Lowell with 12-24

david_h

I took my new 12-24 Tokina lens to Lowell, Mass this afternoon. Didn't get to take too many pictures, it was super hot and my wife and daughter didn't appreciate hiking around town.

I haven't decided whether to keep this lens or sell it. It's great at 24mm, but quite a bit of distortion (as one might expect) at 12mm. Thank goodness for being able to correct perspective in PS.

There are some super works of art around the city. One day I'm going to take to time to photograph more of them.



Along with plenty of old churches, this is one of the 12mm shots that needed serious perspective correction:



But the most impressive things are the mill buildings. We looked at models in a couple of buildings that are being coverted to lofts. I would love to live in one of these.

Shima

Love the shots, especially the mill one since it reminds me of AP US History back in high school when I wrote a research paper on the mill girls of Lowell

david_h

Shima wrote:

Love the shots, especially the mill one since it reminds me of AP US History back in high school when I wrote a research paper on the mill girls of Lowell

Thanks Shima. Lowell is a nice town for photography. There are some good exhibits on the Lowell Girls in the National Park buildings.

rutt

Nice shots. The church and the mill look odd to me. Did you sharpen? How?
Or is this just the lens?

pathfinder

rutt wrote:

Nice shots. The church and the mill look odd to me. Did you sharpen? How?
Or is this just the lens?

Strong use of Shadow/Highlights perhaps?? The images seem vignetted to me- notice the dark bands along the side of the images.

david_h

rutt wrote:

Nice shots. The church and the mill look odd to me. Did you sharpen? How?
Or is this just the lens?

Hi Rutt, the church and mill shots were both adjusted quite a bit using the perspective crop feature. At 12mm, this lens produces a lot of distortion. PS does a pretty good job of stretching the image, but I'd prefer not to have to do it.

This 12-24 lens is much better from about 16mm and up, but of course I want to use it at 12mm all the time.

I only lightly sharpened the images, just on the L channel in LAB mode.

In a couple of weeks I'll be taking some landscapes in Utah so I'll know after that if I want to keep the lens.

Nir

Really nice shots David! I love the church with the red doors!

david_h

pathfinder wrote:

Strong use of Shadow/Highlights perhaps?? The images seem vignetted to me- notice the dark bands along the side of the images.

I did go through a lot of trouble to get that vignette action working properly

Nir wrote:

Really nice shots David! I love the church with the red doors!

Thanks Nir. I agree, it's those bright red doors that make this church an interesting subject.

I'm hoping to one day get the chance to photograph the churches in your area.

Rufio220

those are nice. i like the last one.