polar coordinates distort filter

DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,952 moderator
edited September 1, 2006 in Finishing School
I found myself stuck with a really dreadful shot as my only photo for my daily photo journal the other day. As I usually do in this case, I tweaked the heck out of it. This time, I happened to stumble onto the polar coordinates filter that lets you distort the heck out of an image (go rectangular to polar and vice versa).

91431061-500x500.jpg

Now purely as a geek, this is super cool! After all, our image is just a matrix of numbers so I think I understand the conversion.

My curiousity asks: is there any real photographic use for this? I realize most of the distort filters are just that, cool mathematical distortions. Anyone else ever used this? Anyone else think its neat or am I up way too late? :lol3
Since 2004...

Comments

  • cletuscletus Registered Users Posts: 1,930 Major grins
    edited August 31, 2006
    Doc,

    Nice use of the polar coordinates filter!

    I've played around with the polar filter a bit, but I don't have a good practical use for it.
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,952 moderator
    edited August 31, 2006
    cletus wrote:
    Doc,

    Nice use of the polar coordinates filter!

    I've played around with the polar filter a bit, but I don't have a good practical use for it.
    thanks mr photoshop guru thumb.gif

    can't imagine there is much of a practical use for it. but I'm bettin' it could be used to make some pretty neat graphics. It essentially sweeps a path with portions of the image. You can see that in the nice loops in my photo.
    Since 2004...
  • MitchellMitchell Registered Users Posts: 3,503 Major grins
    edited August 31, 2006
    I've played with polar coordinates to make "spheres" of some interesting images. I don't know if it is useful, but I like the way they look. Kinda like those colored glass balls you can buy at craft fairs.

    Original
    38097835-M.jpg

    Spherized
    59797242-M.jpg
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited August 31, 2006
    Doc,

    It's a great way to hatch your evil plans and control your very own planet
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,952 moderator
    edited August 31, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    Doc,

    It's a great way to hatch your evil plans and control your very own planet
    Uber cool! thumb.gif
    Since 2004...
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited August 31, 2006
    DoctorIt wrote:
    My curiousity asks: is there any real photographic use for this?

    I also got curious and did a google search.
    This page explains the math. You can see where it might be used for translating between flat and global map projections.
    This page points to this page, which is pretty interesting because it means that some 18th century artists would have killed for this filter (watch the movies).
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,952 moderator
    edited September 1, 2006
    colourbox wrote:
    I also got curious and did a google search.
    This page explains the math. You can see where it might be used for translating between flat and global map projections.
    This page points to this page, which is pretty interesting because it means that some 18th century artists would have killed for this filter (watch the movies).
    ooooh, good stuff! thanks for the link!
    Since 2004...
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