Tonite we celebrated Passover with a seder at our friends' condo with its spectacular views. This is looking in the opposite direction of Millennium Park, west, down Randolph Street (which you can glimpse in the lower right corner).
This is the view looking in the opposite direction (sort of): http://365project.org/taffy/the-also-ran-ph/2013-03-26
Wonderful shot! I was going to say it doesn't look straight but I popped it into Photoshop and pulled a few guides onto it and found that it is really my eyes! Love it.
@steampowered I think the slight crookedness stems from using a 24-80 full frame lens on my dx camera. I've noticed that the wider I go, of course there's more distortion, but for some reason, at 24 with this lens -- the widest end -- I always have a little. If you line up some of the buildings near the edge, there's a slight tilt that I couldn't get rid of, so focused on making sure the central ones were as straight as possible.
I have to say I keep coming back to this photo--I really, really love it. So much precision and structure and drama all wrapped into one photo. My mom has a painting that really reminds me of this scene--I'll have to capture it someday to show you what I mean by it being like a painted canvas! So good!
@danielwsc Thanks for the fav, Daniel!! I'll ask my friends if we can do a photo trip to their 28th floor observation area. It's 10 floors lower than their condo, but ought to still be good views. Especially after the park renovation is done, for a daytime visit.
Where'd my comment go? This photo is so cool! The lighting and clarity are fantastic and the clouds so dramatic. Did you HDR it at all? I only ask 'cause the exposure is so tricky, and perfect!
@anwan I don't know! It was in email, but then wasn't here. I didn't HDR it, but I used Color Efex Pro 2. I can't remember which of the presets I started with, but it is one that does work on clarity/detail. Then, I also deepened the contrast for the clouds -- they were pretty cool that night, but my photo SOOC didn't have the definition that you could see with the naked eye.
@steampowered I think the slight crookedness stems from using a 24-80 full frame lens on my dx camera. I've noticed that the wider I go, of course there's more distortion, but for some reason, at 24 with this lens -- the widest end -- I always have a little. If you line up some of the buildings near the edge, there's a slight tilt that I couldn't get rid of, so focused on making sure the central ones were as straight as possible.
@olivetreeann @dauber @darylo @gerry Your favs are humbling. Thank you so much!
Thank you all -- it really is so encouraging to read your comments.
@boxplayer Thanks! The sky was dramatic that night, so it was a good one to be high up for the shot. Thanks for the fav!