Crawling Ivy

This photo was taken just after the photo I previously uploaded. After taking the photo of the ivy from the side, I noticed that there was ivy growing up the next tree as well. I liked the contrast that the bright green ivy made against the bark of the tree. To make the most of the composition I tried to keep the depth of field as small as possible.

To keep the depth of field small I used an aperture of F6.3 as this gave me the depth of field I required. The camera paired this with a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second and an ISO of 1600. I also had to alter the colour tone to compensate for the bright green from the leaves of the ivy. I didn’t use the flash as I was close to the leaves and I didn’t want them to white out and become clipped.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down and removed one of the leaves as I thought it was a distraction and made the photo look more confusing. I also decreased the colour tone a bit more as I thought there wasn’t enough red in the photo. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the rest of the photo had come out. The exposure was exactly how I wanted it to be so I decided not to change it.

I’m quite pleased with both of the photos, but I think this one is my favourite out of the two. Hopefully I will get a chance to upload some more photos from our wander in town.

Mat

Tree Growth

I took this photo on the most recent wander that Bex and I went on in our local town. We were walking down a long path that was surrounded by trees on both sides. On one of the trees there had some ivy growing up the side. I liked the composition it created against the background.

To enhance the composition I used the widest aperture that I could, which was F5.6, the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second and with an ISO of ISO 3200. I decided against using my flashgun as there was enough light making its way through the trees. I had to compensate against the amount of green by lowering the colour tone and bringing more red into the photo. I composed the photo so the tree took up the left half of the frame with the ivy in the centre of the photo.

To edit the photo I further decreased the colour tone to balance the colours. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the rest of the photo looked. The composition was how I wanted it to be and the exposure was spot on.

Both Bex and I have been very busy recently, but we will be going out and taking photos as often as we can.

Mat

Importance

Today’s image will not please those who visit our blog for artistic merits or photographic tips, but it is a place that I hold dear. This is a photo of the local nature reserve- the site of at least 90% of the images on this blog. In a way, I am uploading this to prove a point.

I am incredibly lucky to live in such close proximity to this, but you don’t have to live somewhere busy, interesting or unusual to undertake photography. I live in a small town on the outskirts of a city. Apart from this nature reserve, there is a lake and a small shopping centre of no more than 15 shops. The most important skill in photography is being able to look around you and see the potential for different photographs; you don’t have to go to somewhere new every time as nothing stands still.

I was recently given a column in our local newspaper, in which I talk about a photo and it’s background; much like on this blog. Through this, I met a young woman who loves photography but didn’t know how to take it further as we have such a small town. The only advice you can give someone is to make the most of it; seize every opportunity, appear at all the events you can possibly manage, and never go anywhere without your camera!!

I could continue to tell you how I have manipulated this image, but the technical and artistic decisions do not belong it today’s post, and I apologise to those who may be disappointed. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to keep at it.

Bex

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Contradiction

Yesterday, I said that I don’t like having too many distractions from the subject of the photograph. However, that’s not completely true- it depends on the context. In this case, I decided not to crop the background flowers or to use flash to remove the background leaves. I believe I was right to do this as it adds more interest, and sets the scene of the entire photo. I like that there are 3 flowers across the frame as it provides an element of continuity and repetitiveness.

I hadn’t cleaned my lens so there were particles of dust that created a lens flare effect; I really like this, so didn’t use a lens hood or edit this out. I have edited this photo slightly, but only because I like high contrast images; more than what camera is capable of producing. I increased the brightness of the image as it was slightly under exposed. I also increased the contrast. I then increased the saturation to make the image more vibrant, and the hue to make the flowers more purple. Finally, I sharpened the image to show finer details in the image.

I’m pleased with the final image; it’s generally a good idea to follow rules, but if you do this all the time it can lead to a lack of variety in your images.

Bex

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Cut out

This is another photo from my “mediocre meander” a few days ago. Unlike most of the other photos, this one, although a lucky shot, was quite successful. I liked the pattern of the fungus on the branch, so tried to capture this. I underexposed the image and used flash, in order to only show a finite section of the plant. I may have planned the outcome but I don’t have live view, so this was the part that was potluck.

I was lucky enough to achieve the effect I wanted within one shot. I was happy with the composition of the photo, but thought that the background was too distracting in the original image. To reduce this, I edited the image using Photoshop. I increased the contrast and reduced the brightness, which removed some of the background details.

I removed some of the more distracting leftovers from this process using the healing tool. I chose to leave some background detail in because I didn’t want the image to be too precise; to me, Photoshop is a tool in which you can edit images so they stay natural, or edit them to make them stand out. When editing images to “enhance reality”, I feel that removing too many details makes it look fake. Finally, I increased the saturation to make the pinks and greens more vibrant, then sharpened the image,

I love under exposing with flash to cut out the background; it’s such a simple way to create a dramatic technique that focuses attention on the foreground. I discovered this by accident, but it has become one of the main techniques that I employ; a great reason why experimentation in photography is so vital!

Bex

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Guessing

The courtyard of my college is often used as storage for anything old, broken or no longer in use. As such, this is often the best place to find photographs. Today, I found… well, I’m not really sure!

While eating lunch in the courtyard, I noticed a sizeable box with wheels in the middle, and cogs either end. I’m still not sure of its purpose, but I can only presume that it is a discarded piece of art, as it doesn’t seem to resemble anything.

I underexposed this image as the light was strong and I wanted to create dramatic shadows. This picture has been significantly edited in Photoshop. I darkened the highlights and lightened the shadows to create a subtle solarising effect. I then increased the contrast and added noise to make the image seem more aged. Finally, I sharpened the image. I find abstract photos interesting, as it doesn’t matter how many questions you manage to answer, there are always more to be asked.

Bex
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Missing Inspiration

The problem with trying to take photos when you are lacking inspiration is that you end up forcing it, meaning you are much less likely of getting a “wow” photo, and most will be mediocre at best. I was having a day of no inspiration today, but desperately needed new photos.

I took about 80 photos, but most were duplicates and very few useable. When looking through them, I found a photo of this plant; it was quite over exposed, which I tried to repair in Photoshop.

I used the exposure tool to darken the highlights. I then reduced the brightness of the overall image, then increased the contrast. I tried to increase the saturation, but it didn’t look right. I changed the hue, trying to make it more natural, but gave up and started to mess around, making the image look strange. I increased the hue almost completely, but decided that it made the image look a lot more interesting!!!

Editing the photo like this reminded me of the effect given by a photogram (when you place objects on photographic paper and expose to get the outline, and sometimes the texture, of the object). I like the small amount of foreground that can be seen at the top. Photoshop is an amazing tool; perhaps designed to enhance photos, but it has the potential to make an ordinary photo interesting.

Bex

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