Over-cooked

I took this photo last summer in a small village about 6 miles away from my house. It was a really stormy day although I kind of killed the photo (some might say) by over doing the HDR. I was still learning how to do HDR at the time and kind of realised that actually I quite liked the over-cooked look. So anyway I recognise its not everyone's cup of tea....but I love the drama of it :)

Scotland Day 2

Before I post my photos let me just say how disappointed I was with them. The weather on the second day was terrible (foggy, grey and poor visibility) so needless to say it would of been challenging for even the most experienced photographer. Sadly I am not experienced so the photos were terrible - very dark and with little contrast. Well I guess you can only be as good as what you to work with. Thankfully I did take some HDR images using the AEB function on my camera. This takes 3 pictures at normal, high and low exposure and then merges them. This allows me to pick out the detail in the darker parts of the picture and makes colours look more vibrant. This was the only way I could think of to get any kind of colour or texture into these otherwise lifeless photos. So here goes....

Back from Scotland and I have a few thoughts

Hi folks. Well I am back from my holiday to Scotland and I think I have some pretty promising photographs. I will know for sure once I've had chance to go threw them all. I did notice a few things on holiday that did interest or amuse me.
1. I think I'm starting to think more like a photographer now. I caught myself a few times saying to myself oh that would make a lovely black and white photo or I will need HDR to make the best of that shot and things like that.
2. I really need to learn how to use the manual functions on my camera - so far all modes have been preset (shock horror) with me not knowing how to achieve what I'm looking for
3. I really no nothing at all about photography or a cameras functions - sure I've always been interested in learning about it but somehow managed to remember very little of the photography skills I gained while doing A level art and design (my major subjects were photography based)
4. Using a tripod gives better results - not surprising really
5. I am getting less self conscious of people seeing me out and about with my camera - I even plonked my tripod right next to where somebody was standing because they had the best view point
6. My husband seems to enjoy photography as well and didn't seem to resent traipsing about with me and my camera. I call him my camera caddy.
7. For some reason I have this thing about photographing an abandoned country house or something. I had to settle for some castle ruins - but it didn't really give me the right kind of fix
8. I've also got a thing for walls - especially nice stone walls and dry stone walls - but I haven't had a recent fix of that either.

I do have just 1 picture that I can share with you for now (above). Its a corker IMHO. Its a castle (or castle ruins) that we drove past on our way from Aviemore to Stirling. There was a layby across a field from it and I thought I was a great opportunity for a photograph. The lighting was pretty terrible as it had been for days and so I thought I'd see how well HDR would help to bring out the darker areas. I do realise HDR is not everyone's taste but I lvoe vibrant colours and exaggerated contrast and saturation so it definitley appeals to me anyway.

Todays photo of the day is....

......yet another HDR picture of that school behind my house. I can almost hear you groaning from here. Don't worry I'll stop soon. let me just bore you with another one first *evil grin*.


I keep saying I'll have a go at a few other themes for a while but I just haven't had chance for the last week. The weather has been to bad to go out with my camera and I've had no real inspiration. I am hoping to have a go at some B&W and some minimalism so watch this space.

Went to Shibdon

Me & hubby went for a drive to Shibdon near Halifax today. Its a small village I think - since we never actually made it there I'm not sure. Or maybe we did and it was so small we passed right through LOL. Its basically all countryside round there and with a picturesque valley its a pretty place. I took some photos but was a bit disappointed with them. Technically they were ok ish - a little under exposed maybe. But as a subject the landscape was a bit average. I don't really know what I was expecting. I turned one of them into an HDR photo but kind of over did it I think. Anyway a little disappointing but something to learn from. I did get a nice photo of Andy over looking the valley though.

I quite liked this view down the valley but I think I got a bit carried away with the intensity o the HDR work.

Another view down the opposite end of the valley

Andy overlooking the valley. Suddenly the clouds went really dark as the rain came in.

A view from across the street - overdone a bit.....doh!

Good website on HDR

Some kind person on Flickr gave me a link to a really good website on HDR photography. Enjoy.

Still having lots of fun - and still tinkering with HDR

The title says it all. I'm very impressed with my new camera - the Canon 450D. Even as a complete amateur I am able to turn out some very impressive (in my opinion) results. Night shots are crisp and the colours authentic without even having to do any post processing like I'd have to on my last camera - the Sony T7. I was also plagued by noise on just about any photo taken in low light conditions on my old camera BUT no more. The Canon 450D copes with night shots and low light quite spectacularly and way beyond my expectations. Being a ceomplete novice I am working my way throught the instruction manual and starting off with mastering the automatic functions before I move onto taking manual control. The automatic functions on this camera are amazingly intuitive in my opinion. Well worth every penny I spent on it so far.

View from the first floor of our house

Ok now I know the composition isn't great or anything but I was only testing the capability of the camera to reproduce something approaching realistic colours and lighting effects. Actually it was a very close match so I was well impressed.

I've still been tinkering about with HDR. Its improving but I would really like to find a scene that would lend itself well to HDR techniques. I'd also like a tripd to reduce the blurr though I wonder if (as an alternative) shooting in RAW form might help. Currently I'm using the AEB function and this takes 3 separate images which are later processed and merged in Photomatix. The problem is that its easy to get blur this way if your not using a tripd and things that are moving (like trees in the breeze) also turn out blurred. Shooting in RAW for you take only 1 image which you can process to give the 3 different exposures and thus cutting out the risk of blurr. I use an IS lens so blur tends to be a non-issue with single exposure photography.

Here is a HDR version of the same scene.

HDR attempt number 2

The results are getting better as you can see. Unfortunately I haven't been able to go out and photograph something more interesting or suitable yet as time (and daylight) has been running out by the time I've got home in the evening. Hopefully at the weekend I will find something more appropriate to photograph. I really do like the intensity of the colours in this first one even if nothing else looks so great about it.

HDR Photography

I just realised the name for the style of photography that I really love. I mean if you can say any kind of photography turns you on then this is what flicks my switch LOL. For those that don't know I'll explain a bit about what I found out. If your looking for a really cool article on HDR photography then I found a great one for you here.

Update - I just had a go at some HDR photography. Photos here - will update later.

before tone mapping

after tone mapping

before tone mapping

before tone mapping

after tone mapping

I still don't really understand quite what the tone mapping is and why in some of my attempts I actually prefer the pre tone-mapped image LOL. Oh well. I was just having a discussion with somebody about HDR photography. She was saying its artificial and rarely needed and she steers her clients away from it. I suppose it depends what your looking for. For my own personal use I like the HDR artificial look. Being a strong kind of style I guess its not to everyone taste. But then I only take photos for my own pleasure. If I like it that's all that counts to me. Obviously its the complete opposite to what aprofessional photographer would want. But I like the creative side of photography. To me its about alot more than creating a classic photograph but more seeing what you can do with it beyond that. if you get what i mean.