A few from Blenheim Palace

grantsteve · 24-03-2007, 12:12 PM

Treated myself to a day off work yesterday and went for a mooch around Blenheim Palace with the missus.

Cracking place for photographs - although they don't allow photography in the Palace

- but the gardens are great, shame the same couldn't be said for the light! (Blown skys were the order of the day)

Anyway, here are a couple of my better efforts. All taken with my Tokina 12-24mm. Photos link back to Flickr.

Comments very welcome.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/4...aabec3bf_o.jpg
Back corner of the Palace
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/169/4...512eabac_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/4...728c446596.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/4...62776e70_o.jpg
Suffering a bit from 'halos' around the top of the building

I'm not sure what Flickr does to my images when I upload them but the colours seem a little bit washed out compared to the images I upload. Any ideas?

cedmondson · 24-03-2007, 1:31 PM

Nice pics. I'm particularly interested to see the results from this lens as I have one winging its way to me from HK.
Out of interest I also tried your first shot in 'PTLens' (mentioned in another current thread). I thought it seemed better without the automatic correction it applied but approx -25-30 of verical perspective correction did a pretty good job of straightening up the towers on either side (IMHO).

denno75uk · 24-03-2007, 3:16 PM

Blown skies are a bummer but sometimes I'd rather that than HDR. HDR can look a bit unnatural (that's not a slight on your effort).
The B/W one is really nice. Lovely balance of contrast and detail.

stevegreen · 24-03-2007, 3:18 PM

The 'Arches' one is my favorite, though it could do with a slight rotation to get the back wall vertical on the left hand side.

Did you try taking two RAW images (one metered off the sky and one off the buiding) and then combining them to get over the blown sky issue?

Oh, and the world has gone HDR mad!........mad I tell ya!

electrolyte · 24-03-2007, 5:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grantsteve

I'm not sure what Flickr does to my images when I upload them but the colours seem a little bit washed out compared to the images I upload. Any ideas?

I suspect that the sRGB profile is being missed off your images. This tells flickr how to display the image and which colours to use. If you upload an image to flickr with the sRGB profile in place the colours will look how they look in your editing programme ie strong and bright. If you don't the colours will be flat and muted.

If you use Photoshop CS2 or Photoshop Elements you have to make sure that when you save the images that the "ICC Profile: sRGB...." option is ticked and this should sort it out.

Blue.Rocket · 24-03-2007, 5:57 PM

With out being offensive, I think this is not the way to show off a lens, i kinda think some will think twice before buying it.

The images have blown skies, the HDR is not good, however i think the Arches is pretty good.

A little more practice with the camera & lens settings ..
good luck..

grantsteve · 24-03-2007, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevegreen

Did you try taking two RAW images (one metered off the sky and one off the buiding) and then combining them to get over the blown sky issue?

No

That would have been the the sensible thing to do, but of course I didn't think of that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue.rocket

With out being offensive, I think this is not the way to show off a lens, i kinda think some will think twice before buying it.

Hey don't hold back now, tell me what you really think! Only kidding, I appreciate all the comments. They are a pretty poor set of shots (you should have seen the ones I disgarded

) but its good to get some pointers and feedback.

Its a great lens .... honest!

**senu** · 24-03-2007, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grantsteve

Its a great lens .... honest!

That I totally agree with,

It is possible to take naff images with a great lens

( that too is no criticism, just a statement

)

cedmondson · 25-03-2007, 12:04 AM

Nevertheless the pics gave an indication of the geometry / distortion of the lens which were of value to me at least.
If anyone ever manages to invent a lens that guarantees no blown skies, I'll be in that queue

chris1210 · 25-03-2007, 3:04 PM

I agree, they show off an admirable lack of distortion and very good sharpness. Namely the two frustrating things i found with the Sigma 10-20 i had.... the distortion at 10mm was extreme, and it was so soft at the edges, my D80 could only use AF on the centre point which was irritating.

redmax · 25-03-2007, 4:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grantsteve

Its a great lens .... honest!

Nice shots on a difficult day.

I am looking for a wide angle for a full frame body.

Just out of interest did you look at the Sigma 12-24 before going for the Tokina?

I am looking for some comparisions between the two.

Why don't Canon do an equivilent EF lens?

**senu** · 25-03-2007, 5:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redmax

..I am looking for a wide angle for a full frame body.

Just out of interest did you look at the Sigma 12-24 before going for the Tokina?

I am looking for some comparisions between the two.

Why don't Canon do an equivilent EF lens?

Canons Equivalent is an EF-S This one ( no good for a full frame)

See this thread it shows a few images from the Sigma
I similarly almost got the Sigma but got the Tokina instead even though it will cause vignetting with a full frame camera below 17mm and is really an APS-C lens.
The Tokina got better reviews at the time and cost slightly less

grantsteve · 25-03-2007, 5:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redmax

Nice shots on a difficult day.

Just out of interest did you look at the Sigma 12-24 before going for the Tokina?

Thanks for the kind words.

I did look at the Sigma before I purchased (Steve Green has a pretty impressive collection of shots taken with it on his Flickr) but the more I read about both lenses the more I felt pushed towards the Tokina.

One day I'll get the best out of it!

redmax · 25-03-2007, 5:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grantsteve

Thanks for the kind words.

I did look at the Sigma before I purchased (Steve Green has a pretty impressive collection of shots taken with it on his Flickr) but the more I read about both lenses the more I felt pushed towards the Tokina.

One day I'll get the best out of it!

I think Steve has the 10-20mm which is APS-C. I had one on my 30D before moving up to the 1D.
I thought the Tokina was compatible with full frame or x1.3 so looks like its the Sigma 12-24mm for me then.

grantsteve · 25-03-2007, 9:07 PM

If at first you don't succeed and all that ...

Revisited these trying to take on board some of the comments (I've binned the HDR and included the original shot, straightened the arches shot and saved all shots with the colour profile intact - thanks guys

)

Oh and the file sizes should keep Zone happy now

Yes the skys are still blown, but meh ... its the best I can do now.

denno75uk · 25-03-2007, 9:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grantsteve

If at first you don't succeed and all that ...

Revisited these trying to take on board some of the comments (I've binned the HDR and included the original shot, straightened the arches shot and saved all shots with the colour profile intact - thanks guys

)

Oh and the file sizes should keep Zone happy now

Yes the skys are still blown, but meh ... its the best I can do now.

The arches shot looks even better now. Superb.
And who gives a s**t about blown skies. Although that's maybe just cause I'm so used to them on my shots.

dave_bass5 · 25-03-2007, 11:23 PM

lovley pics.
Im playing a gig there in May and ill be taking my 30D with me. We played there two years ago and all i had was a Canon S400 so really looking forward to this one.