Burst Of Colour

I took this photo on one of the trips Bex and I went on to our local town. I was trying to capture a photo of a group of daffodils but they were in direct sunlight which made setting the exposure very difficult. I didn’t get the effect that I wanted so I moved on to a different subject. When looking back through, I came across this photo which didn’t look as bad as I thought when I took it.

I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected to give the best trade off between depth of field and a fast shutter speed. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 for maximum image quality. I didn’t have my flash gun on me during this trip as I couldn’t balance the harsh sunlight. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights. After I did this I started playing with the colour temperature settings, I used the custom setting and selected the yellow leaves which turned them white and turned the background a rather pleasant blue colour! I stopped changing settings after this as I didn’t want to spoil the effect that I had (accidently) made. I really like the modified colours and I think it makes the photo look much better than before.

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon and Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander very soon.

Mat

Light In The Mist

I took this on my recent photography wander, it was late at night and there were a lot of lights on. It had just started to rain and the powerfull lights were lighting up the misty rain. I really like the effect that this created.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected. This ensured that the whole light was in sharp focus but the background was blurred out of focus. I didn’t use the flash because it would cause the housing of the light to white out and would ruin the composition. I had left the camera with the ISO in auto so the camera selected an ISO 12800. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/60^th of a second to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo the first thing I did was to use the noise reduction tool to attempt to reduce the noise created by using the high ISO. I then cropped the photo down to focus the attention onto the light itself, and to remove some distractions in the foreground. I didn’t edit the colours as I was happy with how they had been reproduced by the camera.

I like this photo now that I’ve done some editing to it. The composition looks much better after cropping the noise reduction has made the photo more pleasing to the eye. I very much look forward to the next photography wander that Bex and I go on.

Mat

Swimming Pair

We managed to get out for a short walk today, so both of us decided to go down to the duckpond to take some photos of the wildlife. We were surprised when we got there, because most of the birds had flown off and the pond was nearly empty! The only wildlife we saw was this pair of ducks swimming around.

I thought the pair made an interesting composition, just swimming around. To make the most of the composition I had the camera in manual mode and I selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second and an aperture of F9. I chose these so the shutter was fast enough to freeze the movement and the depth of field was large enough to keep both ducks in sharp focus. The camera selected an ISO of ISO800 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights as the water was becoming to a bit too bright. I also cropped the photo down as to improve the composition and to focus the attention onto the two ducks as they swam around on their own.

I’m glad we had a chance to get out today, but a bit of a pity that almost all of the wildlife had disappeared for the day! Hopefully we will have some better luck the next time we are at the duckpond.

Mat

Flying Away

Again this was taken on yesterdays short wildlife photoshoot. I was watching a pigeon in one of the trees next to me, when suddenly it took off and flew away. Within minutes of this happening the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down! I think the pigeon had the right idea flying away. So I quickly stuffed my camera gear back into my camera bag and made off for some shelter.

For this photo I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected and I was overexposing the photo by one stop, to ensure the bird was correctly exposed. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO of 3200 to complete the exposure.  I wasn’t using the flash gun because the sky was cloudy and diffusing the light adequately.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looked straight from the camera. The exposure was spot on and the colours were replicated just how I wanted them to be. I thought if I tried to edit the photo I would spoil the effect I had created in camera.

I enjoy wildlife photography as it provides a different challenge to normal photography, with the subjects moving randomly and quickly you need to have quick reactions and the foresight to predict where they are likely to move to. I enjoy these challenges, which is why I try and go on as many wildlife photoshoots as I can.

Mat

Hiding Away

This is another of the photos I took last weekend which I really liked. The clouds hadn’t broken when I was taking this photo which made the exposure a lot easier to calculate. I didn’t need to use the flash either as the contrast was a lot less between the highlights and the shadows.

I was once again using the camera in shutter priority to ensure that any movement by the bird was removed. I had selected a shutter speed of 1/640^th which also ensured that any camera shake is also removed. As I previously mentioned I was wasn’t using the flash by this point as the contrast was a lot lower so the flash wasn’t required to brighten the shadow areas. I left the ISO in auto so the camera selected ISO1000 and an aperture of F5.6 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the colour tone and the colour temperature. I did this to ensure to enhance the yellow of the bird’s chest and to dampen the vivid green of the tree branch which distracted the viewer away from the bird itself. I also cropped the photo as there was a lot of dead space surrounding the bird.

I’m not sure on which day but both Bex and I are hoping to be able to go out for a photography wander at some point this weekend. I’m sure that we will upload some of the photos that we take while we’re out and about.

Mat

Swan In The Sun

I took this photo on the recent wildlife photo shoot. I was quite impressed with how this photo came out, it is defiantly one of my favourite photos from the day. The sun was beaming down which made some very interesting exposure problems. The best way I thought to combat the exposure difficulties was by using my flash gun. I thought by using the flash gun it would help to lighten the shadow areas and to even the exposure.

I was using the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second selected. I had also locked in an ISO of ISO400. As I was using the flash gun the camera selected an aperture of F13. I programmed the flash gun to over expose by three stops; so that it would give out the largest amount of power for the exposure. As I was using a shutter speed faster than the flash-sync’ speed of the camera I had to use the flash n the high speed sync’ mode. This mode sends out a rapid sequence of flashes so that at least one of the flashes happens while the shutter is open. The only downside of using the high speed sync’ function is that it uses the entire charge of the flash gun; so that only one photo can be taken at a time!

To edit the photo I increased the brightness a bit and lowered the highlights to ensure the highlights didn’t become clipped. I also cropped out some reeds that I had accidently included into the frame. After this I changed the white balance for a more accurate colour selection. I changed the white balance as the photo looked a bit too cool for my liking. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the rest of the photo.

I very much enjoyed my wildlife photography trip, I’m very pleased with the photos that I took. Hopefully both Bex and I will get a chance for some more photography this weekend.

Mat

Flying Off

I managed to get out for the wildlife photo shoot yesterday; I went through the nature reserve down to the duckpond. I managed to catch a lot of the local birds in the forest, and when I got down to the duckpond it was full of swans and ducks and moorhens.

There was a male mallard duck that was chasing a female mallard duck, the female mallard decided to fly off and I just managed to capture the male mallard chasing after her. I was already in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th selected. I had left the camera in auto ISO, which the camera selected at ISO800. I wasn’t using the flash at this point as I needed to take a lot of photos in a series.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours where exactly as I wanted them to be. Faithfully reproducing the bright colours of both the male and female mallard ducks. The exposure was also calculated exactly how I wanted it to be.

I’m glad I got a chance to go out on a wildlife photography wander, I tried out some of the flash gun ideas I’ve been meaning to try out for quite some time. I shall upload the best of the photos that I took over the next few days.

Mat

Field Walk

I was once again looking through my computer when I found this photo from one of the many walks that Bex and I have been on. We were walking along a country walk when I saw this view across the field opposite us. I instantly liked the composition that the fence and tree created.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority and selected an aperture of F11. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 to make sure the quality was as good as it could be. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/60^th to match; this was fast enough because I was using a focal length of 40mm. I made sure that the photo was taken vertically because the fence posts would have made this very obvious otherwise.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours had been reproduced perfectly and the exposure was exactly how I wanted it to be. I liked the composition so I didn’t crop the photo down.

I’m very much looking forward to the wildlife photo-shoot tomorrow. I’ve got all my camera gear ready and waiting, I’ll let you know how it goes, and I’m sure I’ll upload some photos to show you.

Mat

Go Nuts

This photo was taken the last time I went into town. I know I’ve already uploaded a few photos of the Squirrel there, but I really like the composition I had captured in this photo. The squirrel was running around very quickly, but every now and then he would come very close to where I was positioned. One time he stopped about 5-8 feet in front of me and stood there looking at me for a few seconds.

While the squirrel was standing still I quickly brought the camera up to my eye and took a series of photos. I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of second to freeze the action. The camera selected an aperture of F4.5 and an ISO of ISO4000 to complete the exposure. I left the other settings on default as I didn’t have time to change them before taking the photos.

To edit the photo I lowered the overall brightness as I had overexposed by around 1-2 stops!  I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the photo was composed and the colours had been replicated just how I wanted them to be.

We still haven’t had a chance to go out for a photography wander. But hopefully over the next few days we will get a chance. If not I will use some more photos from our previous photography wanders.

Mat

Wall Climber

This photo was taken on yesterdays photography wander. We had stopped for a short break opposite a wall; I noticed the plant growing up the wall and thought it made an interesting composition.

As most of the photo would be in one plain I chose an aperture of F9. This gives an adequate depth of field and allows the use of faster shutter speeds. I also selected an ISO of ISO 100 for maximum quality. The camera coupled these with a shutter speed of 1/30^th; I was using image stabilization so this shutter speed would still be fast enough. I boosted the colour saturation to make the greens look more vibrant.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the camera had exposed the image. The colours had been reproduced exactly as I wanted them to be so I didn’t change them. I was also happy with the composition so I didn’t crop the image either.

I enjoyed our photography wander yesterday, hopefully we will get a chance again in the week. According to the weather forecast the weather should get better during the week! So hopefully we might get some more bright and colourful photos in the week.

Mat

Branching Close

Both Bex and I went into town today as we had some spare time, I took one of my cameras with me but I decided to take my Pentax ME Super with me so I can’t show you any of the photos I took quite yet. So I thought I would upload another photo from the previous trip into town.

As we were walking around there was a bush that was in the middle of the park. It looked quite odd as it wasn’t surrounded by anything, I tried to take a wide angle photo of the bush in its surroundings but I didn’t like how the composition looked; so I tried a tighter composition, focusing on just a few branches. I think this tighter composition worked much better. To make the most of the composition I used the camera in aperture priority and selected an aperture of F9, this gave a good compromise between the branch being sharp and the background being blurred. I also set the ISO to ISO100 for the maximum quality. The camera completed the exposure with a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second. I also used the flash to create a higher contrast between the branch and the background.

The only editing I did was to increase the contrast and to lower the overall brightness slightly as I think this make the photo look a lot punchier. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera.

I didn’t quite finish the film off today, hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go out on another walk later this week and I’ll be able to finish the roll.

Mat

Wall Climbing

Again this is a photo from the weekend before last. The park we had our lunch in was surrounded by a short wall. Ivy was growing all over the wall; it looks like it climbs its way up the wall from the ground. I wanted to capture the effect of how the ivy grows up the wall.

To capture the effect I composed the photo so the ivy was in the lower right hand third of the frame, and I left plenty of space in the top left third. I did this to give the impression that the Ivy is growing up the wall. As the whole scene was in the same plane I selected an aperture of F5.6 and I locked the ISO in at 100, this gave a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second.

I didn’t edit the photo because I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The exposure was perfect and the colours had been replicated exactly how I wanted them to. Crucially I didn’t need to crop the photo because the composition was exactly how I wanted it to be.

I really like how the ivy appears to be climbing along the wall. I still have a few more photos that I can upload from our trip into town, but hopefully, Bex and I will be going into town again tomorrow. If I take my camera and capture something interesting, I’ll upload for you to see.

Mat

Dedicated Follower Of Fasion

As promised, for the next day or two, Daily Wanders is to turn into the hub for all that is on trend this season! Today, I did the photography for a day of fashion shows being held at the local shopping centre. The shows were approximately an hour long, with a mixture of children and adults, but the children definitely stole the show!

At the end of each show, the models were invited onto the stage individually, before a finale. One of the favourite models of the day was a young girl called Faye. She was one of the last to walk down the runway, so I managed to get a photo that I was really happy with. I used a flashgun at the event, as I wanted to highlight each model, and not have to worry about a possible lack of light. I used a guide number of 16, coupled with an aperture of F11, as I wanted a dark background to focus attention on Faye. It didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, because I couldn’t go under 1/160th, and didn’t want the depth of field to be any deeper.

I was a little disappointed with the original image, so decided to try to edit it. I decreased the highlights, decreased the brightness and increased the contrast. Finally, I sharpened the image. Having been a little disappointed with the original image, I was pleased with the difference editing it had made. Today was hugely enjoyable, if a little stressful due to technical issues! Keep checking Daily Wanders over the next few days for all the latest trends!

Bex
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Waiting

I took this photo on my short stay at the railway station yesterday. There was a short gap when no trains arrived or departed the station. During this period a woman walked onto the platform and sat down on one of the many seats. I thought that by isolating her and the local surroundings I could make an interesting composition.

I used the camera in live view so the woman wouldn’t see me taking the photo of her. Because of this I also had the camera in the program auto mode, as I couldn’t change the aperture or the shutter speed easily. I did preset the ISO at 200 though, so the quality would still be high while enabling the use of a fast enough shutter speed.

To edit the photo I cropped it a little tighter to enhance the composition. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the effect I had created. The exposure was spot on so I didn’t change it; the colours had also been replicated perfectly.

Bex and I are planning a trip into our local town tomorrow, so hopefully we will come back with plenty of new photos to upload.

Mat

Natural White

I haven’t had a chance to go on a photography wander recently, but I was looking through the photos that I had taken during my most recent photo shoot. I was looking through them and this one ‘jumped’ out at me.

I had the camera in manual mode so I could select both the aperture and the shutter speed. I then preselected an aperture of F11 to keep the depth of field as deep as possible. I had to use 20 second exposure time because I was only using natural light for the exposure. I didn’t use the flash in this photo as I wanted a more natural effect.

The only editing I did to this photo was to increase the contrast and to lower the highlights. I did this because I wasn’t completely happy with the result straight from the camera. I didn’t change the white balance or the saturation because I was happy with how the colours had been replicated.

I like the effect I had created with this photo, using the natural light has made the flowers look a lot more natural. Hopefully I will get a chance to go for a photography walk at some point this weekend.

Mat

Vase Of Flowers

I took this photo in my last photo shoot. I was trying out different lighting techniques; one of these techniques was to have the flash gun set up behind the vase and have the light shining through the glass. It was quite difficult to find the right power settings as the flash being so close kept blowing out the highlights.

As I previously said I had the flash gun set up behind the vase, to attain the best effect I started with a relatively high power: 1/8^th of the total power. I then worked my way down to 1/64^th of the total power. I found this to be the best compromise between the highlights and the rest of the exposure. I was trying to have the background dark with the vase looking like it was lit up from the inside, I think by having the flash gun set at 1/64^th created this effect the best.

To edit the photo I changed the light levels to darken the background and to tone down the highlights. I also changed the white balance to remove a colour cast. I was happy with the rest of the photo so I didn’t change any of the other settings.

I like the effect of this photo; I managed to create the effect of the vase being lit from the inside. The next time I do a still life photo shoot similar to this I will experiment with the flash gun power settings and the distance to the subject to try to improve the effect further.

Mat

Standing Tall

Mat and I went for a walk through a small town on the outskirts of the city yesterday. He didn’t take his camera as just wanted to go for a walk, but I couldn’t be parted as ever!!

During one part of the walk, Mat sat down on a bench with a coffee (in –5 degrees!), while I chose to continue walking. I found a small clearing, just off the path, so decided to see what was there. I walked into the clearing to find a small shaded area, surrounded by trees- almost impossible to find if you weren’t looking. Small patches of light broke through the cover of the branches, providing thin beams that shone pointed to the centre. I tried to focus on one burst of light, taking the photo up the trunk of the tree to give an idea of scale. I used an aperture of F8, as I wanted the tree to be in focus, while making the background slightly blurred.

I increased the contrast in Photoshop, while slightly decreasing the brightness to make the image appear more dramatic. I decreased the saturation slightly, as I had changed the hue to make the green tones more prominent, and didn’t want this to be obvious when looking at the image. I’m pleased with this image, but regret not using low-key mode, as it could’ve made the image seem more dramatic without having to sacrifice details, as with post-processing.

Bex

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Bright Horizons

Mat and I went for a walk today. Having had other things to do in the morning, we didn’t leave until late afternoon so didn’t make our way back until the sun started to set.

There is a field, near to where Mat and I live. In this field, a pond has been built, with a small fence to keep dogs from destroying the habitat, and seating inside the fenced area. On the way back, we decided to stop for a rest so sat down next to pond. I looked behind, and could see the sun setting behind the trees. I loved the pattern of the pink clouds in the sky, and the bright stripes of colour. I decided to include a tree in the foreground, as I thought the image would look uninteresting, as there would be no foreground without this. However, I decided to keep it to one side, as I wanted the focus to stay primarily on the background.

I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness in Photoshop, to make sure that all of the foreground detail was lost. I also decreased the hue and increased saturation to make the pink tones appear more prominent. I also sharpened the image slightly, to emphasise the individual branches of each tree and to pick out the individual clouds.

Bex

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Through The Trees

I managed to go out for a photography wander today, so I went for a short walk around the nature reserve. I didn’t have very long so I didn’t take many photos, this is one of my favourites. I was out during the evening and the sun was starting to set, so I tried to capture the sunlight as it passed through the tree.

I used an aperture of F8 to ensure the depth of field was big enough but also ensuring the light didn’t diffuse around the aperture blades. I left the camera to select the shutter speed and ISO. I boosted the colour saturation and colour tone in camera.

When editing the photo, I cropped out the bottom of the frame as there was a lot of dead space which detracted from the overall effect I was aiming for. I also boosted the colour saturation and colour tone further to make the colours really stand out. I didn’t change anything else as i was happy with the effect I had created.

As I didn’t take that many photos today, I hope to get another chance very soon to capture some more images. I have a few ideas of what I want to photograph so the next time I’m out I shall experiment with these ideas and show you the results.

Mat

Glowing

Eventually, there will come a point when you get fed up of seeing concert photos- but hopefully, not yet. Any fans of The Script will realise that the blog title refers to a song by The Script; for other readers, feel free to either listen to the song in question, or disregard the previous statement and assume that I’m referring to the lighting.

This photo was taken during one of the last songs of the concert (excluding the encore), which was started slow, explaining the smoky atmosphere. The singer was walking round the stage, but at this point wasn’t singing. Being a compact, I couldn’t change many settings, but did have control over the white balance. I selected flash, as I didn’t want to lose the bright blue. I did use flash in this photo, as I wanted to deliberately under expose; the only way to do this was to trick the camera. This didn’t affect the image, as what I wanted to focus on wasn’t in range of flash.

I have edited this photo in Photoshop. I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to make sure that all of the people in this shot were completely silhouetted against the blue lights. I also sharpened the image to make the edges of the starburst more prominent.

The starburst wasn’t intentional, but appeared in one of my other photos so I tried to achieve the same effect when taking this image. I’m really pleased with this photo; it’s probably one of my favourite shots of the evening.

Bex

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