Orange and Blue

We were up at fountains abbey near Rippon a few days ago when I got this shot of the beautiful autumn leaves against a crisp blue sky, this is pleasing to the eye because the colours used are complimentary, ie they are opposite each other on the colour wheel. It's always a good idea to look for complimentary colours when composing photographs and even better if you can isolate them.

To boost the saturation of the colours further I used a circular polarizing filter, you have to use a circular (as opposed to linear) polarizer with digital cameras, to technical to go into why. They screw in to the front of your lens any you just rotate them until you get the desired effect. CPL's really enhance the blues in skies and remove glare from water and generally work best at 90 degrees to the sun, I highly recommend them for landscape work.

Highlight Blending

As you can see I am still posting a few of the landscapes I took a few days ago, the weather hasn't been great recently so I have to play with older photos. This is a technique I used to merge a half colour, half black and white image on the basis of luminance values, I know that sounds a bit complex but it's a simple enough method. With this image I duplicated the layer and on the new layer I selected the highlights (ctrl+alt+tilde) tilde is the key above the tab key. I then applied this as a layer mask (this will look like a greyscale version of the layer). Nothing will change yet but if you then apply a black and white adjustment to the background layer only you should have an effect similar to this. You can always play around with the B&W sliders to get an effect you are happy with.

Ansel Adams Again

This was one from the same night as the previous post but from a different angle and obviously in black and white. This is another Ansel Adams type photo with the high contrast skies which really make the photo quite dramatic. The long shadows produced by the setting sun emphasise the mood, especially on the brickwork of the ruin. I had to dodge the middle right third slightly to get back some detail in the sky as it was betting a little too bright near the sun but other than that its just a case of changing the levels in the black and white adjustment layer (new in CS3) so the blue channel turns black.

Another Day, Another Silhouette

In an attempt to get another picture on the news I went and got this one this morning as I could see it was going to be a belting sunrise. This was taken in a field behind our house. I would have liked to get closer to the tree but the field was contained a few large bulls so I just put on a long lens. This was taken at f16 1/6 sec at 149mm, not a typical landscape focal length it has to be said. I also dialled in -0.3 exposure compensation to keep the land black.

Sandal Castle

I haven't posted in a few days so I thought I'd get back into it with a shot I'm pretty happy with. I was out with a friend taking pictures yesterday and I wasn't having a lot of success, we had originally gone for Autumn leaf type shots but everywhere was still green! I thought it might be a nice sunset so we went to Sandal Castle just outside Wakefield for some landscape photography and was lucky enough to get this shot. Lens flair is always a problem shooting into the sun, it can be reduced by attaching a lens hood and making sure your lens is dust free. I quite liked this sun burst effect so there was no need to edit it out. I also added a dark vignette at the corners. This was taken at f16, 1/30 sec, 31mm at iso 100.
EDIT: This shot was featured on our BBC regional news channel, look north and can be seen at their website here

8 Landscape Photography Tips

1. Location research.
Make sure you know where you are planning to shoot. Check maps for roads and/or footpaths. Also have an idea of where the sun will be (compasses are good for this). Some locations might be great for sunrises but poor for sunsets, and vice versa.
2. Weather.
It is always a good idea to check the weather to get an idea of what to expect and dress appropriately. There is a lot of luck involved with landscapes but it is better to get out and have a go even if the weather doesn’t look the best, no one ever shot a great landscape sitting at home.
3. Avoid “walk up” shots
Some shots can be taken straight away but you are better off if you have some time to assess a scene so you can get your composition right, it also gives you time to think about which filters to use. If you aim to be 30 minutes early you won’t be rushed to find the best viewpoint.
4. Pack all the Essentials
If possible, pack the night before. if you wake up early you are usually only half awake and can be forgetful, make a list for your bag if you must include: Camera and lenses, spare batteries (charged), filters (cleaned) along with any holders and adapters, memory cards and tripods. Remember to take suitable clothing along with maps, compass, snacks and even a torch.
5. Keep it Simple
It is tempting to try to include as much in a scene as you can but this can often make a picture too busy. Focus on what are the important elements and focus your attention on them.
6. Know the basics
Make sure you know how to use a piece of equipment before you take it out. Neutral density graduated filters are very important when getting exposure right in landscape photography and the golden hours during sunrise and sunset is no time to practice with them.
7. Take inspiration from your favourite Photos
Books, adverts and magazines are full of inspirational photographs, don’t try and copy them but try and figure out why you like them and remember it the next time you are out shooting.
8. Don’t quit
There are days when you put in a lot of preparation and come back with nothing, Sometimes the weather lets you down or the lighting isn’t the best. This happens to all photographers, don’t give up and remember the harder days make the times when you actually get the shot you are after even sweeter.

Old Industrial Photo

I was editing this photo for a pinhole camera effect but I decided to go a bit overboard with the alien skin exposure plugin and this was the result, I will put up a pinhole tutorial soon but this isn't it. I had to process the digital negative twice to bring out the sky as there wasn't much cloud detail to begin with then I just dodged the windows and burnt the clouds for a bit of added contrast. The was about 2 pixels of gaussian blur and a decent amount of vignetting to draw the eye in. This was shot at 17mm on my 350D at f4 for 1/640 (ISO 200) it was at the end of a walk and I didn't fancy getting my tripod out.

Adding a Professional Border in Photoshop

One of the simplest and most effective ways of presenting your photographs, be it on screen or printed out is to add a border, this gives a photograph a much more professional look. With photoshop this can be done in seconds and you can also record an action and apply it to as many images as you like. Here are 3 different border ideas for your photographs. Examples of these borders can be seen above. Before you start adding borders make sure you have flattened your image and the background layer is locked and active.

Black Mount – This is great for low key and monotone images or images that don’t quite fit a traditional white border, simple but effective. To Apply this border open the canvas size option under the image menu, make sure the relative colour box is ticked and select whit for the extension colour. Set the width and height to 0.1 inches and click OK. This will add a thin white border to the image. Now go back to the canvas size command and change the extension colour to back and enter 1.5 – 2 inches for both boxes and click OK.

Hairline Border – This is a good border for high key images (images with lots of lighter tones) as the white edges just get lost without some kind of border. For this technique go into the canvas size command and, with relative checked, set the extension colour to black and height and width to about 0.1 inches and click OK. You can also add a further 2 inches of white border to highlight the effect.

White Frame – This is a contemporary border that will really add that extra something to your photos. It uses the same technique as previous examples but you are adding 3 borders, the first is a 0.5 inch white canvas extension then a thin 0.1 inch black extension and to finish another 1.5 – 2 inch white extension. This adds a thin gap between the image and the border which makes the photograph stand out more. Note these canvas extensions can also be inverted to have black-white-black.

Autumn Leaves

This post is in celebration of my first posted article on a few article sites, I'll post the article here too as it is advice after all, this shot is a macro from last year but I'm going to get some better ones when the leaves start to turn this year. Anyway here's the article:

Leaves are a very popular subject when it comes to autumnal photography due to their great variation in colour at this time of year. If you are creative these subjects can offer great photographic potential. Here are 5 quick tips to make sure you make the most of the autumn weather

1. Ice – As the temperature drops outside leaves invariably become frozen in puddles, these can produce great photos. You can always pour cold water on the ice to remove the crystals and give it a really clear look, conversely you can scratch the surface to add some interest. If you can’t wait for the temperature to drop you can always stick some leaves in a water filled plastic container and freeze it overnight, just remember to fill your frame when you take the shot.
2. Falling leaves – As the leaves start to fall a rich carpet of yellows and reds starts to form. To get a sense of leaves falling without having to wait for a strong gust just ask an assistant to drop some whilst you snap away. Aim for a wide aperture to blur the background and go for shutter speeds of between ½ sec and 1/30 to get a sense of motion, you may need an overcast day or a neutral density filter as with the aperture wide open at this speed you may over expose during the day.
3. Soft focus – A quick, cheap way of adding a soft focus filter to your lens is adding a clear piece of plastic to the front of the lens (Clingfilm) and breathing on it, or on your UV filter if you have one. This will add a soft ethereal feel to your shots, just remember if you are breathing on your filters to give them a good clean after.
4. Back lighting – A great way to capture the vivid autumn colours is use the sun to back light them. This works great if you can shoot with a dark, shaded background. Remember if the back ground is dark the leaves may over expose so dial in a -1 stop to compensate and keep the darks dark and correctly expose the leaves. If the background is very bright you’ll have to add +1 stop to stop the leaves under exposing.
5. Get low, go wide – To really emphasise the coloured carpets so abundant in Autumn, fit a wide angle lens and get low down, focusing on a close leaf and fill the frame with the leaves going away into the distance, open spaces such as parks are great for this.