The title is trying a bit too hard I think...I arrived in Doha today for day one of the week's work here covering more golf for the European Tour and, it's after sunset so day turns into night. See..? ;)
I thought about the different shots I might like to try this week on my return visit here for the third year running and in the end, compared to the previous 2 years the only thing different about this shot is the fact that I used the ultra wide angle lens, that I didn't have last year. So this is the same cityscape shot but with a different perspective and some nice silky clouds.
The light spread from the skyscrapers was awesome so I haven't changed it as such, just pushed the contrast to make them pop a little.
1 - Smooth journey from Abu Dhabi to Doha via Dubai
2 - Lovely to be back in Doha with the hot weather
3 - A long walk round the Corniche to my favourite lookout point of these towers
I know you want the wide angle effect, but a couple of things you could try out. And then dismiss them if it's not what to your taste. I see you have Photoshop, so in Camera Raw/Lightroom I'd try pulling the verticals straight (Lens Correction and pull the vertical perspective sliders to the left, keeping the wide-angle effect though, and I'd also in the Lens Correction pane, top slider, correct the wide angle barrel distortion (pull the slider to the right, on the downward bowing horizon especially. And then crop it down but leave as much wonderful sky as you can. And make the horizon as straight as you can. And to get the skyline to pop even more, I'd sharpen it up even more. Something like this, although it is very rough, only having a 1024 pixel jpeg. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f17yie2hz4z53am/My%20Doha.jpg?dl=0
It is such a great subject, I hope you don't mind if I suggest a few things you might try, especially on the original large raw or even jpeg from the camera.
@irisn Hope it can help you work out what you might want to do with super wide shots Iris. Sometimes leaning/converging verticals work nicely, but not often for me. Others might strongly disagree however. Especially look out for "barrel distortion" from the lens, That I think almost everyone would agree is not wanted. A fisheye lens, well that's another animal altogether. :)
So great that there is such different advice on this project, you can either take it or leave it but always helps someone & given with the best interests!
I think this is a wonderful shot Steve......a big Fave from me!
@frankhymus I appreciate the advice and I'm mixed on what to think. My first reaction is that it doesn't need 'correcting', and believe me I go through the correcting process whenever I edit these super wide shots because sometimes the leaning verticals aren't pretty. But I like how it seems to convey the size of this whole scene. Having said that, my first reaction to your edit is that it is very good and look more like the shot you would eventually see of this scene as a viewer, in a book, magazine, online or whatever, the corrected version would be the one. I think barrel distortion is minimal but I did take a tiny bit out and it looks better.
And although I wasn't able in CameraRaw, I did manage to get what I think is a better horizon in PS using the Straighten tool in Crop mode. I couldn't get it last night and was so tired I uploaded the pic but think these edits would have improved it.
Looking at it again with your preferences it has made me think about shooting this type of scene again, and using the wide or my standard mid-range zoom again to achieve the desired result.
It's all in the eye of the beholder and I went with the shot above because it just took my fancy more, and I don't always want to straighten everything out, but I do know it looks better for most people.
I appreciate your opinions on it though...always good to rethink what pushes our creative choices and what we are trying to achieve.
I know you want the wide angle effect, but a couple of things you could try out. And then dismiss them if it's not what to your taste. I see you have Photoshop, so in Camera Raw/Lightroom I'd try pulling the verticals straight (Lens Correction and pull the vertical perspective sliders to the left, keeping the wide-angle effect though, and I'd also in the Lens Correction pane, top slider, correct the wide angle barrel distortion (pull the slider to the right, on the downward bowing horizon especially. And then crop it down but leave as much wonderful sky as you can. And make the horizon as straight as you can. And to get the skyline to pop even more, I'd sharpen it up even more. Something like this, although it is very rough, only having a 1024 pixel jpeg. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f17yie2hz4z53am/My%20Doha.jpg?dl=0
It is such a great subject, I hope you don't mind if I suggest a few things you might try, especially on the original large raw or even jpeg from the camera.
I think this is a wonderful shot Steve......a big Fave from me!
And although I wasn't able in CameraRaw, I did manage to get what I think is a better horizon in PS using the Straighten tool in Crop mode. I couldn't get it last night and was so tired I uploaded the pic but think these edits would have improved it.
Looking at it again with your preferences it has made me think about shooting this type of scene again, and using the wide or my standard mid-range zoom again to achieve the desired result.
It's all in the eye of the beholder and I went with the shot above because it just took my fancy more, and I don't always want to straighten everything out, but I do know it looks better for most people.
I appreciate your opinions on it though...always good to rethink what pushes our creative choices and what we are trying to achieve.