# City shots at night



## MTL18 (Aug 13, 2014)

Hi All,

Took my first city shots at night and noticed something peculiar. I shot at 18mm with my Sigma 18-35, a lens that has very little distortion if any. I noticed that when the tallest building was in the centre of my shot, it appeared straight. However, when it was at the edge, it was clearly bent. The building was still perfectly straight, but not 90 degrees to the ground. I had to adjust the image 4.3 degrees to correct for this. 

The city I was shooting had a large river running through it, and thus all the buildings lined up to an edge. This edge was not straight from my building, perhaps explaining why the tall building appeared crooked. 

Is my experience normal? For presentation, would you correct it so the largest building was straight?

Thanks for your help.


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## NancyP (Aug 22, 2014)

All wide angle zooms have some barrel distortion at the wide end. Plus, at 18mm, the field of view is wider than what the human eye perceives normally. Post processing automatic lens corrections are great for this problem, most of the time.


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## idene (Aug 22, 2014)

Anything wide will have barrel distortion as already stated. It's impossible to have a wide lens without barrel distortion. The lens will distort the foreground in order to expand the background. 

Easily fixed issue that takes a few clicks.


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## mdmphoto (Aug 22, 2014)

How about let's see some "City shots at night"?


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## mrkahn (Aug 22, 2014)

mdmphoto said:


> How about let's see some "City shots at night"?



Here you go: http://malcolmkahn.com/#/gallery/cityscapes/nyc-with-big-moon/


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## LovePhotography (Aug 25, 2014)

Works great... slam dunk.
http://www.dxo.com/intl/photography/dxo-optics-pro/photo-software


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## mdmphoto (Aug 25, 2014)

mrkahn said:


> mdmphoto said:
> 
> 
> > How about let's see some "City shots at night"?
> ...



Beautiful work Mr. Kahn. A great night skyline is always nice, but those bridge photos, particularly the spans, were simply wonderful...
Here's a couple two or three of mine:


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## Omni Images (Aug 25, 2014)

Here's a few of Sydney at night.


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