"Sidewalk Picasso II"
What first caught my eye, when shooting this picture, was the multi-hued patina on the brass hinge; and the face-like markings above the hinge lent to this sidewalk scenario an uncanny Picasso-esque feeling. The grating surrounding this unintended abstract portrait (which I found on East 67th Street, outside the Fox 5 TV studio) is, to me, eerily similar to the steel fretwork that had graced the facades of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.
This is the second iteration of this image, and there may yet be a third. The first picture I took of this brass hinge was with my old Canon point and shoot, utilizing its' very useful macro function. When shooting an image like this, though, with strong grid-like horizontal and vertical lines, much barrel distortion is noticeable when shooting extremely wide angle. With that first set of photos, I tried correcting this distortion with Photoshop, but I wasn't completely happy with the results.
On Friday I had the opportunity to re-shoot this picture with my new Canon 5D, albeit with the inferior loaner lens I'm still using, as my premier L Series lens is still at the shop having a spot removed from the surface of one of the interior lens elements. I was able to shoot at a longer lens length - 80 mm - thereby avoiding barrel distortion.
I will probably shoot this picture one more time, when I get my lens back from the shop. With its image stabilization, I should be able to shoot at ISO 50, for an even higher quality image. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference in the finished product, but it will allow me to get a good side-by-side comparison of the two different lenses.
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/49 second
F/5.6
80 mm
125
Nov 26, 2010, 2:26:18 PM
GIMP 2.6.2
Canon EOS 5D
1/49 second
F/5.6
80 mm
125
Nov 26, 2010, 2:26:18 PM
GIMP 2.6.2
