Choppy

I had a free day today so I took a trip to the local harbour for a walk as, for the first time this year, we’ve had some sunshine!!! I decided to go for a boat ride; unfortunately, the sun disappeared and the waves were a little on the large side to say the least. I took my camera with me as usual, along with both my wide angle, and telephoto lens.

As we were on our way out, I tried to capture the ocean spray, so used a shutter speed of 1/800 with an aperture of F7. I increased the contrast in Photoshop, which made the colours less realistic. I decided to play on this, so increased the hue to get a more purple tint as opposed to the original blue-green tinge. I then increased the sharpness to emphasise the droplets of water.

I’m pleased with how the different tones of colour have resulted in two distinctly separate shades of blue. I tried to make the best out of a situation that wasn’t ideal, and I think it worked quite well – often the way! The idea for this photo comes from the theme of movement, emailed to us by Ken. Thanks Ken; I hope you like it!!

Bex
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Snow Problem

Perhaps I should apologise for the awful pun of a title now! But that’s not the only thing I should be apologising for; the last month has been awash with exams and coursework, and the blog has been pushed onto Mat for most of this month. Thankfully, I reached the deadline today so things should start to be a little more regular now.

In my area, most of the snow has melted and things are starting to return to normality. Most people are a bit sick of the sight of it, but I’m one of those that simply regress to the mentality of a 5 year old and carry on! On the first day that the snow arrived on my doorstep, I took my camera out on an all-day adventure. This is one of the first I took, and okay, it may be a little stereotypical painted Christmas card, but I can’t wait almost a year to upload it! I spotted this photo by chance, as I needed to mail a letter on my way out.

I used an aperture of F4, as I wanted quite a shallow depth of field. I boosted the highlights in Photoshop as I had under-exposed a little; this was intentional as it’s hard to control highlight clipping in the snow, and under-exposing eliminates this. Apart from sharpening the image, I haven’t done anything further to the image as I was pleased the original.

Bex
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Old Machinery

Unfortunately Bex and I didn’t get a chance to go out for a photography walk today; so I looked through my computer for a bit of inspiration. I looked through one of the country walks that we went on. I found an interesting photo that I thought with a bit of editing could look quite interesting.

When I took the photo I initially thought that a wide composition would look the most interesting so I focused on the machine and used a narrow aperture to ensure that the whole scene was in focus. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second, and as I was using a focal length of around 30mm this was more than fast enough.

When looking at the photo on my computer I had a rethink in terms of the composition. I thought that if I change the composition from a wide angle shot to a closer one, the photo may look more interesting. So the main change I made was to crop out most of the image. After this I sharpened the photo I reduced the noise a small amount. This ensured that plenty of detail was left after the heavy cropping.

I’m pleased with the effect that I created by editing the photo. It does show that you have two chances to make a good composition; either: while taking the photo, or editing the photo.

Mat

Blurry Water

I took a lot of photos on our pre-dawn walk, this one is one of my favourites so I decided to upload it. We were down at the duckpond and the water was flowing at a reasonable rate; I thought that I could make an interesting blurred effect by using a slow shutter speed.

To create the effect I wanted, I put the camera in aperture priority mode, I did this because I also wanted a large depth of field. I selected an aperture of F13, this gives a massive depth of field but also it means the camera has to choose a slow shutter speed. This gives both of the effects that I was aiming for. I used ISO 100 to ensure that the amount of detail was as high as possible. Because of the slow shutter speed I was using I mounted the camera onto my tripod to ensure the photo was as sharp as possible.

To edit the photo I tweaked the RGB curves to give the photo a warmer feel to it, also by increasing the red curve I made the photo look more autumnal. As the exposure time was very long I also sharpened the photo and then reduced the noise that this produced. Also by increasing the brightness the photo now looks a lot more vibrant.

I’m very pleased with how the photo now looks. I’m slowly getting used to my new camera, and I’m very much enjoying the process of learning how the different features work. I’ve now purchased a flash gun to use with my camera, hopefully I will get a chance to test it this weekend; if I do then I will upload a photo of it to show you.

Mat

One Last

I took this picture on my walk yesterday; it was one of the first shots I took on our walk and it’s one of the pictures I mentioned yesterday that I was especially pleased with.

It had been raining that afternoon, so raindrops were still on all the plants around the town. As I was walking past a hedgerow, I noticed a few leaves that had almost broken away from the branches due to the excess rain. I loved how some rain has stayed on the leaf, giving the effect of a lens. I focused on this leaf in particular, using an aperture of F4.5 to blur the edges of the leaf to make the picture seem more surreal. I used low key gradation to make the photo seem more dramatic and emphasise the contrast in the image.

I didn’t have to do any editing, as I was pleased with the original photograph. I love how you can see the veins of the leaf through the water droplets; it seems to add to the mystery of the image. I am going on holiday tomorrow, so I shall leave you in the capable hands of Mat for the weekend. Au revoir!!

Bex

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Snow Problem

When Bex and I were walking through town in the lush sunshine on Saturday, we decided to cool down by having a snow cone between us. It was our first snow cone and was actually very nice (even if it did seem identical to a slush puppy...)! I thought I’d take a photo of it, I know it’s pretty much a snapshot, but I thought it was worthy to be today’s upload.

I love how the ice crystals glisten in the light reflected from the pop-up flash, and I really like the contrast between the blue ice and the red ice. By using a moderately large aperture I managed to take the background out of focus which centres the attention on the snow cone itself.

The snow cone tasted very nice and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to give it a try. Bex and I will have to get out on another photography wander soon, and take some more nature shots, (and maybe some macro photos!), but I still want to continue with the street photography. What should we upload next, nature or street?

Mat