortion called keystoning. This is sometimes desirable for a dramatic effect but I believe it is used far to often. I will show you an example of this effect and how to eliminate it if you wish, using Photoshop.

Trey Ratcliff of “Stuck In Customs” is a great photographer. Far, far better than I but in this example I felt what I did with his image in Photoshop is more appealing, to my eye. I think Trey was shooting from this very low angle to reduce the amount of the pavement and maximize the amount of the dramatic sky. He was using a very wide 14mm lens. The combination of the wide-angle lens and the tilt of the camera contributed to this exaggerated effect. If you shoot a photo like this and you want it to have a more standard look here’s how you fix it.

[I have the original Photoshop CS so I know at least this version and the versions after that can do this.]

Open the photo in Photoshop. Click “View” and “New Guide”. Guides are just there to help you get your image straight. Create as many guides as you need. I used two for this photo. Drag them to where you need them. Do a “Control A” to select the image. Select the “Move Tool” from the pallet. Click “Edit” and then go to “Transform” and “Skew”. Click the corners and drag out to make alignment adjustments. After you align photo you may have to make other “Transform” adjustments. In this case I did “Free Transform” to make the building taller because the “Skew” adjustment made the church look squat.

I felt too much attention was given to the sky and not much to the church so not only did I straighten it out but I enhanced the definition to the art on the church by adding some contrast using the curves tool. I think that sometime HDR photos seem a little flat.

In my version of Trey’s photo the dramatic clouds are still there but there is a lot more attention to the building. The sides are vertical and the frescos on the building are brighter and show more detail.

Photomatix HDR Basics

Mark — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:45:53 +0000

This is an overview of what HDR is and an overview of how to use Photomatix. You can see all free tutorials by checking out Trey Ratcliff’s YouTube channel.

More HDR From Trey

Mark — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:24:25 +0000

Here’s one more HDR walk-trough From Trey Ratcliff. This time he’s at the Eiffel Tower showing you how he shot a great photo after sunset.

see all of Trey’s videos at the “Stuck In Customs” YouTube channel.

Trey’s HDR Tutorial

Mark — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:53:01 +0000

The fantastic photographer Trey Ratcliff shows you a little about his shooting HDR procedure.

Mostly Photo

Mark — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:22:22 +0000

Mostly Photo is a new podcast from Leo Laporte’s TWiT network all about photography. Mostly Photo will helps everyone take better pictures by teaching you how get the most out of your digital camera, with professional photographer Lisa Bettany and over enthusiastic amateur Leo Laporte, and some of the best photographers from around the world. You can watch Mostly Photo live at 1pm ET on TWiT Live or you can download it from TWiT.

Lessfeet » photography

Vertical Verticals

Photomatix HDR Basics

More HDR From Trey

Trey’s HDR Tutorial

Mostly Photo