Pete's Photo Blog

New Macro Lens

2008-09-05T17:10:00.006+01:00

I recently bought the Sigma 150mm Macro (after reluctantly selling my 50mm version) so I decided to have a few test shots with it. I used a 580EX off camera to let me use a narrower aperture (to increase DOF). I didn't spend too long on these really, I just wanted to get some pictures as it was raining quite hard outside. These were taken at ISO200, f8, 150mm, 1/125 sec, on full manual mode as I was using a flash, the shutter speed was enough to cut out any ambient light.

Chester Zoo

2008-09-03T16:51:00.005+01:00

I went to Chester Zoo at the weekend, I wasn't expecting to get too much but I was quite surprised with some of the ones I came away with. I had to pump up the ISO on some of the shots and was thankful of the image stabilizer on my 70-200 lens. I've processed them all in mono because I quite liked the effect and did a little doging and burning in photoshop, the gallery with the 12 I processed can be seen here.

Crazy Stunts

2008-09-01T14:31:00.003+01:00

We went to the Llangollen Balloon festival at the weekend, didn't see a great deal of balloons as the weather was pretty poor but the stunt bikes were pretty amazing, the lads did a victory lap at the end and they all looked about 12! Anyway this is a little different from the stuff I normally shoot so it was a nice change. I was shooting on Shutter priority as I needed to freeze the action more than anything, so that was set to 1/800, ISO 200 using a 70-200 focal range, the appertures were usually about f9, AF mode was set to Al Servo.

More Landscapes

2008-08-28T18:08:00.004+01:00

Thought I'd post a couple of landscapes I got earlier today, I've been waiting for the clouds to be just right, they came in a little towards the end but I was quite pleased with these. I did a little dodging and burning both in LR2, with the local adjustment brush and then a little more in CS3. I liked how both images semed to have a different feel to them even though they were only teken about 30 minutes apart. No foreground interest or leading lines in the second one but I thought the sky was great.

Last Macro

2008-08-24T13:52:00.003+01:00

I'm putting this one up because it'll probably be the last shot I take with my sigma 50mm macro lense as I'm selling it, I'll probably be tempted to buy another at some point but the proceeds will go towards it's bigger (heavier) brother. Anyway this was just a quick shot of an echinacea plant (I think) Taken at f2.8 50mm, ISO800 1/30, I was surprised there was no camera shake, especially as I was in an odd shooting position. I processed it with niksoftwares silver efex pro. If anyone is thinking about getting this lense my advice would be to go for it, you won't be disappointed, although the longer variants (105/150/180mm) are probably better for insects.

Farmers!

2008-08-10T21:05:00.003+01:00

I ran past a field today full of hay bails bathed in glorious morning sunlight, excellent I thought, I'll bring back the camera in the evening and get some shots. I returned this evening to find the farmer had collected anything resembling foreground interest and the sun had been replaced by overcast skies, most frustrating. Anyway I decided to do a bit of HDR because I hadn't done any for a while. Anyway this is my only one worth posting, it was the only leading line I could find!

Back in Black

2008-08-05T10:44:00.004+01:00

This is one I got last night during a break in editing wedding stuff, haven't done any landscapes for a bit so it was nice to get out. I was trying a new (ish) black and white plugin for photoshop called silver efex (by niksoftware) it seemed pretty good, it's one of these that claim to replicate film black and whites etc. I was going to take out the tower but thought I'd just leave it in as it was only a snap shot really. Shot with a 3 stop ND filter at f16, 16mm, 1/10 ISO100.

Lightroom 2

2008-07-31T19:43:00.002+01:00

Hi Everyone, just putting this post up as I've been playing with the new version of adobe's lightroom, first impressions are that it's pretty impressive. There are plenty of review sites and tutorials about all the new features, I like to have a bit of a play round instead of reading the manual. There are loads of additions to the develop panel, one that caught my eye is the graduated filter. It used to be that if you wanted to say darken the sky slightly you had to open your RAW files in CS3 then add a gradient layer and change your blend mode but now you can do it all in LR. This picture is an example of a coloured grad I added to an old photo I never got round to processing. There are plenty of other features to streamline your workflow, that sounds so much like managerial bull***t, but it's true. There are some performance issues being talked about, I have noticed on my fairly old computer it does slow down but never locks up or crashes, people fortunate to have quadcore, watercooled computers say it all works fine so it looks like I may have to get a few upgrades!

Photoshop Actions

2008-07-29T11:37:00.003+01:00

I've recently been using a lot of actions in photoshop and came across this site called PanosFX. He has loads of free photoshop actions to try, I used an action called 'the big picture' on a photo I took of a poppy field a while back. It takes a few moments to run the action as it needs to cut out bits and create drop shadows and that sort of thing but once it's done it gives quite a nice effect. There are other actions to try but I thought I'd post this as it is one of my favs.

Contrast

2008-07-28T11:26:00.003+01:00

Contrast is the dissimilarity or difference between things, acording to wiki.

I'm adding this because I submitted it to a contest on my favorite photo forum, talkphotography.co.uk. It has contests every month and I sometimes have a punt, this months subject was contrast, quite a tough one really, a lot of black and white images as you might suspect, heres my take on it.
A simple flash setup with lighting coming from a single 580EXII to the left the black polo was changed in CS3, not as easily as I first suspected. First I applied a layer mask (cutting out the polo using the pen tool) and just added an inverted adjustment layer, the problem with it is it turns the black shadows white which isn't what I wanted. I went back to the layer mask and used a levels adjustment to just bring down the levels of white and grey to black.

Pet Photography

2008-07-24T19:45:00.003+01:00

I don't get to do a lot of pet photography which is a shame because I love animals, my old man was a vet so I grew up with all sorts of different animals running around the place. The only problem with pets is they do just that, run everywhere! With pet photography it's just a case of getting the owner to keep them entertained out of shot, and avoid getting your lens licked! As with any portrait the thing that sets them apart is emotion, I liked how the dog was anticipating another biscuit. I wasn't going to turn it monotone but failed once again! This one was done in my studio, ISO100, f11, 1/100 at 70mm.

Another Portrait

2008-07-17T17:40:00.003+01:00

Hey folks, I thought I'd put this one up of one of my nieces who was over recently, I did a bunch of photos of her and her brother in the studio, both were very photogenic. I liked this image because of her eyes.
I've been experimenting with some photoshop actions as I find them a little more effective that lightroom presets, I can't quite put my finger on why. Actions, like presets, are recorded steps you can apply to several images very quickly and they are a great labour saving method. There are plenty available on the web, some are free and some are, well...not.

Weddings

2008-07-11T11:05:00.002+01:00

Hi Everyone. Seems like ages since my last post, I've been a bit busy with wedditing (Weddings followed by editing) I could do with getting up to the lakes, the weather has been really changeable but it makes for some great landscapes, as long as you don't get soaked to the skin! Anyway this was from a recent wedding, I decided to do a little HDR on the dress with a black and white conversion which I thought looked quite cool. I used Dynamic Photo for the HDR and then CS3 for the BW conversion. I really liked the sky in the mono conversion.

Aged, distressed look

2008-06-29T21:30:00.003+01:00

I have been working on aging or distressing some photos recently and thought I would post this example. There are some good presets in lightroom for an antique look but these rely on usually lowering the saturation of a photo, adding a brownish tone and a vignette. It is a reasonable effect but to take it a step further you need texture. This image has 3 textures layered in various blend modes to give a decent aged effect. I also reduced the saturation with a Hue/Sat adjustment layer. The textures can be anything from old brickwork, woods or metals. The texture used in this one was from an old wall with decaying plaster.

Emley Moor Mast

2008-06-24T11:03:00.005+01:00

I've recently been asked by a few people if I had any shots of Emley Moor Mast so I thought I would head up there and see what I could get. I did have a few older shots but wanted some new ones really. These were two of my favorites.

The first was my standard 16mm wide landscape that I like doing, with a 3 stop graduated filter to keep the sky from being blown out. I really liked the sunburst but wasn't a great fan of the bits of glare here and there so I had to clone out a couple of spots. I did have my polariser on which isn't much use into the sun, these add to the glare so I've only myself to blame. The second one was a telephoto landscape taken at 100mm, it has the effect of compressing the elements and obviously the mast is more prominent.

Abercastle harbour, Pembrokeshire

2008-06-17T16:41:00.004+01:00

Thought I would post another from my trip to Wales. This is a small port (or harbour, not sure what the difference is) called Abercastle in Pembrokeshire just as the sun was on it's way out. I wasn't using a tripod so the exposure was a bit of a compromise, not made any easier by adding my polarizer, which will get rid of 2 stops of light at it's full effect. So I needed to get decent DOF, decent ISO and a shutter speed I could keep steady, and I don't trust my hands to stay steady as I grasp onto a cliff face above a harbor so I ended up with ISO250 1/80, f/7.1 at 16mm.

More War

2008-06-14T17:53:00.003+01:00

Another one from my forthcoming war collection which I'm tinkering with as releasing as limited ed prints (bit pretentious I know). I'm going to do a total of 25 images with a run of 25 on each image. I've brought in a few props, in this one we can see the famous Sherman tank bearing down on the Germans. Anyway the partially complete gallery of these shots can be seen here. Take a look if you have a spare few minutes.

One Man and his Dog

2008-06-13T12:00:00.003+01:00

Granted the man and his dog are a fair way away in this photo but I had my wide lens on so this is the best I could do. This was taken during a nice spell of hot weather in the Pembrokeshire National Park. I'm endeavoring to do more landscapes using the sun as a focal point in the harshest of conditions (in lighting terms) for no other reason that the sun gets up far earlier than I do. I'm still getting shots during the golden hour at sunset though. The sky was kept from being blown out by my trust 3 stop graduated filter, I really liked the star burst effect this gives. There was minimal processing with this shot, just a quick mono conversion in Lightroom and a few dust spots cloned out. Taken in full manual mode. ISO320 1/100 sec f/11 at 17mm.

Another Little Planet - Leeds

2008-06-05T08:55:00.003+01:00

I was in Leeds yesterday trying to do some more 'little planet' shots and came up with this one outside the Queens hotel. I was going to do one from millennium square but it had been closed off because of some concert or festival. These are really quick and easy to do, just set up a tripod and spin round taking snaps, ignoring the bemused look of people who are certain you are tracking them and only them! I used PTGui to join them then in Photoshop make a square canvas and rotate the image 180 degrees and use the polar coordinates filter, and thats it, you might want to clone in a bit of floor or even better take a snap of the floor when you are done and use that.

Marco Soldier Art

2008-06-01T19:29:00.005+01:00

I'm doing a small collection of images using old toy soldiers and this was one from the first batch. Pretty simple set up, one light coming from the left and a small amount reflected off a white board on the right, quite a dramatic result.
I used a 50mm macro lense and set the camera to full manual and dialed in ISO200 f/16 1/100sec. I was also using a new border style today, more to try and define it as art rather than Haribo toy product shots!

Confetti

2008-05-31T11:29:00.003+01:00

This was one from a recent wedding that I quite liked, sometimes the autofocus can lock on to the confetti but as long as you max out the frames per second for a while you usually get one or two. You can always try a different composition for the confetti shots as the couple and the guests are usually more than willing to do it again if you suggest it, the vicars normally line you up in the cross hairs from the bell tower though!
This one was done at ISO200 f/3.5 1/2000 sec at 27mm, processed in Lightroom to add the sepia tone, the vignette and the 3D effect.

Circular Panoramic Photosphere

2008-05-21T13:36:00.004+01:00

I was just experimenting with a panoramic from Wales, I haven't been doing much shooting lately so I have to play with older photos, it is still only 2 weeks old though. I saw this effect in a recent photo mag and thought I would try it out. This vista is not the best for this technique, the ones I have seen are normally cityscapes, so I must remember to do one next time I'm near canary wharf. The floor of the shot is also an important part, one I omitted on this occasion. I will write a better tutorial when I get a better example.

Buttermere

2008-05-16T16:09:00.003+01:00

Hi guys, just thought I'd pop this one up. It was taken about a month ago whilst I was up in the lake district. I have processed it with dynamic photo and quickly cleared up a few dust spots with CS3. It is a really nice walk up haystacks from Buttermere and you can take in a few other peaks before coming back down which is good, on a clear day there are plenty of views but good luck getting a clear day up there! We had a nice morning and then the clouds rolled in. Theres nothing too remarkable about this one, more of a memory shot really, I would have liked to have a bit of foreground interest and possibly made more of the path but I was there primarily for the walk. The info on this one is f/16, ISO100, 16mm 1/40sec. I also used a 0.9 Lee ND grad for the sky.

Astro Photography

2008-05-12T20:23:00.009+01:00

I haven't done a great deal of astro photography, largely due to a lack in focal length but as it was a relatively clear evening I decided to slap on the 100-400 and a 1.4x tele extender and see what I got. The tele extenders increase your focal length by either 1.4x or 2x, but you loose a stop of light with the 1.4 and 2 stops with the 2x, with this type of photo I wasn't too worried as I wanted to be at about f11 to start with. You also have to manually focus with the TX's, again shooting a moon this isn't too much of a problem. A tripod is essential as is either a cable release or using the cameras 10 second timer and I've just remembered mirror lock up, in this example I forgot about mirror lock up but if you have it under your custom functions use it as it reduces shake further. I started to appreciate that the moon is traveling at over 2000 mph and it soon moves from your viewfinder so you need to keep adjusting. When it comes to processing I found the histogram to be quite narrow so you need to stretch it a little either using levels in CS3 or the blacks and exposure sliders in Lightroom (or the tone curve) this results in more contrast. I also had to crop in quite a bit, this can be solved by attaching you camera to a telescope ;-) I took this around sunset so the sky was still quite blue but I converted to mono and dropped the blues right down. The info for this was f/11, ISO100, 560mm, 1/200sec.

More of Snowdonia

2008-05-11T10:50:00.002+01:00

Another shot from the same walk as yesterdays post. This one was taken from bristly ridge during our ascent of Glyder Fach but looking back at Tryfan. I didn't use a grad for this shot or a tripod but I did have a polariser on so I had to up the ISO a little and open up the aperture more than usual to compensate for the darkening from the CPL. The exif data was ISO250 f/11, 16mm, 1/125 sec. I originally tweaked it in lightroom and then CS3 but I did another version using dynamic photo which I preferred. If you use Dynamic photo you know a lot of it is experimenting with the sliders and it can be a bit hit and miss, the first thing I always do is drop the colour saturation and the vivid colours back to zero, this goes a long way to remove the 'overcooked' HDR look.