Correct Way to Fix Perspective in PS

Rodenstock PC How to.

Iwan Baan wins the first Julian Schulman Prize

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662463/meet-iwan-baan-todays-leading-architectural-photographer-slideshow#1

Wow!

Wow! 6 prints sold so far this year at The Albuquerque Museums Miniatures Show! Great year so far. The sale continues through Dec. 2nd. http://ow.ly/faed2

Rainbow and thunderhead over Sandia Pueblo

Couldn't resist yesterday evening-out with the dogs north of Rio Rancho and the heavens put on a show......

Sunsets-my equivalent of McCartney's "silly little love songs"......

FWIW, camera is Canon 5DMII with the 45 Tilt Shift......hand held flat stitch.

Good venue for up and comers

I know David (publisher of Fractions Magazine)-he knows his stuff: http://www.roundtablereview.net/workshopsantafe

New Projects-Rust Medical Center

Presbyterian Rust Medical Center on the westside of Albuquerque, Dekker Perich Sabatini Architects.

AP class with Richard Wasserman

At the current venue for his Chicago River Project at the Sears Tower lobby in Chicago. Great presentation! Thanks Richard.

My class at Hedrich-Blessing

Jon Miller, president at Hedrich-Blessing, giving a spirited talk from their 90 years of experience to my AP class in the HB archives. Thanks Jon! Entertaining and insightful as always.

Chicago-Room with a view

View down Michigan Ave. from my Suite. Sweet.

Useful technical references for AP class

NEW Good Down-to-earth Theoretical Tutorials on Tilt Shift Lenses (you have to register-but worth it).
Tilt   Shift

Canon30 /40 D Manual Manual

Why Raw Images

Processing Raw files

2010 First Assignment

2010 Student Show

Perspective Correction Updated Thoughts

I am a big believer in using Tilt Shift lenses to correct perspective with DSLRs, but newbie's may not have the resources for these expensive lenses. As I have said, ad-nauseum, to do professional level AP work with a DSLR you have to carefully structure your work flow to maximize file quality at every step. Doing perspective correction in Photoshop eats quite a few pixels and introduces a fair amount of computer interpolation in the stretched areas. These kinds of practices lead to image degradation, but for end products like websites, this quality may be acceptable.

EXAMPLES

Leveled camera with a wide lens=too much foreground.

Unless you compose for it, choosing an interesting foreground.

Point the camera up to get rid of the foreground and you get massive perspective convergence.

Do a simple PC in Photoshop and you get what I call truncating of the forms-they come out way
to squat and you lose allot of the left and right edges. More PS work ensues to correct the squat!

The "squat" corrected with the "Distort" tool in PS. That is go to Select>All the go to Edit>Transform>Distort and stretch the top to taste.

Whereas correcting perspective with a Tilt/Shift lens preserves the proportions and the edge framing.Canon 24 T/S on full frame 5DMII.

There are many ways to correct perspective. Even with T/S lenses you may not have enough rise and still need to point the camera up slightly. I prefer the one below because the correction is rarely symmetrical (instead of the more common method see this Simple Method which is worthless unless you had truly leveled the camera before pointing it up and had symmetrical perspective problems. With this next method you correct each side separately. Prefered Method of PC. Remember sometimes a very slight convergence looks more natural than a fully corrected perspective on very tall buildings.

But sometimes....sometimes the best thing to do is just make the composition work with a ton of convergence. Example-My recent image on the cover of Antoine Predock's new Rizzoli monograph (number 5) =The University of New Mexico School of Architecture.

Images from Canyon of the Ancients ......

Some preliminary images from my stint at Canyon of the Ancients National Monument (as the first ever BLM artist-in-residence) are being posted on their website: CANM

Nikkor 120 SW lens, top dark green filter-bottom no filter, scanned 4x5 Fuji Acros film, developed in Pyrocat HD, bottom low placement and expanded development.

A different take on "Interior Architectural Photography".

Brett Bayer

Panel Discussion-Contemplative Landscape

Sunday, April 29, 2012, 2 pm: Contemplative Landscape photographers panel discussion; Kirk Gittings, Ed Ranney, Janet Russek, Sharon Stewart and Don Usner. Moderated by Mary Anne Redding  (SEE POST BELOW TOO)
http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/events.php?action=detail&eventID=774

From the press release:

Santa Fe (April 20)—Join moderator Mary Anne Redding, curator of Contemplative Landscape, at 2 pm on Sunday, April 29, for a discussion among some of the photographers represented in the exhibition about their long-term commitments to photographing places both special and sacred in New Mexico.

Kirk Gittings, Ed Ranney, Janet Russek, Sharon Stewart, and Don Usner—will show and discuss their photographs. This event, part of the programming series for Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible and Contemplative Landscape is in the History Museum Auditorium. Attendance is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.

Together, the artists’ works represent faith traditions ranging from ancient Native American practices to Hispanic Catholic rituals to roadside evangelicalism to modern-day Buddhists, each of which has found a home in places like the Galisteo Basin, Chimayo, Black Mesa, San Ildefonso, Cabezon and Abiquiu.

 

Press Release, Canyon of the Ancients National Monument

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/newsroom/2012/mythological_landscapes.html

Large format ground glass-Hopfglass

If you are still shooting Large Format as I am, you might give Hopfglass a try next time you need a ground glass replacement. They have been around since 2004 but I just recently heard of them. Their product looks good and I'm about to give them a try. It is a family operation that seems dedicated to quality and service-the kind of business I like to support. I will let you know what I think of their GG when the product arrives.

Portfolio in Albuquerque magazine

There are a few people on here in my immediate area. Albuquerque The Magazine has a small portfolio of my b&w work this month with some seldom seen images.



from the Albuquerque bosque along the Rio Grande last fall-about 1.5 from my house. Handheld flat stitch Canon 24 T/S. It was shown at the Albuquerque Museum last fall as a Piezography print.

Panel Discusion for the "Contemplative Landscape" show

Contemplative Landscape Panel Discussion. Coming up Sunday the 29th of this month at 2:00 at the New Mexico History Museum in the auditorium. Looking to see allot of friends and colleagues there. Panelists are myself, Don Usner, Ed Ranney and Janet Russek-all very accomplished artists with great stories. Each will give a short individual presentation and then join in a panel discussion.

The discussion will be led by the curator of the exhibit:

Mary Anne Redding
Chair, Photography Department
Marion Center for Photographic Arts
Santa Fe University of Art and Design

I really hope to see some of you there. Seating is limited. The exhibit is up through December.

A little side trip from my commercial shoot in Reno-American Flats.

Canyon of the Ancients

I've been accepted for an Artist-in-residence gig at Canyon of the Ancients National Park in Colorado.

NELFC

I donated a print to this very worthwhile auction this year:
NELFC

My friend and client, architect Jon Anderson, has been elevated to a Fellow at The American Institute of Architects. Fewer than 2% of all architects receive this honor. A truly great honor Jon! For samples of his work (and mine) see: Jon Anderson Architecture.

Robert Polidori...a master at work on CNN.

'rational planning'