Re: Sundial Trick Photography

[Rudolf Hooijenga]

Hello John and indeed all readers of the list,   somewhat less important but because I found it nicer to look at, I "un-distorted" the photograph of my house (the one that is on my homepage, see below) this way. It was taken from a truck for a good overview, but that had made verticals go wider as they go up, which looks very strange. I used the "perspective" distortion to make doorposts, rainpipes etc. run almost vertical and parallel in the picture.   Happy photographing! Rudolf http://www.rhayward.demon.nl for summaries of the Bulletin of the Dutch Sundial Society   ----- Original Message ----- From: John Carmichael To: sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2001 4:31 PM Subject: Sundial Trick Photography Hi all,   I'm sure you all have had problems photographing sundial faces because you are not able to get your camara centered directly over the center of the dial face.  This is always a problem in photographing vertical wall dials and horizontal doials that are on a high pedestal. These off-center photo angles distort the look of a sundial and turn square sundials into rectangles and round dials into elipses.   But I discovered that by using digital editing, you can stretch or compress a photo so that it appears that camara was directly over the dial!  I discovered this while using the "perspective" and "distort" features of Adobe Photo Delux.   To see an example of what this technique can do, look at the NASS Registry fotos of the Flandrau Heliochronometer, dial # 464, Tucson Arizona. The first foto I took from a ladder. The 2ond foto below it is the exact same foto artificially corrected to compensate for the perspective distortion. The difference is amazing!   I think this is a wonderful tool for those of us who photograph sundials.   John   John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA   Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com>