Peru from the air

[Sime]

I like to take a shot out the old window every now and then, this was on my point and shoot... I wonder [and this is my question] Is anyone offended by the slightly off skyline... Does it really matter?... [obviously, I could straighten it, but this is straight out of the camera with some curves and a black and white conversion, I wanted to leave it like that..]

[PhotoNewt]

A staright horizon will make this photo "technically" correct, however the slant is so minimal that for most people it won't make a difference. I would make it straight just because it is such a great shot that it deserves a technically correct composition.

And did I mention that is a great shot and I like it very much...

[Sime]

Thanks, I'll straighten it up... It might get a spot on a wall somewhere... just maybe...

thank you for your feedback.

Sime

[PhotoNewt]

Originally Posted by Sime™

Thanks, I'll straighten it up... It might get a spot on a wall somewhere... just maybe...

thank you for your feedback.

Sime

If you have the resolution, making this into a poster would be phenomenal.

[derseegrog]

Since you indicate that you might want to leave the photograph as "from the camera", I would like to put a warning similar to the "don't post pictures you are fond of because of their special value to you personally" from the deleteme! group on flickr.

If you really intent to maybe take the photograph as is, you probably shouldn't read the rest of my post! Sorry ;-S

Also, I'm quite an amateur still, so take all of the following with a grain of salt... ;-)

Originally Posted by Sime™

[...]Is anyone offended by the slightly off skyline... Does it really matter?...[...]

To make the long story short: to me it would matter in this case.

I feel that my eyes get drawn (almost) out of the picture near the point where the mountain range reaches the left border.
At first I thought that this might be the coupled effect of the the lower right corner being shaded, so that it "hinders" the natural flow of the river via it's main creek and thus makes me look elsewhere, and the slanted horizon.
However, after I quickly straightened the horizon, I found that my eyes would not leave any more, but explore the section between the half and upper third "lines", so I infer that the horizon does make a difference (at least for me ;-).

To make this wonderful subject into a marvelous photograph, I would try to
1) straighten the horizon and then
2a) see if the shading of the right lower corner could be reduced (might not be reasonable possible); or (with the liberty to put a different viewpoint to the scene)
2b) make a crop just above the right most bend of the main creek and without the dark patch in the center, then cropping away a bit of the upper sky to either satisfy the rule of thirds or your artistic sense. This would IMO only lead to a reasonably enjoyable result if the original has enough resolution to make the white plains towards the mountains somehow structured. If you allow and wish, I could post my draft. One downside however of the crop would be the loss of the splitting of the stream and most of the foreground :-S

All of the above said, the original makes for a nice impulse to ponder the circumstances it was taken under :-)

[Sime]

Originally Posted by derseegrog

Since you indicate that you might want to leave the photograph as "from the camera", I would like to put a warning similar to the "don't post pictures you are fond of because of their special value to you personally" from the deleteme! group on flickr.

If you really intent to maybe take the photograph as is, you probably shouldn't read the rest of my post! Sorry ;-S

Also, I'm quite an amateur still, so take all of the following with a grain of salt... ;-)



To make the long story short: to me it would matter in this case.

I feel that my eyes get drawn (almost) out of the picture near the point where the mountain range reaches the left border.
At first I thought that this might be the coupled effect of the the lower right corner being shaded, so that it "hinders" the natural flow of the river via it's main creek and thus makes me look elsewhere, and the slanted horizon.
However, after I quickly straightened the horizon, I found that my eyes would not leave any more, but explore the section between the half and upper third "lines", so I infer that the horizon does make a difference (at least for me ;-).

To make this wonderful subject into a marvelous photograph, I would try to
1) straighten the horizon and then
2a) see if the shading of the right lower corner could be reduced (might not be reasonable possible); or (with the liberty to put a different viewpoint to the scene)
2b) make a crop just above the right most bend of the main creek and without the dark patch in the center, then cropping away a bit of the upper sky to either satisfy the rule of thirds or your artistic sense. This would IMO only lead to a reasonably enjoyable result if the original has enough resolution to make the white plains towards the mountains somehow structured. If you allow and wish, I could post my draft. One downside however of the crop would be the loss of the splitting of the stream and most of the foreground :-S

All of the above said, the original makes for a nice impulse to ponder the circumstances it was taken under :-)

Hi, Don't understand your flickr comment, And I wasn't saying that I *wanted* to leave the shot as a straight out of the camera photo. Just that the crop / angle *was* straight out of the camera... The circumstances under which this shot were taking - plane flight, point small camera at window, press button... absolutely nothing special...

Yes, why don't you do with it what you'd like and post it back in here.. by all means.

Thanks,
Sime.

[RexK_Cozumel]

The slight tilt in the horizen doesn't really bother me too much but I would straighten it anyways. What bothers me the most is the heavy vignetting in the bottom right corner of the picture. Still it is a great image and definately worth hanging up.

[mseigafuse]

I checked out your Flickr set for your trip to Peru - great shots! It looks like you did both Machu Pichu and the rain forest in a single trip ...??? - very nice. I did both of those as well, but on two different trips. Did you do the hike to the top of the temple of the moon? Did you get to do the rain forest canopy walk? Darn, your pictures make me want to go back so bad (this time WITH a DSLR - my first trip I used my Pentax K1000SE and the second just a point and shoot digital)!

Thanks for sharing some of them.

Mike

[Sime]

Hey Mike, yep - we hiked up Winay Pichu and Managed to fit a canopy walk in, in the jungle as well... amazing place... I took 2807 photos in ten days, not a bad average... Still sifting through. Thanks for your feedback.

Sime

[derseegrog]

Originally Posted by Sime™

Hi, Don't understand your flickr comment [...] Just that the crop / angle *was* straight out of the camera... [...]

Yes, why don't you do with it what you'd like and post it back in here.. by all means.

Thanks,
Sime.

Hello, I misunderstood, so I thought you might like the picture as it is and my intention was to warn you before putting my thoughts in your head in case you might not like it in the same way afterward... :-)

Anyway, here are two very rough sketches; especially the one with the un-shaded corner might need a more careful selection of the region where to apply it. Also some detail has been lost due to a double rotation I performed :-S but since it's for illustration, I hope you get my point anyway.








(The order is:
un-shaded
original
panorama-ish crop)