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Tobie Schalkwyk
08-30-2015, 09:06 AM
I arrived early yesterday morning at a bird reserve close by with the idea of settling in somewhere in my mobile bird hide before sunrise. When seeing the effect of the typical South African highveld winter 'smog' however, I decided to steal a few minutes to test my brand new Rokinon 14mm lens (actually bought for astrophotography). I took a series of shots with this one being the most favorite with the guys 'out there' (not my first choice from the set however).

I started off with the 'Riverrrun' selection from the 'dPS preselections' in LR and then switched to PS for luminosity masks to extract more detail (levels & curves). Slight crop to level the horizon.

Nikon D600
Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC
f/11 | 1/10s | 100 ISO | Manual focus | Handheld

All C & C's welcome.

Morkel Erasmus
08-30-2015, 12:13 PM
Hi Tobie - congrats on the new toy! Heard good things about it.
I like the composition and light/sunrise with the road leading us in.
I think you overdid the processing a bit - particularly there's a halo along the horizon and the mid portion along the horizon is very dark/silhouetted - easy enough to correct when playing a bit more with gradient filters etc?

Tobie Schalkwyk
08-30-2015, 11:26 PM
Hi Tobie - congrats on the new toy! Heard good things about it.
I like the composition and light/sunrise with the road leading us in.
I think you overdid the processing a bit - particularly there's a halo along the horizon and the mid portion along the horizon is very dark/silhouetted - easy enough to correct when playing a bit more with gradient filters etc?

Thanks Morkel - and thanks for looking & commenting! The 'problem' you're highlighting is exactly the 'effect of the winter smog' (caused by the multitude of fires from the 'settlement areas' closeby) that I'm referring to. I don't think a GND filter is going to provide a losultion but maybe I can darken the light patch just above the horizon a little using the LR adjustment brush. I'll repost...

Tobie Schalkwyk
08-31-2015, 11:03 AM
Highlights burnt on the horizon.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=155173&d=1441036560

Diane Miller
08-31-2015, 06:15 PM
I love the composition here, and the moody colors! Wish the tree on the left had a little more room -- I'll sometimes shoot a very overlapped pano and see if I can composite well. Tricky with wide angle but sometimes works. The raw file pano stitching in LR CC 2015 is amazing, and you still have a raw file to work with.

I'm anxious for a report on the lens -- how is it in the corners? (And is that a full-frame body?) I'm wondering if I can improve on my 17mm TS-E but doubt it. It's as good wide open (f/4) as stopped down.

Tobie Schalkwyk
08-31-2015, 11:57 PM
I love the composition here, and the moody colors! Wish the tree on the left had a little more room -- I'll sometimes shoot a very overlapped pano and see if I can composite well. Tricky with wide angle but sometimes works. The raw file pano stitching in LR CC 2015 is amazing, and you still have a raw file to work with.

I'm anxious for a report on the lens -- how is it in the corners? (And is that a full-frame body?) I'm wondering if I can improve on my 17mm TS-E but doubt it. It's as good wide open (f/4) as stopped down.

Thanks for looking & commenting Diane! I was also wishing for a bit more space but this was all that was possible other than going for a composite, which would have thrown out the composition. I could not move further back because of high shrubs on my right. So as much as I wished for more space, this was my only option.

I'm actually very happy with the lens so far. It's surprisingly easy to operate. I was a bit cautious about the MF requirement, but the built-in chip on the Nikon version of the lens uses the in-camera dot to show when it's in focus (not available for Canon) and allows in-camera exposure adjustments. It does appear to be a touch soft in the corners (yes, it's a FF body) but not to a bad degree (according to most reviews, it does better here than the Canikon equivalents). If you're really interested, check out the shot in full-screen mode on flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_schalkwyk/20359135983/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/) and click the '+' mouse icon to zoom in on it even more. Then browse to the next 3 shots which I've taken within minutes of this one and repeat the actions. Then if you don't mind, post your thoughts on the lens based on these shots?

I'm not sure that I would have gone for a 14mm if I already had a quality 17mm in my arsenal, but for another 18% extra width who knows... :w3

Morkel Erasmus
09-01-2015, 01:58 AM
Tobie - send me a RAW file via dropbox...
Use morksnork(at)gmail(dot)com

Diane Miller
09-01-2015, 06:06 PM
That's a nice way to see them on Flickr. They look quite good to me, but always hard to evaluate a lens on a few shots, and stars show up issues that we'd probably never see in regular daytime photography (although I wonder if some problems don't have an effect as sensors get better). But from what I've heard, the lens is a lot better than the regular Canon wide angles, for an amazingly lower price.

I wonder if Canon will start upgrading lenses with the same CA correction as their new 35? But for stars, things like coma and other aberrations are also important, and rarely corrected in normal lenses.

Tobie Schalkwyk
09-02-2015, 01:14 AM
That's a nice way to see them on Flickr. They look quite good to me, but always hard to evaluate a lens on a few shots, and stars show up issues that we'd probably never see in regular daytime photography (although I wonder if some problems don't have an effect as sensors get better).

True. I've seen a few beautiful milky way shots already, taken with this lens. Who knows - maybe I can soon add my own (I hope!)?

Tobie Schalkwyk
09-02-2015, 01:17 AM
Tobie - send me a RAW file via dropbox...
Use morksnork(at)gmail(dot)com

Thanks for the offer Morkel but if you don't mind - rather tell me what you have in mind and let me see if I can achieve that (it will help me enhance my PP skills)?

I've actually missed your mentioning of the dark parts and raised the shadows a bit. I'd prefer not to tamper with the dark horizon itself so as to complement the silhouetted tree.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=155245&d=1441208427

Judy Howle
09-07-2015, 05:51 PM
Lovely composition with the road leading into the sunrise, and nice golden light!

Don Lacy
09-07-2015, 06:30 PM
Hi tobie, I really like the leading lines of the image and feel the repost with the lifted shadows is the stronger of the two posted. I do feel that the first tree is a little cramped in the composition with it being so close to the edge of the frame

Andrew McLachlan
09-07-2015, 07:02 PM
Congrats on the new lens...I like the scene as presented but do agree that the bending tree could use a bit more room...please let us know how the lens works for astro-photography...I have heard that it is actually one of the best lenses for starry skies.

Morkel Erasmus
09-08-2015, 03:53 PM
It's hard for me to put my finger on what exactly you did wrong, Tobie.
I just feel there shouldn't be a dark silhouetted band in the middle of the image given how light both your foreground and sky are?

Tobie Schalkwyk
09-09-2015, 12:07 AM
It's hard for me to put my finger on what exactly you did wrong, Tobie.
I just feel there shouldn't be a dark silhouetted band in the middle of the image given how light both your foreground and sky are?

Thanks Morkel - let me go and rework this one right from the start...