Friday, April 09, 2010

Skywatch: Seattle Shift


Seattle Shift
Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.
A view looking north from Beacon Hill. Visible are King Street Station's clock tower, Smith Tower, Qwest Field, the Space Needle, and many Belltown, downtown and Pioneer Square buildings. That's Queen Anne Hill in the background with the broadcasting tower. The common "post card" view of the city skyline that you've seen a gazillion times is taken from Kerry Park on that hill, so this is the view from the opposite direction. Those rain clouds are still bringing us showers today. To see skies around the world today, visit Skywatch Friday.

23 comments:

dianasfaria.com said...

I love the technique you used, is there a special name for this? It reminds me of a movie still.

MaddyChristine Hope-Brokopp said...

Listen, is this for real? I have a feeling you are pulling my leg here. It looks miniature, it's totally cool!! Yes, tell us what you did....

Kim said...

Thanks Lily and MCH. The lens that can produce this effect is called a Tilt Shift lens. It costs thousands of dollars and is used mainly by architectural photographers as it allows them to correct distortions when taking shots of huge buildings. People can get the effect of a miniature by using a tilt shift lens, or they can simulate it using Photoshop. . .very tedious. I got the effect by using a free on-line tilt shift simulator that is not very sophisticated, but for something fun like this is quick and easy. Anyone who knows what they are doing would see this is not a great job, but it is fun once in awhile to spice up a ho-hum view. I took the photo yesterday afternoon, and you can see the original on my Flicker site.
-Kim

Halcyon said...

Cool picture. I like the way everything is compressed. It almost looks like it's a photo of a model of the city.

Happy Friday!

cieldequimper said...

Making me 'homesick' Kim! Have a wonderful weekend!

Stefan Jansson said...

This is a good one Kim.

Jake Garn said...

I love the tilt shift effect on this one! so cool.

Luis Gomez said...

Great looking shot Kim!

brattcat said...

What fun this is...like a perfect little miniature city. You are full of the best surprises, Kim.

Pat said...

I thought it looked like a tiny city, too; thanks for the explanation. But it is a cool photo, and worth your effort.

T. Becque said...

Neat effect. I like how the one building in focus looks like it's popping out of the image.

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

I don't want to repeat what eveyone else has said about this shot so I'll just say: "This one really caught my eye". Fun shot.

Peter van den Besselaar said...

What an excellent picture! Congratulations. Never knew Seattle was that interesting...

Dawning Inspiration said...

Nice perspective and love the bokeh!

Louis la Vache said...

The common post card view of the Seattle skyline is reminiscent of this common post card view of San Francisco victorians and skyline.

Hilda said...

Kim, this is awesome! I feel like I'm looking at a very detailed scale model. I'm in truly in awe…

Gwyn said...

Nice tilt shift! It reminds me of a playing with trains when I was little.

Rick said...

I'm jealous, my tilt shifts never come out that good!

lewi14@gmail.com said...

It looks like a miniature installation. Amazing! Well photographed.

Carraol said...

Love the result of this technic, your composition is another thing. Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Love the picture, dislike the reminder of how filthy the Qwest Field roof is. They really need to clean that thing.

Janet Dillon Robinson said...

This photo is phenomenal!! I just started taking a digital photography class and would love to know a good spot to take Seattle sky-line shots from. Thank you!

Chow Down Seattle said...

I love this shot! Great Tilt-Shift effect.