Potpourri

This is one of the photos I took on my recent photo shoot. After using the flowers and the vase, I looked around and found a bowl full of potpourri. I thought this would make an interesting composition if I took the photo in black and white.

For this photo I just used the natural light that was landing on the bowl as using the flash would spoil the effect I was aiming for. I had the camera in manual mode, and I selected an aperture of F16 to ensure the depth of field was adequate, I then programmed a shutter speed of 20 seconds at ISO 100 to complete the exposure. I set the white balance to the daylight setting as I was using natural light. I framed the photo so the bowl was in the right hand side of the frame.

To edit the photo, I de-saturated it to remove the colour. I then increased the contrast to make the photo look punchier. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the effect I had created. I didn’t change the white balance as I had already preset it to the daylight setting.

I like the way this photo has come out, I’m glad I didn’t use the flash on this one as otherwise it would have spoiled the effect I was trying to create.

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

x

The Man Who Can't Be Moved

As mentioned yesterday, last night Mat and I went to a concert. If you’re a fan you’ve probably read the title, and by now realised who we saw; but, for the benefit of non-fans, we went to see The Script!! They are definitely one of my favourite bands, whereas Mat was there a little more as company (even if he did admit he enjoyed it!).

D-SLRs aren’t allowed into the concert venue as they are deemed to be professional, so I took my compact with me. I had to use digital zoom to take this photo, so I shall apologise for the image quality now. It came across that the band were enjoying themselves just as much as the crowd, which made for some amazing photos!!! Around half way through the evening, they duetted with the audience on one of their most well known songs; the lead singer pointed to the audience when he wanted them to sing. I managed to capture this just as the video wall lined up with the singer.

Due the lacking quality, I edited the image in Photoshop. I sharpened it and increased the contrast, followed by decreasing the brightness and hue. Finally, I increased the saturation and removed the noise. I’m really pleased with this photo; as it was standing only and incredibly dark, it was almost impossible to get any sharp photos- let alone while trying to use maximum zoom.

One small pearl of wisdom I should pass on is learnt through experience; COLDS AND CONCERTS DO NOT MIX- EVER. My friends seem happy at the moment; it may have something to do with the involuntary ban on anything vocal… oops!

Bex

x

Stowaway

I took this picture this evening in a mad “must grab a camera” moment. I was sat in my room doing some work, and being my usual easily distracted self, I was looking around my room to kill time. I spotted something rather odd above my bedroom door as I was doing so, and decided to see what it was.

In general, I hate bugs- but I found this interesting in a weird way, as I haven’t actually seen a cricket before. I didn’t want it to jump, and I was not picking it up- but I did want a picture! I didn’t as such compose my photo; I merely pointed it in the general direction and hoped for the best, as my camera doesn’t have live view.

I liked how it was on an angle, but the bottom left of the image was in shadow. I used the dodge tool in Photoshop to make this lighter so it fitted in to the rest of the image. I also increased the saturation to make the bug stand out, and sharpened it to accentuate the patterns on its wings.

I love how this photo turned out, considering it was a snapshot. I’m pleased I managed to blend the shadows in as it creates a textured background instead of knowing for definite what it is. I think taking the photo on an angle makes a huge difference, and makes the photo more original.

Bex

x

Baking

As promised I tried out my new flash gun and it is fantastic! It really helps to capture photo indoors and can be used to create some interesting light effects. Bex decided to do some Christmas baking at the weekend and I thought as well as helping her it would be a good chance to try out my new flash gun.

So when I wasn’t helping Bex with the baking or sneakily eating the ingredients I did manage to take a few photos. This one I took just after we had taken the first batch of cupcakes out of the oven to cool down. I thought if I could get close to them and use a wide aperture the distortion created could create an interesting effect. Also by using the flash gun to bounce the light of the ceiling I could illuminate all the cupcakes evenly. I used an aperture of F8 to ensure that the central cupcakes were in focus but the others weren’t. The camera coupled this with a shutter speed of 1/10^th of a second; as I was using a lens with image stabilization built in this shutter speed was adequate.

To edit the photo I adjusted the histogram a bit to increase the shadow areas and also to sharpen the photo a small amount. I didn’t change anything else because I like the effect that I had created, also the camera had exposed the photo as I wanted.

The baking went very well, and everything that Bex made tasted amazing! It’s a good thing that she made a lot because I don’t think they won’t last very long.

Mat

Stalls

This is another photo from my holiday, as I still have many to upload and so little time to take new pictures!! I took this photo on the first full day of our holiday when we went shopping.

As described in a previous post, the shopping centre opens out to reveal a long high street with small pathways spiralling off of it. I’ve visited the same place several times, so I’ve been down most of them. The trouble is that they ALL lead to another winding alley, which leads to another and another, and so on.

I walked a little further down the street before turning off this time, and I found two large archways in what seemed to look like a long forgotten part of town. I heard noises so walked in to see what was going on and was faced with the buzz of a traditional market place.

I took this picture using ISO 1600 so that I could get a fast enough shutter speed whilst still being able to use an aperture of F8 to get a deeper depth of field. I didn’t do any editing apart from noise removal, as I wanted to keep the photo as close to the original as possible.

It’s near impossible to find the same streets more than once, but I certainly hope that I’m able to find this one again- I love it!!! Retro sweets anyone?

Bex

x

Absolutely Quackers!

I’m back, I’m revived and I’m ready to blog!! I had a lovely time in Devon with plenty of retail therapy to keep me occupied!!!

On one of the days we went to a local shopping centre; I love it because it stretches from a main building around many winding streets and alleyways laced with markets and quintessentially British pubs. I’ve visited this particular area before, so I decided to take my camera as I missed out previously!!!

I spotted my first photographic opportunity not long after I walked into the main precinct. A man was promoting a local wildlife scheme, with a little help from a friend! The man walked side by side with this incredibly stylish duck! It was quite funny to watch everyone doing a double- take as they realised that this amusing site was actually  real!!

I tried to take a picture but had to use a high ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed to capture the duck before it moved. I couldn’t keep it’s attention long enough to take a decent photo, but when the man saw me he made the duck face me by walking along side.

There was a small roundabout behind it, which gave this shot more interest. I’ve been really into pictures with a more retro feel to them and as I increased the contrast the noise became more prominent creating this effect. I normally strive to illiminate this but I’ll admit that I liked it! To emphasise this, I sharpened the image, increased the contrast and used a grain effect in Photoshop.

I’m really pleased and slightly surprised that something a little arty can come from a snapshot, but sometimes these photos are the best type.

Bex

x

Fly Away

I attended a friend’s wedding recently, and of course my camera came with me!!!! Although I was taking pictures of the happy couple, I couldn't help but slip a few arty shots in along side!

The theme of the wedding was based around birds; it was mostly white and cream with roses, white birdcages and doves as decorations. They were stunning and really caught my eye (and my camera…). As we walked out of the ceremony, I noticed that at the tables, paper doves were perched on each glass with a name written on it, which served as a place setting.

It caught my eye because it stood out; all the paper doves were placed on the same side all the way around the table, with white roses in the middle. I decided to take a close up of the glass to focus on one dove. I used a wide aperture to get a shallow depth of field so that the glass and the dove were the main focus of the picture.

I love the opportunities that are presented with different types of events. I’ve done a lot of event photography recently and the opportunities are endless!

Bex

x 

Luminous

I must apologise for leaving Mat to his own devices for the past few days; I've been snowed under with work!! I had a free afternoon today so I decided to mess around with the filters again. There’s been torrential rain all day, so I was confined to whatever I could find around my house.

I used a +1 and a +2 close up filter in conjunction with an 8-point starburst filter. Using these close up filters meant I could get a lot closer to the top of the lamp (whilst standing on a chair…!) without struggling to focus. The 8-point starburst filter adds more mystery around the lamp, instead of using a 4-point filter, which would give the conventional cross effect.

I boosted the contrast and increased the sharpness to make the starburst effect more prominent. I did this on the camera before taking the shot, so I didn’t need to do any editing afterwards. I wasn’t sure how much use the filters would be, but I thought they’d be good as a bit of fun. I’m quite impressed at some of the shots that I have got with them!

Bex

x

Bursting Lights

I know I very recently added a similar photo to this but I had taken a lot of photos while in the tent with the flashing lights. I was debating which of the photos I should upload; this photo or the one I uploaded previously, in the end I gave up and decided to upload both of them.

This photo, I actually took before the previous one. I took this in the same manner as the other photo, with the camera in manual mode. I took this photo very quickly because the lights were changing very fast and I didn’t have much time to set up the camera in between shots. This photo had a shutter speed of 1/30 and an aperture of F5.6; I also preset the ISO to the maximum setting the camera had (ISO 1600).

When I edited the photo I Increased the contrast but also I turned the highlights down a bit. I did this to make the white more pure but also so the light didn’t white out. After this I cropped down the photo so the pattern was more into the upper right corner, I think this helps the composition because it looks like the light is bursting out of the corner into the frame. As I used a high ISO there wasn’t much I could do about the noise level, so I used the noise reduction tool to dampen the noise levels to a reasonable amount.

It’s the weekend again! Bex and I have been planning a wander for this weekend, so hopefully the weather will hold out and we can carry out our plans.

Mat

Light Effects

This is another photo from our trip to the festival last weekend. We had gone into a tent which was playing extremely loud music and had very creative light patterns being beamed onto the roof of the tent. The music wasn’t completely to my taste but the light patterns were very interesting to watch.

As we were inside there was very little light so I had to use a high ISO, also as the light levels were changing so quickly and randomly the light metre in the camera was getting very confused. To resolve this I put the camera into manual mode and set the aperture at F5.6 and adjusted the shutter speed until it got as close to the correct exposure as possible, then I would release the shutter. This gave really interesting effects, with the light patterns being blurred and crossing each other, but with the people being in relatively sharp focuses.

When it came to editing the photo I decided to increase the contrast and the brightness, but I also decreased the saturation to make the white look more pure. I didn’t crop the photo because I really liked how the photo was framed, because you can see the people in the foreground raving to the music and staring at the changing lights.

I really hope Bex and I get a chance to do some more event photography, it was so much fun and we had a great time.

Mat

Final Dance

Today was, unfortunately, the last day of the festival. Bex and I once again where going around taking photos of all the events and of people generally enjoying themselves. This photo was taken at one of the indoor stages, a dance group had just started one of their routines and they invited the public to join them.

To capture the atmosphere of the dance I took the photo while they were mid-dance; I also used the flash gun to ensure that eyes were not in shadow and so I could freeze the dancer in the pose I wanted. The dancers were really enjoying themselves and I was trying to portray this in the photo that I was taking, I think I did this and captured the atmosphere of all the other people having a great time.

I didn’t edit the photo because the exposure was correct; and the photo portrayed the atmosphere of the dance, so I decided against cropping the photo down. Also because I used the flash gun I could set the white balance to daylight and not worry about needing to change the colour balance afterwards.

This weekend was a huge amount of fun, I’m so glad I went with Bex. We both had a great time and took lots of photos; so we should have plenty of photos to upload for you to see.

Mat 

Delicate

This is another picture from my afternoon of “house photography”. In other words, messing around with my new filters whilst seeking something to take pictures of around my house.

In this picture, I have used a close up filter in conjunction with my macro lens. I decided to use this to try to get closer to the flower in the hope of being able to see finer details that you would normally miss without zooming in and losing quality. I used the widest aperture possible to take this picture as I only wanted the tips of the foremost petals in focus.

 I tried to use a relatively low ISO to minimise the amount of noise in a shot, and a relatively fast shutter speed to allow me to use flash. I decided to use flash as I wanted the top few petals to be illuminated, creating more interesting shadows on the underside.

After, I edited the picture in Photoshop. I increased the contrast so the shadows and highlights on the petals became more defined. I then sharpened the image to make sure that the area I had focused on was prominent. I’m really pleased with this picture, considering I didn’t plan for it to be anything special. So far the close up filters are definitely my favourites! (no surprise there…). Mat and I will be covering a local festival this weekend, so make sure you check back!                        

Bex

x

A Gem of a Picture

I managed to find a huge set of twenty-eight different filters earlier this week, so Mat and I have spent most of this afternoon finding out what effects each filter created. We didn’t actually go out for the wander that we’d planned in the end, as they arrived when we were about to leave- we got a little distracted!

To test the filters we were using any items we could find within arms reach. One of the filters was a close up; this magnifies the zoom, and allows you to get closer to the subject. I used this in conjunction with a starburst filter to get the effect seen in this picture.

I used two of my bracelets with glass beads as I though they may reflect light well. I used ISO 800 to allow for the front beads, which were in shadow of the filters! The flash illuminated the beads at the back, and gave some interesting reflections. I used a wide aperture to get the shallowest depth of field possible.

I didn’t have to do any editing in Photoshop, as I was pleased with the initial image. For an experiment, I think it came out quite well - I can’t wait to use some filters on our next photography wander!!!

Bex

x

Aisles

Once a year in my local area, there is an “Open Doors Day”. This is when local places of interest let the public access all areas for a single day. Among other places, Mat and I decided to go to a church on the outskirts of town. It’s well known for the bell tower, which is what was open!

I walked up to the roof of the bell tower with my camera; the views were stunning but looked more like snapshots than photography. When reviewing my photos in the evening, I saw this picture. It was taken just before I went up to the roof. I was waiting for my turn, so decided to go for a wander through the main building. As I got to one end of the church, I turned and saw the archways. I noticed how the pews acted as lead in lines, as well as pillars.

I had to wait for 10 minutes to get a shot without any people at the back of it. I had to use a high ISO in order to avoid using flash. This meant that I needed to edit my picture in the evening. I increased the contrast and saturation to make the picture seem brighter without losing the colour. Afterwards, I used the noise removal tool to make the picture look clearer.

I’m really pleased with it; it was definitely worth the wait! I think it’s one of those pictures that you don’t realise it’s potential until you’ve see it on a larger screen.

Bex
x

Church Organ

Today, Bex and I managed to visit a local church; an event was on and they had opened up to the general public. We thought there would be some interesting photo opportunities, so we went along to see what it was like.

The church was beautiful inside, the architecture was stunning; the guides inside where very helpful and friendly. I saw the organ set up in the corner with the pews leading towards it; I thought it made an interesting composition with the pews acting as lead in lines towards the organ. I used a focal length of around 30mm, this makes the organ look like it’s along way in the distance, with pews leading in and getting smaller towards it. I had to use the highest ISO the camera has (ISO1600), because I didn’t want to use flash as it would have spoiled the effect. The only downside is the photo became very ‘noisy’.

When I edited the photo, I cropped t down to focus the attention on to the lead in to the organ; I also increased the colour temperature because the sand stone pillars were more orange in real life. As the photo was so noisy, I had to quite aggressively reduce it in photoshop, unfortunately this made the photo less sharp but I think its a good compromise.

The church was very interesting, and I learnt a lot about the architecture from the guides. We plan on going back again soon, because we saw many more photo oportunites, both inside and out of the church.

Mat

Going Places

This is another picture from my trip to the seaside. This is the first picture I took during the day and in some ways it is one of my favourites. I needed to get on a train as I was going further away from where I was staying than I could reach by bus or by walking. I took this photo just after I got on the train; others were just getting on, as it wasn’t due to leave the station for a few minutes.

I took inspiration for this shot from another blog that I used to read. It was also a photography blog and inspired Mat and I to set up Daily Wanders. The author did something quite similar, taking a picture on the underground in the middle and looking straight down. It was taken early in the morning so no one was on it.

I made this shot my own by taking it at a busier time, catching people in the picture and taking it from a slight angle. I edited the picture in Photoshop, increasing the contrast and removing some of the brightness to make the photo seem more dramatic.

Bex

x

Meet Alicia

Mat and I tried doing some portrait shots today with our new studio set up. We invited one of our friends round to be our subject (or victim…) for the day. She kindly agreed to let us upload a picture of her in today’s post.

At this point I feel I should perhaps introduce our victim. This is Alicia, she’s absolutely crazy so most pictures were just a bit of fun messing around. This is one of the few photos where she looks serious, which is partly due to the fact she didn’t know that I was about to take the photo.

I like taking pictures of people when they aren’t looking; it makes the picture more natural. I can’t wait til we can do our next photo shoot!

Bex (and Alicia!)

x

The Best Cocktail

I’m afraid I haven’t had chance to go for a walk today, but I have another picture that I’d like to share from my party. There definitely isn’t a better use of a cocktail glass than this!

The table decorations were themed around sweets, with lollipops scattered around the table, love hearts on the side plates and cocktail glasses of mixed sweets in the centre. Needless to say these didn’t last long, but I managed to get a picture before they disappeared.

I love how everything on the table is white, while the contents of the glass are colourful; it makes the sweets stand out in the foreground. I really like how you can see the sugar dusted on some of the sweets, and the light on the rim of the glass.

On another celebratory note, the blog is 4 months old today. Happy birthday Daily Wanders!!!

Bex

x

Confetti

Mat was left in charge of the blog yesterday; I had a party to go to! As I sat down to our meal I noticed the table decorations- cups filled with different sweets and confetti over the table. I left the camera on the table while we were sat down, and I pressed the shutter just to see what happened.

This is how I’ve got some of my favourite shots (e.g. Start off Small- 2^nd April). I’m pleased with how well it worked, and I love the perspective of taking it from the tabletop.

It was quite dark so I had to use flash, which I think can sometimes ruin a shot, however I think it worked quite well here. I really like how the photo turned out. I had a great evening; hopefully you did as well.

Bex

x