Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

Hi All. Sorry for not posting anything in a long time of my more recent work, but I plan to add some more images soon. Here is a shot I took yesterday afternoon of the Bangkok skyline through the glass of an office window. In the foreground is the Bangkok sports club.

[gregoire]

Very cool! I've always wondered if Bangkok had a skyline (looks even better considering it was shot through an office window)

[Marc Schultz]

Yes, it very much does indeed have a skyline. The challenge is finding a vantage point where it is open enough so that you can actually get a perspective of the city. Luckily yesterday afternoon the visibility was decent. Incidentally, I made all those changes for RSS feed you suggested. Can you let me know if it has done what you want it to do?

[Chris Savery]

Wow. Looks like one of those architect's models complete with little dinky toy cars and working skytrain.
I don't know how you got it so "clean". This must be from the new Central World building I would expect.
Fabulous though.
Chris :)

[Marc Schultz]

Thank you Chris. I simply put the lens right up against the glass. I was also shooting with a 24mm shift lens which allowed me to shift the horizon up and down on the amount of sky and buildings I wanted to show. Unfortunately the outside of the glass was not that clean, but the result is still pretty good considering. Yes, it was taken from an upper floor in the Central World Tower. Best wishes..

[Renato]

I would like to share my photo taken of Bangkok Skyline if it can be called that way, it was about to rain that's why the cloud is plain and gloomy but I took the shot anyway.

[Chris Savery]

Marc,

I gather it's the shift lens that keeps the buildings looking so straight despite the wide angle lens? I've never used one so I'm not too familiar with what you really get from that - correct me if I'm wrong. It seems to me that the subtle diffference accounts for a perspective that we aren't quite used with a normal wide angle shot. It seems ideal for this type of urban shot.

Jingle,

Where is that? I don't believe I've ever been to a place in Bangkok where there is a large lake with fountains in it. And I dont' recognize the buildings either. Thanks for sharing it.

Chris :)

[Renato]

Hi Chris,
This is the Benjasiri Park next to the Sirikit National Convention Center, if you have time to go there it is quite nice to walk around and make some shoots. I still have to go there in the evening for night shooting, it is open up to 8pm.

[Marc Schultz]

Chris, Normally on wide angles if we tilt the camera up or down in order to get the desired mix of land, sky, and/or water the perspective starts to bend at the sides. The way to prevent most of the bending is to level the camera completely, both horizontally and vertically. But the problem with leveling is that as I said you may not get the right mix of elements of the subject that you are looking for.

The beauty of a shift lens is that it allows you to level the camera and then shift the lens perspective without shifting the camera itself. The result is a generally squared and natural looking perspective and what I normally use for shooting any sort of architectural interiors.

[gregoire]

I'd love a tilt-shift lens but can't afford it. If you're like me, you can make-do with Photoshop CS2. filter>distort>lens correction



I was standing across the street from these buildings so in the original picture, the vertical lines are all converging towards some point in far up in the sky. Photoshop made these lines parallel and set the angles at 90 degrees.

I have a few more shots here where you can spot the effect of that filter: http://le.serpent.9online.fr/otherplaces.html

[Renato]

I went back today to the Benjasiri Park for some night shooting, there were so many people using the park for a stroll, jogging, cycling, dating, up to closing time at 7-8 p.m. and this is what I got. No tripod and I used the bench to put my camera and took the shot. Will have to try it again with a tripod. The second photo was taken earlier at around 6 pm.

[bjorn slis]

@jingle, what camera do you use ?

[Renato]

Hi Bjorn,

I use Konika-Minolta 5D as I can still use my old lenses with this DSLR. I still have to improve the photos when reducing it to a smaller size to be able to post here as the background seems to show lines. I am planning to buy the new Sony A100 model as they have more MPs than this one with only 6.1MP. On the subject of the old lenses, the DSLR convert it to 1.5 so I get more on telephoto but not on Macro. Oh well, you can not have it all.

[bjorn slis]

Yep that's why I asked. I never saw these lines before.

btw. 6.1 mp is plenty for most work

[Renato]

I have to find out how to get rid of it. Maybe some members of the Forum can advise on this case. However, my scanned films never show these lines when reducing to a smaller file for posting. I am still working on this DSRL thing and try to understand all its functions. I do not have problem with my 2 SLRs though. Maybe my technical knowledge of DSLR is still way behind the others. My Photoshop knowledge too is still less than satisfactory as I always try to post my photos on its original form.