Sullivan Diner Route 17

2020 UPDATE: I shared a better edit of a different but similar image in 2020 here. I much prefer this new version. Please take a look. 

 

This diner is very close to the I-86 or 17 West Diner I posted about on Sunday, roughly just a couple of miles down the road.  This is the diner I think might have been open for part of the last 10-12 years during which I have been occasionally driving on Route 17, but I’m not certain.  As the sign says, there is a hotel affiliated with the diner.  It is behind the camera in this shot, out of sight.  I think it also is closed.  there were a couple of cars parked next to the hotel but I do not think it is open.  The gas station in the background is in business.  I bought a cup of coffee for the road.

I rarely am bothered by the distorting effects of the wide angle lens I use for many of my HDR shots.  This was a bit of an exception.  I tried correcting it in Photoshop but that created its own problems, so I left it uncorrected and leaning.  I know there are wide angle lenses that include the ability to correct for this effect when shooting but I do not own any.  As I said, usually it does not bother me.

Beyond that, the photo was processed in Photomatix and had its detail enhanced with Topaz Adjust.

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Joseph Hoetzl

    22 Jul 2010

    I agree about the wide angle distortion on this one. Just curious if you have/use Lightroom 3, and tried its perspective correction? I still like DxO’s perspective tools (ever try it?) the best, but LR3’s are pretty darn good. And, yes, I realize you’d have to do the same correction to all the frames, but that could be a copy and apply situation.

  2. DARYL (BUTCH) BUTCHER

    22 Jul 2010

    I can see how removing the tilt would cause a cropping problem. DxO can do some nice things. It is also possible to use “distort” in PS to straighten things without creating a crop problem. Cumbersome. Maybe I don’t know how to do it with groups of points rather than a point at a time but, with a little care, horizons can be leveled and keystone fixed WITHOUT losing pixels to crop. Yes, the “rescan” with distort reduces resolution but the trade is favorable.

    With shots like this I almost feel compelled to spend time removing overhead wiring. I am used to removing all manner of clutter shooting cars and airplanes. There always seems to be a crowd control rope or a “no smoking” sign right where it shouldn’t be.

  3. mark

    23 Jul 2010

    Joseph – I do not use Lightroom. I’m an Aperture guy. They both have strengths, and the new lens correction feature in Lightroom is one I envy. I don’t think I’d have to do the same correction on every frame, however. I could just do it on the HDR result image, right?
    Butch – thanks for the additional tips. I’ll have to look into learning how to distort w/o cropping. All I knew to do was the Lens Correction slider which did create major cropping issues. Funny what you say about the wiring. One comment over at Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgarbowski/4818612870/ praised the lines, which I took to refer to the wires. I don’t have a strong opinion either way. I have to admit I didn’t even notice them when composing. I’m noticing that isn’t unusual for me. Pretty often there are elements to my compositions that I don’t notice consciously until I get home and load images on the computer. More often than not, I like them, so I think I’m processing them at some level when I’m in the field. Sometimes I wonder whether taking more care and paying more attention would help or hurt. I might write a post about this if I can make the time.

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