Re: [Leica] Perspective controls

[Henning Wulff <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 12:26 PM -0800 12/2/02, rodgersd@fosterfarms.com wrote:
>Henning
>
>In "Today in Vancouver" you wrote:
>
>>>  After scanning, I straightened the buildings :-). I can't
>stand to see them keystoning. Since I used to do everything I could
>before Photoshop came along to straighten them, such as tilting the
>film stage & easel in printing, I do the same now digitally.<<
>
>On the subject of perspective controls, I've learned a great deal from the
>transform features in PS. It's amazing how even slight tweaks using skew or
>perspective controls can really improve an image.
>
>I'm more aware of lines than ever. It's not like I was unaware before. But
>for some reason working with digital tools has hightened that awareness to
>things that, in the past, weren't so obvious. And it's carried through the
>how I view things in the viewfinder. I just wonder if others have had the
>same experience.
>
>As an architectural photographer I'm sure you had a very keen eye regarding
>the alignment of compositional elements even before digital imaging came
>along. My background was photo journalism, which is no excuse because line
>is important in all images.
>
>I really liked all your images, btw.
>
>DaveR

Thanks, Dave.

Yes, as I've mentioned probably too many times before, objects with 
strong, hard lines have to be considered and dealt with as far as I'm 
concerned. It bothers me no end to see pictures, especially wideangle 
shots where the lens was pointed just a little down or up when it 
could just as well for the sake of the content have been level. If 
the main subject is a person, or event involving living things, or 
nature shots with no hard edges it's no big deal and is often 
completely irrelevant, but if the subject or a major part of the 
subject is a building or part of a building, then usually that 
building will stay put long enough to frame the picture properly and 
keep the lines correct :-). If the horizon is not in the picture, 
converging verticals don't matter that much, so it can even look a 
bit strange if a shot showing just the upper part of a tall building 
shot at 45° from the horizontal has the verticals corrected.

Correcting horizontal lines has to be handled carefully, as a 
completely orthogonal view often looks stiff and forced, while very 
strong convergence comes close to inducing nausea at times. That's 
one of the dangers with a lens like the 12mm VC. With the 12, just 
try a shot looking down a street at one edge of the picture, facing 
buildings at the other edge of the picture, tilted slightly down and 
have somebodies head just barely in the frame in a corner of the 
picture. Yeeccchh!!

I use 4x5 cameras with full movements, of course, but often that's 
not practical or desired, so I have a number of shift lenses for MF 
and 35mm. Unfortunately, there is a limited range of focal lengths 
available, and none wider than 24mm. And Leica doesn't even have that.

Before digital, the only option was to use 4x5 or do the tilt thing 
of film stage and easel under the enlarger, which is a pain. Now I 
scan any image, and correct it in Photoshop whether it is shot with 
MF or even Leica M. It's easy.

When correcting by tilting the filmstage/easel under the enlarger, it 
was often not possible to avoid stretching the building, and because 
part of the neg area has to be thrown away the correction could 
sometimes not be done fully. In Photoshop, the building proportions 
can be corrected again by further transforms, and while in digital 
correction image area also has to be discarded, it's not so bad, 
because the opposite corners, which set the limits on the total angle 
of view can often be expanded in Photoshop with the clone tool, as 
these corners usually contain no essential detail. Photoshop makes my 
life a lot easier.

- -- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
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