Unlevel Horizon

[Holloran Grade]

Reason(s) for Rejection: - Horizon Unlevel: Try leveling the image in your photo editing software.

Any ideas?




There really is no rhyme or reason to this leveling stuff.

For instance, look at the version of this one that was finally accepted.

PhotoID: 425813 Photograph © EL ROCO Photography

[Joe the Photog]

Very slight CW rotation in the rejection. Maybe .25% if thgat. Noticeable haloing around the trees though. As for the accepted version, nothing about it screams unlevel to me. Looks to be on a curved track and the grain hoppers back there at least appear level!

[Holloran Grade]

Look at the towers for the power lines in the background across the freeway.

AND - As pointed out by the critics (see comments).

[magicman_841]

The caption on the Cajon shot doesn't seem to fit the image.

And, yeah it looks like it's leaning to the left... that highway has a steady grade in it, and it's perfectly straight in the photo!

[bigbassloyd]

.5 degrees and some vertical distortion correction


Loyd L.

[Holloran Grade]

Originally Posted by bigbassloyd

.5 degrees and some vertical distortion correction...Loyd L.

Ya, that looks good.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Holloran Grade

For instance, look at the version of this one that was finally accepted.

Originally Posted by magicman_841

The caption on the Cajon shot doesn't seem to fit the image.

The Turn at Alray - An eastbound stack train headed from Los Angeles to Clovis New Mexico waits out the light at Fullerton Junction during a power failure that left the station and many of the surrounding businesses in the dark for approximately 20 minutes.

[Holloran Grade]

Originally Posted by JimThias

How odd, that is the explanation for the night shot.

I wonder how that happened?

I will fix it, thanks for pointing it out!

[Holloran Grade]

I rotated the image counter clockwise to get the side of the engine hood parallel with the left side, and then used the distortion tool to "pull" the upper right hand corner out until the light pole was parallel with the right side.

Then I adjusted the borders and slightly degrained the sky.

PhotoID: 426541 Photograph © EL ROCO Photography

Normally I would have shot this at 200 ISO with a longer exposure time, but there were people walking all around and I wanted the foreground to be clear.

The result is the exposure is only about 7 seconds and the ISO was about 10000 which makes it noisy.

Mitch-

It is common for eastbound freights to stop on the center track at this point to await Amtrak trains coming up from San Diego, or other trains that are being run around it.

However, I have never seen a power outage before at this location.

Additionally, the outage was rather localized since the lights for the parking lot at the other end and the bridge are still on, as are the parking lot lights by the Spaghetti Factory restaurant.

View from the opposite direction:

Spaghetti Factory restaurant is just off to the left side of the frame.

PhotoID: 420839 Photograph © EL ROCO Photography

[ddavies]

The problem is not an un-level image. You are probably using a wide-angle lens, which when tilted up a little bit, makes the sides of the image tend to bow in. Screeners have to look at both sides of the image to make sure that one side in not the opposite angle as the other. A slight amount of perspective adjustment will make the building on the right vertical, along with the fence on the left.

Perspective distortion is normal, unless you are using a view camera, and should not be a reason for rejection.

[Holloran Grade]

I was using a Canon 16-35 mm L lens which while being a wide angle, is constructed to limit the amount of distortion at the low end - especially when compared to the 17-40mm L.

There was some twisting with the light pole and when I plumbed the engine hood sides the way they like it, that light pole was pretty crooked.

So, I just pulled it and the others back up by distorting the image on the top right side.

[JimThias]

I'm a little surprised they accepted that with the intense haloing going on around the trees.

[Holloran Grade]

Originally Posted by JimThias

I'm a little surprised they accepted that with the intense haloing going on around the trees.

Not sure what is going on there with that, except the air was damp and there is no foreground lighting.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Holloran Grade

Not sure what is going on there with that, except the air was damp and there is no foreground lighting.

(it's called "bad processing")