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This is how it looked in 1968 (my best guess about the year).
Shot on Ilford FP4, scanned from a negative in rather bad shape…
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Here’s a shot of the lighthouse at Pointe St Mathieu - which is almost as far west as you can go before falling off the edge of France.
There are two versions and I wanted to seek opinions on how I have “straightened” the wide angle distortion on the top of the lighthouse…
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I didn’t know I had a lighthouse in my collection.
One without a sea, but with sheep.
France Cote Opale.
George
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@Joanna , if you hadn’t posted the 2 different versions, I honestly wouldn’t have seen the distortion in the master image. But yes, if you put the versions on top of each other, you can clearly see the difference and the edited version is of course more perfect. I would love to learn how you made the corrections. Can you share the RAW file and the dop file with us, please?
De Cocksdorp, Texel, The Netherlands
In those days I had not discovered the benefits of shooting raw, so this is from a jpg image which explains the halos…
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@herman , good shot. When i convert photos to b&w, i often use an Ilford emulation, often with a coarse grain.
@herman , Another question, you use a Leica. I never understood the magic that was made around Leica cameras. I understood that they were robust and expensive and used almost exclusively by war reporters. I don’t know if that’s right. Would you like to share some experiences with me, I would like to understand the magic better. Many thanks in advance.
In addition: I’m using Sony Alpha 77II
There is a technique, which is a bit fiddly, but can work. Start by creating a Luminosity Mask by selecting just the halo. Use the wedge in the tool to select as few a tones as possible…
Anything that gets included but shouldn’t be can be deselected with the eraser. You can see there are some areas I haven’t yet done.
After having refined the mask, then I adjusted the Highlights Selective Tonality, which gave me this…
And here is a section of the side of the lighthouse…
This attempt is by no means perfect, but it does show the underlying technique. But the image is quite low resolution, which doesn’t help.
Thank you!
That is a creative use of luminosity masking for sure, I copied this workflow to my “toolbox”.
I will keep it very short, it is off-topic anyway…
I used (D)SLRs all my life.
The last one was a Canon 5D Mark II with some L lenses.
The complete set in a backpack weighed more than my aging back was prepared to lug around.
I wanted to replace it with a compact camera, full frame, changeable lenses, full manual control (aperture and focus rings on the lens barrel, shutter speed wheel on the body), no multi-level deep menus, no frills, the set (body plus 3 lenses) should be portable in stead of transportable…
Back in 2011 the choice was limited, Leica M9 was the only camera meeting my requirements.
These days I shoot mostly iPhone though 
I just tried this but this luminosity masking is a DPL 7 / FP 7 feature, isn’t it?
I am still on DPL 6 / FP 6.
The alternative of using a control line and selecting the halo seems not precise enough.
Bummer!
What about Les Eclaireur in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It is also known as the Lighthouse of the end of the world.
Cheers
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I can relate to everything you wrote, especially the weight issue.
I made a similar choice, first with the M8.2, and then with the M10. Unfortunately, I also wanted to shoot distance shots, which put me back into my DSLR cameras. Currently that’s my D780. Joanna has a zoom lens for her D850 which goes from 28mm to 300mm if I remember correctly. If I was smarter, as she keeps reminding me, there is no longer a need for a case full of lenses.
iPhone - I love to see those photos on my phone, but they lose a lot when I see them on my computer screen. If I don’t carry one of my larger cameras, I’ve still got my Fuji X100F…
I’ll be back in India fairly soon, and can then capture lots of lighthouse photos to post in this thread when I return.
Feel free to create a new thread specifically about what you’re describing. I’ve now got a collection of lenses, including a very heavy Nikon 80-200, and a 70-300 which was supposed to replace the old Nikon lens… but I’ve now got both.
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