Re Spiritual

[Malcolm1938]

I know I did not enter and perhaps I should not do this but when I viewed the entries I looked up the rules and found that editing is allowed. I took the liberty of copying the three church images and using everyday editing programs straighten out the vertical. All three images could be straightened in under 1 minute (each). ( Photofiltre Studio X and DXO Optics Pro Standard)
It just seemed a pity to me that these were entered unedited as it took so little work to improve them.
If any entrant wishes to see what I did I will put them up with permission....

Todays software is so cheap and so good it's a pity not to use it when it really helps.

[alan1572]

aslong as you can try to explain what you have done, please feel free to do what ever you wish with mine  
untill my daughter gets her activation code for her new adobe software, we don't have anything to play with.

[jinky]

Of course that pre-supposes that people wanted to edit them. I deliberately used my 10-20 and kept that upward leaning look aiming at as much symmetry on sides but also the window / tower going skyward. It might not work but if I had wanted a straight church shot my viewpoint and lens choice would have been different. I often like the distorted effect of the 10-20 , especially on cars / certain subjects and often choose not to straighten - other times I do. We all have our views / perspectives  


Edit - just did a quick straighten to show:


To get this (and should have spent more time) I lose the height and emphasis I was aiming for so it would have been a different shot, different height and maybe a different angle, What I don`t like about either shot is that it loses the majesty / size of that window and remaining bit of tower stretching for the sky. Neither work that well for me to be honest but the first is nearer to what I wanted and at the end of the day stuck it in cos it seemed aquite week/topic.

[alan1572]

out of the 3 i think that only mine may be helped with the straightening of lines, the other 2 look all the better for the distortion ( in my most humble opinion )

[magicrhodes]

It just seemed a pity to me that these were entered unedited as it took so little work to improve them.
If any entrant wishes to see what I did I will put them up with permission....

Todays software is so cheap and so good it's a pity not to use it when it really helps.

Not sure on the editing idea... I like to see what the photographer wanted to show and judge that.

I wonder about the value of editing sometimes. I agree it helps create some awesome pieces of art but I do wonder if the images are able to retain the "photograph" title. What do you think?

[alan1572]

i've always held the opinion that there should be (if desired0 be 2 comps), one for straight out of the camera and the other for the PS experts, obviously it would never happen but i'm with you, the least amount of editing the better.

[oRGie]

out of the 3 i think that only mine may be helped with the straightening of lines, the other 2 look all the better for the distortion ( in my most humble opinion )

I agree, yours is the only 1 of the 3 that imho would benefit from being straightened. Jinky's has the ott look of WA and works for that image, Irv's has a realistic feel to the angle, not OTT but what it would look like from that angle, like a kid looking up, everything looks bigger when your a kid

Overall though, I think a photo that has been edited has as much merit as a photo straight from the camera, at the end of the day the photographer/artist presents what they feel is an image with beauty or impact etc and although others may do things differently what does that matter when it comes to accepting the image for what it is as presented, either way you either like it or dont

[Malcolm1938]

This was using DXO Optics Pro Sandard and all I did was ask for the first pillars to be parallel
Doing this has kept the impression of height



This image was deemed to be too small for DXO  so I used Photofiltre Studio X to straighten the verticals



Also vertical Correction using Photofiltre

I think this shows what I was getting at but please tell me if you think I'm wrong.

[jinky]

Cannoffice I think you are wrong
Yeah your version is no different to my 1 minute edit in CS2 but same effect - loss of the  top of the tower and just a straight church picture that was not what I was looking for. I was aiming to use the wide angle and distortion to have the lines reaching to the sky / tower top hence leaving it unedited. If I had wanted it straight I would have backed up some yards, changed the lens and done something else.
What I think you did wrong was to imply in your post that all of us were simply too cheap to invest in a bit of software to get the result that YOU wanted. I have the software needed but did not want that effect either with my software or with yours in your version. It`s purely personal opinion but as the one who took the photo it is clearly my right to an opinion. Having ticked the box to accept critique i would have preferred a comment against the image saying " have you thought of straightening it" and why it might be better that way but not an insinuation that I was too cheap or lazy to do what you thought was needed - though I am sure you did not mean it to come across that way
One of the things I love about the 10-20 lens is the distortion /lines you can get from the image - but I do correct when I need to.

[Malcolm1938]

Sorry - I stand corrected.

[alan1572]

i think mine looks much better, cheers, but the other 2....i prefere the originals...you win some you lose some.

[Malcolm1938]

Thanks - I was not out to win or lose - I got what I wanted - explanations.

I was not trying to plug the software - I was asked to state what I had done and naming the software became necessary.

Thanks for the responses and for giving me a bit more info on your approaches to photography.

[alan1572]

i never meant it like that, all i meant was that some reactions were more positive than other's

[jinky]

Sorry if my reaction came across negative. It`s soemtimes the way you read these brief messages we post and can read unintended messages into them. I had not realised you were just looking at why we took them as we did cannoffice and no offence taken now I understand what you were seeking. It is actually good when you get into reasoning about what you were aiming to achieve, even if you fail to achieve it in the shot 
Spiritual was a difficult theme - often hard to get across a feeling in a picture I find unless something romantic / sad or more " in your face".

[alan1572]

Spiritual was a difficult theme - often hard to get across a feeling in a picture I find unless something romantic / sad or more " in your face".

indeed,
i would never have thought about a nuthatch as being spiritual, like i've already said, it's a fantastic shot but i wouldn't have thought to enter it into this theme, well done oldboy