Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Posted by Daniel Chen (New York, United States) on 1 January 2007 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.

Nikon D70s - Tokina 12-24 @ 12mm, 1/20s, f/4, Aperture Priority, Matrix Metering, Auto ISO set to 1/30
Taken on 12/29/2006 20:00.50

Happy New Year's everyone!

After A long week of college application writing, my family and I decided to take a break go take a look at the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center, and go ice skating (Central Park Wollman Rink). I'm posting it up now, because I am finished with all my college essay writing.

The photo was taken right behind one of those guys who were shooting "professional" portraits. I just waited behind the long line of people who went behind him and took a picture of the same thing the "professional" was shooting.

Although the image was shot at 12mm, a lot of it was cropped out because of distortion, and perspective corrections (I might post the original tomorrow).
First I used the Measuring tool in Photoshop and drew a line from the center of the star on the Christmas tree to the top of the building, to do my initial image rotation, and straighten the image. Then I used PS arbitrary image rotation command.
Next,
Photoshop Lens Distortion Filter - Distortion: +3.5, Vertical Perspective: -100, -25, -10 (I did it 3 times - tweaking)
Warming Filter 85
Unsharp Mask - Amount: 150%, Radius: 1.0 pixels, Threshold: 0 levels

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