Fun of the Fayre

Today was the first day of the local festival that Mat and I are covering. Mat was busy this afternoon, so I was taking photos alone. The festival doesn’t officially open until tomorrow but was open to photographers and members of the press.

 As it was the day before, most people were in the midst of setting up their stalls as I was walking around the festival site. The site itself is divided into sections, with one of those sections being a children’s zone with decorated willow arches and sculptures (as seen in the foreground of the photo). A second attraction in the family friendly zone was the giant slide!

I was trying to capture the overall fun, bright and friendly atmosphere. To do this, I decided to walk to the bottom of the hill so I could capture both the willow arches and the giant slide.

Afterwards, I increased the cyan saturation and the contrast to make the scene brighter and to make the sky more vivid. I also sharpened the image slightly to make the details more prominent. I’m looking forward to the first full day of the festival with Mat tomorrow. An early night for all!

Bex

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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

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Moody Dandelions

This is another of my photos from Monday’s photography wander with Bex. This set of dying dandelions caught my eye when we were on our way back. I thought they could make an interesting composition if I took the photo with the right settings.

So to get the composition right, I took the photo with an aperture of around F6 to get an adequate depth of field. I also chose to use the low key gradation setting to make the dark parts of the background look blacker. By doing this it creates a dark and mysterious atmosphere to the photo, which I thought would make the composition more interesting.

When I uploaded the photo onto my computer I decided that it didn’t require any editing. I liked the overall effect of how the photo worked straight from the camera. The background is perfectly blurred with the low key effect creating the moody atmosphere I wanted.

Bex and I are planning to go for a wander into the nature reserve again tomorrow. I hope the weather holds so we can get a varied mix of photos.

Mat

A Bridge To Not So Far Away

Yesterday I went for a wander with Bex in our local nature reserve. This was before we had a chance to look at her new set of twenty eight filters! In the nature reserve there is a brook which flows all the way through. About half way down there is this small wooden bridge that crosses the brook.

I thought the bridge would make an interesting photo if I got the composition right. By only including half the bridge in the frame I thought it would make the composition more interesting. I used a high F-stop (F18) to add some depth to the photo and to keep as much of the bridge in focus. I didn’t use flash because the end of the bridge would white out, and the overall effect would be spoiled.

When I took the photo off the camera I decided to make the shadows darker and the increase reds. I darkened the shadows to create a moodier atmosphere to the photo. I increased the reds to bring out how the bridge looked in real life.

I’m really looking forward to trying out Bex’s new set of filters (if she will let me!). Maybe we might take a few on our next wander with us. We’re planning another photography walk in the next few days, so hopefully we shall have some more photos to upload for you.

Mat

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

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Returned

Unfortunately Bex and I didn’t get a chance to out for a walk today, so I had another look through my computer. This is another photo from our trip to the local church, I wanted to upload it sooner but I had too many other photos I wanted to upload!

I took this photo from the roof of the tower; this is where I took the majority of my photos. I saw these gaps in the wall and I thought they would make an interesting photo. So I put the camera into aperture priority and used a medium aperture of F10 to ensure that all parts of the wall where in focus. I didn’t use flash because it would have ruined the effect I was aiming for, and it wasn’t needed.

When editing the photo I increased the overall brightness but I also turned down the highlights. This helps create the mood that I was aiming for, and it also makes the detail in the shadows easier to see. I decided against cropping the photo, I tried cropping it in various ways but I didn’t like how they looked so I left it as it was.

Mat

Dramatic Red

I wasn’t able to go for a photography wander today so I looked through my computer for some more inspiration. I was looking through the photos from a fairly recent trip to the local duck pond, and I stumbled across this photo of some lovely red flowers.

This was one of the first photos that I had taken on the walk, we had just started arrived at the duck ponds and where looking around for photo opportunities. We walked round a corner and this red flower ‘jumped’ out at me. It was late evening and the sun was creating some very dramatic light effects. The light was focused directly onto the flower with the surroundings in shadow; I really liked this effect as it creates a very moody atmosphere. As it was quite late I had to take the photo with the aperture wide open (F4), which created a shallow depth of field. Also I had to use quite a high ISO to counteract the low light levels; this unfortunately added quite a lot of noise into the photo.

When editing the photo I reduced the overall noise and sharpened the photo. I also increased the brightness, I did this to emphasise the mood created by the lighting. Overall the photo has come out very pleasing I think.

Bex and I have planned to go out tomorrow, so hopefully we shall have some new material to upload for you very soon.

Mat