Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm lens.

[Jim Ford]

I took this mainly to test my newly acquired lens - also because I like the architecture of the museum. I was going to go inside to take one of the main hall, but the entrance queues were several hundred yards long!



The original image is pin sharp from corner to corner, with no sign of vignetting. It was taken at a focal length of 7mm, which equates to 14mm on a FF.

Jim

[ron1863]

Hi Jim, lovely sharp shot. I took the liberty of correcting the verticals, hope you don't mind.
Was the lens expensive??

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Hi Jim, lovely sharp shot. I took the liberty of correcting the verticals, hope you don't mind.

I sometimes correct verticals, but didn't in this case as it reduces the width and the dramatic impact.

I've also come to the conclusion that unless the verticals slightly converge, correcting them can result in the image being distorted unnaturally. For instance if a feature is hidden by another lower projecting feature, it doesn't magically appear if the image is manipulated to make it look if the camera was horizontal when the shot was taken.

I've also given up pasting nice skies into images taken on dull days, as you can never get lighting on the image to correspond to that of a brighter day. An image of a building taken on a dull day, will always be a dull image of a building!

Was the lens expensive??

Yes, but I bought mine second hand. Warehouse Express list it as £1259.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with the lens during the summer.

Jim

[colincurry]

Very nice shot.

I have a Canon 10-22. I was interested to read the casual reference to fixing the verticals (was this something Bach composed?).

Seriously, is this easy to do for an ancient technophobe who does have CS3, please?

Thanks

Colin

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by colincurry

Seriously, is this easy to do for an ancient technophobe who does have CS3, please?

It's certainly easy for CS2:

Go to Filter->Distort->Lens Correction.

You then get your image with a grid overlayed and controls where you can manipulated the perspective of the image.

Jim

[colincurry]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

It's certainly easy for CS2:

Go to Filter->Distort->Lens Correction.

You then get your image with a grid overlayed and controls where you can manipulated the perspective of the image.

Jim

Thanks, Jim.

Will give it a try tonight and post the sbefore and after.

Colin

[colincurry]

Originally Posted by colincurry

Thanks, Jim.

Will give it a try tonight and post the sbefore and after.

Colin

Well Jim,

Here are some shots that I took of some Cambridge colleges last October - before and after - I hope you can tell which is which. I have even managed to rescue some that I left as RAW images as they resembled something by Dali.

I take Ron's point in some cases. A couple that I experimented with were better without any changes.

Thanks for the tip - all I need to do now is to master layers and masks!





















These examples amply illustrate the pitfalls when using a wide angle lens and the need to practice and not expect the lens to do all the work for you.

Thanks

Colin

[Jim Ford]

Nice shots on a nice sunny day, which brings out the colour of the masonry well.

As I mentioned above, making verticals parallel is not always appropriate and can result in an image being distorted unnaturally. I'm going to look out for subjects that will illustrate what I mean.

Jim

[Oy]

A friend of mine recently got this lens and is getting some superb results with it.

Correcting verticals - I think people tend to over-correct. When we look up at a building we see converging verticals. IMO our photos should do the same - it's a question of getting the balance right.

A tip: If shooting WIDE and getting a lot of convergence - don't shoot too tight or you won't have room for the correction and will end up cropping bits off in the process!

[colincurry]

Originally Posted by Oy

A friend of mine recently got this lens and is getting some superb results with it.

Correcting verticals - I think people tend to over-correct. When we look up at a building we see converging verticals. IMO our photos should do the same - it's a question of getting the balance right.

A tip: If shooting WIDE and getting a lot of convergence - don't shoot too tight or you won't have room for the correction and will end up cropping bits off in the process!

Having just practised with correcting the verticals, I noted that I had lost corner detail and some top detail. I also noted that I ought to stand back a little or zoom out a little in future so as to retain what I want from the corrected version.

I agree that some convergence would make the image appear as seen by our eyes.

I really should have posted the before and after of the Daliesque snaps that I referred to above. The verticals on the outside of the images almost met in the centre of the image forming a triangle. I don't know why I kept the RAW images but am glad now that I did.

Hope I have not moved the thread too far away from an appreciation of what is obviously a super lens. Glad that I did from a purely personal view.

Colin