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Post processing: Creating a straight horizon
11 April, 2013
Here is an image:
The image is not particularly interesting besides showing that if the horizon is not horizontal, it can add a big distraction. The nice thing is that it takes less than 10 seconds to correct the problem.
Load the image in gimp, select the measure tool (shift+M) and draw a line along the horizon and read the message on the status bar. In the example image, it is visible that the horizon is 2.3 degrees off. The next step is Layer > Transform > Arbitrary rotation... and type in 2.3 and hit ok. Done.
Rotating the one and only layer in the image will add some transparent pixels in the corners. This can be fixed in some different ways, but the easiest is to make a selection that only contains parts of the original image and then selecting Image > Crop to selection to remove a small part of the image. And the final result:
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Photo triplet: Can you tell the theme behind these pictures?
07 April, 2013
Sunday morning, breakfast coffee, trying to ignore the fact that about 10cm of snow has fallen since last night. The theme for this weeks photo triplet is pick your own and see if the others can guess what it is. Providing a big contrast to what's going on outside, here are my three images:
Those that read the cyberphoto blog (I'm not getting paid to say it, but that's where I pick up most of my photo gear) will most likely already know where these photos were taken.
So, what do you think the theme is? More unknown themes can be found here.
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All that glitters is not coltsfoot
06 April, 2013
The last days have been warm, a few degrees above freezing and the snow is melting. On my way home from work yesterday, I found three coltsfoot in a sunny slope. Couldn't resist taking a photo of them - first spring flowers I've seen this year.
Funny thing, when I got home I could read in one of the local newspapers "Here is the proof - spring is here" and there was a picture of some yellow flowers. A reader had sent in the picture along with the words "Found spring in Holmsund" (Holmsund is a place near Umeå). Someone at the newspaper posted the image and added some text saying it's coltsfoot when it's really dandelions. That's first grade knowledge and every kid can tell these flowers apart. The newspaper text has been slightly changed after many readers gave helpful comments saying what flower it really is..
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Photo triplet: My Easter
30 March, 2013
Easter, we've been looking forward for this extra long weekend, giving us a chance to catch up on some of the things that needs to be done at home. I'm not really a fan of eating eggs, but they do look nice when painted.
Guessed it would be crowded at the store on Thursday so we went there Friday morning (yes morning!) instead and the best things, besides having a full fridge, were the tulips we found and Zeunerts Påskmust. Not Easter without Påskmust.
Earlier today, when being outside enjoying the sun, this yellow bird showed up and sang and since it's Easter, we can call it a fluffy chicken, right? :)
Wild birds is not something I've photographed much before and I've set a challenge for myself to do more of it and catch at least a certain number of different species before this year is over - and at the same time, I might get better at telling different species apart.
Other interpretations can be seen here.
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Photo triplet: Silhouettes
23 March, 2013
A new theme over at fototriss, silhouettes. I like the theme and also if photographing towards the sun, it can tell technical details about the lens - the shape of the lens flare is determined by the number of diaphragm blades.
Here goes, my triplet:
Other interpretations can be seen here.
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Post processing: lens correction / perspective correction
23 March, 2013
Last week the blog fototriss had architecture and buildings as theme. Architecture and (ultra) wide angle lenses can make dramatic images, but also cause much distortion in the image. To over exaggerate a little, walls that should be parallel can appear like the sides of a pyramid.
For example one image straight from the camera taken at 21mm with a crop camera (equiv. 33mm on full frame):
If we trace lines along the vertical walls they will intersect. That is not how the building appears in real life. If the image would have been taken at equivalent to 16-18mm on full frame, the distortion would be much larger.
With the meta data recorded in the image and the help of the lensfun library the image can be automatically adjusted. The second image is processed in GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, which is great and free alternative to Photoshop. With the plugin GimpLensfun the image is easily adjusted by selecting Filters > Enhance > Gimplensfun. The default settings should be okay if your camera/lens is recognized.
A much better result than the first image. For more advanced use or if the camera-lens combination used isn't available in lensfun, the panorama stitcher Hugin can be used. It can do perspecive correction, simulate architectural projections besides from stitching together many images and more.
The image from Hugin is not cropped compared to the one processed with GIMP and lensfun.
All the tools mentioned in the post are free and open source and part of my must-be-installed list.
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Photo triplet: Buildings and architecture
17 March, 2013
One of the more recent buildings in my close vicinity is the new train station, "Umeå Östra". It's located close to the University hospital (NUS) and the Umeå University campus area. There is also another station, Umeå Central 2km away but in my opinion it's not really needed anymore.
Umeå Östra is mostly made of wood and glass and has a very characteristic look, specially since the walls are not vertical, but angled slightly outwards.
More triplets can be found at fototriss, also, feel free to leave comments and feedback in English or Swedish.
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Documentary: Lennart Nilsson (part 2 of 2)
11 January, 2013
The second part of the Lennart Nilsson documentary was aired recently and made available online for streaming at svtplay. I recommend seeing it this weekend if you haven't already since it is only available until Sunday the 13th.