Newport Beach Pier

[Ryan10]

A couple of storys from the evening I shot this.

First of all...I met Don Murray while shooting that particular evening. He is known for shooting everything with his smartphone. The guy is super nice, and holy crap he's brave. He was chest high out in the water with his backpack and gear. One false move and I assume it would of all got wet. He said he keeps everything in zip lock bags in his backpack, mostly clothes, since he only uses his smartphone. lol.

https://www.instagram.com/donmurrayphotos/


Secondly, I met a people photographer just after she finished her shoot with a family of 10+ people there at the pier. I noticed some police looking people approach her while she was shooting the family. I asked her about that, and she said they were checking for her permit to shoot. She had one. It's kind of silly, because a lot of landscape photogs sell and make money on their prints, yet they don't need a permit. This woman was shooting all natural light too, nothing more than a camera and lens.


Anyways, enough of the bloviating. Here is the image I got.


Newport Beach Pier by Ryan Luna, on Flickr

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the cloud colors and the reflections. The lens angle on the right hand side of the image makes me feel like I am leaning.

 

[Ryan10]

I like the cloud colors and the reflections. The lens angle on the right hand side of the image makes me feel like I am leaning.

lol...yeah. I'm not sure how to avoid that other than a TS lens. I used the lens profile correction, and it still has a leaning presence too it.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ryan,

A nice Newport Beach pier shot, the sunset color in the clouds is really nice. I would correct that bit of WA distortion on the right side of the pier, though I could see why you wouldn't as it would end up cutting off some of the clouds.

Yeah, I totally don't get the permit thing. They are getting super crazy about it in Laguna Beach, to the point where people can't even take portraits of their own family with a DSLR without getting hassled for a permit. A few years back when the permit idea was being pushed by a few residents, the biggest proponents for it were "Professional" photographers who were getting paid to shoot families/engagements, etc there. The reasoning they gave was that it would give them more work as it would prevent the amateur photographer from shooting portraits down there. Very sad and selfish reasoning.

Myself, I would think the city's would encourage people to come down and photograph there, as it would end up bringing more revenue to the city from those people who might stay and eat, or buy souvenirs. I could see the need for permits if it's a huge production with light stands and all sorts of gear. But not for a small gathering.

Jim

 

[JimFox]

lol...yeah. I'm not sure how to avoid that other than a TS lens. I used the lens profile correction, and it still has a leaning presence too it.

Hey Ryan,

It's easy to correct actually. Let the Warp tool be your friend.

In Photoshop change your image into a layer, go to Edit, then transform. There are lots of cool options, but for this, use Warp. and pull or push those pier legs straight.

One note with warp, if you just click on it, it by default will set up with warp controls for the whole image. Which can work for this since the pier legs are close to an edge. But also you can use a Selection tool an Lasso an area, then Click Warp. And the Warp will only modify the area in the selection. So you could drawn a wide Lasso around the right 2 pier legs and pier, then click Warp, and then individually warp only that area without affecting the rest of the image at all. If you do it that way, be sure to Duplicate the Layer first and Warp on the top layer. The bottom layer allows you to compare how much you really changed, and if and seams open up along the edge of your selection from Warping, the layer below will help hide it.

Warp can be a little bit of a hard tool to get used to. But play with it a bit, get used to it's little nuances, and you will find it a super powerful tool to use that can give you natural looking results from tweaks to straighten up things.

Jim

PS. I probably should add the Warp tool to my list of Articles I am writing, as it's a tool that should be used be used.