lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

Walked by this a million times, this time I had my camera.
Got down on my knees and blocked the sidewalk to shoot up and no one bothered me.
Hope its not too overdone.
I dodged the red flowers near the doorway to the right and they are still a tad bright.
Not sure if the orange lights inside the doorway are a distraction or enhancement.
I'm also learning what I need to get within the frame when I later need to tweak for lens perspective distortion.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

My eyes gravitate toward the orange light-- and I'd recommend a few different angles/POVs-- like maybe moving to the right such that the sculpture is isolated from the building it overlaps?
Just a thought.

I like looking at your stuff cause you challenge me to see things a little differently than I'm generally inclined to.

lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

Thanks, LoneRangeFinder this was a spur of the moment quick shoot, if memory serves there was a lamp pole next to me on the left.
I see your point (different angles) and will do a re shoot.
I spent a lot of time adjusting and doing this and it could be shot better.

Great input.

conkerwood

I like this. Agree with LoneRangeFinder (thats got to be one one of the best photographic names, love the pun) about different angles and getting clear space for the subject but I rather like the rainbow colour effect on the building behind. But a suggestion. You have adjusted the distortion on the main subject very well but if you look on the left the consequences are that you have flattened the chairs and made the guy sitting on them look rather fat. Also the lamp, which is now perfectly vertical, (which was your aim I presume) is now out of proportion, it looks stretched and the nearby leaves look unnaturally elongated. The answer is that you will have to use both distort and skew to get everything in the right sort of shape but in the process you will lose the aspect ratio that you started with. So I suggest that when you have to do this sort of adjustment you also need to start looking at less common crops. I think that your pic, once adjusted to remove all distortions would work very well with a square crop. But from what I have seen of your work you are the sort of person who is prepared to try ideas so why be limited to traditional crops.The main thing is to get the proportions natural (unless you are going for controlled distortion which is a whole different ball game) then crop to suit. Hope this helps.

Peter

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

I really like it, the sky is so much better, more detail especially under the umbrellas, and you fixed the keystoning, all in all a fine shot.
What did you use to accomplish the effect?

Chinaman Loc: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Loren
If the artwork is your subject, I would suggest getting real close, lie on your back and shoot against the sky with a wide angle lens. The more unusual the viewpoint, the more interesting the image. Watch out for the direction of light and the exposure though. It doesn't matter then about slanty lamp posts, fat people or distracting lights in doorways. Have fun!

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

#2 really turned out good, like it.

MIKE GALLAGHER Loc: New Zealand

I like the shot but get the impression that the sky is overdone to the point of looking unreal. There's not a lot of shadow around and that doesn't fit with a dramatic sky. What if you went about halfway with it to about where it seems to fit the scene? My score - close!
The composition, though I know that's not your point here - the subject seems cluttered up by the building behind it. I wonder whether you could've still got a good perspective if you'd got, say, the foliage behind it instead.
Mike

lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

Thanks for the comments.
@conkerwood, that's my dilema. I didn't want to lose anything in the shot so had to skew like crazy. Each try was not just right or color was not right, kept going back to the orginal and cntrl+j and finally on the 8th layer I got what you see, fat people and all (I thought people liked to look fatter on film or was it the other way around?). A squareish crop would work but I liked the tables and umbrellas. I'm good with photoshop and thinking of a way to get the best of both worlds.

@Chinaman, I like your idea. No wide angle lens yet so need to be creative.

@Bushpilot, Spent a lot of time in Photomatix to get the lights and darks blended and not go Uber on anyone LOL (Which I might add is easy to do). then into PS for the final edit. select edit >> transform >> skew to pull out the corners. Then under Image >> Adjust >> Exposure I like to take gamma to about 80 to 85 which makes the image darker so tweak the exposure up to get the image where I want it.

@UP-2-IT, the first image was straight out of the camera, glad you liked the second one and not the first one.

Cheers, I'm glad this is a fun and helpful group.

lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

@MIKE GALLAGHER, not much room to work with and I wanted just that angle on the artwork. I moved around a lot and kept adjusting the tripod. Here is an image I found on Google, http://floridaphotomatt.com/2012/06/29/st-petersburg-waterfront/ (And I thought I overdid hdr)
I'm huddled in by the flower pot and lamp pole, not much wiggle room. Thank you for commenting on my journey to learning.

MIKE GALLAGHER Loc: New Zealand

I should've known! You've been there, seen that!
Mike.

conkerwood

Ah but you can have the best of both worlds. Have used your final pic, selected left half and used 'distort' to bring the left in. No more fat people and out of proportion chairs. Only the lamp still remained noticeably out of proportion so I duplicated the layer and used 'puppet warp' to correct the local distortion. Then layer masked and blended in corrected lamp. Have posted my efforts (not perfect around the lamp but it was a quick job) The downside is that the aspect ratio changes and you end up with a non standard pic size. But there is always a trade off. Hope this helps

Peter

lorenww Loc: St. Petersburg

@conkerwood, brilliant!
When you did select did you also feather it?

conkerwood

No I didnt because the warp action seems to graduate towards the edge anyway. Whenever I do this I try to choose a strong vertical to line up with. In this case I used the leftmost vertical white stripe on the back building. Have fun. catch you soon

Peter

joe west Loc: Taylor, Michigan

you nailed it, nice