Other Lands, Other Cultures (Photo 29)

Other Lands, Other Cultures
NEX-6, 18-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 25mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/60 secs, ISO 250, f/8

The main reason for my lack of posts over the last three months or so is that I have been travelling a fair bit in both my work and personal lives, so it makes sense to tick off the ‘Other Lands, Other Cultures’ photograph with some shots that I have managed to take abroad – specifically in Majorca (work) and Portugal’s Algarve (personal). I have chosen the featured image as it embodies the theme quite nicely, due to the lack of outdoor kitchens (manned by fishermen at least) in the UK! I also enjoy the engagement between subject and photographer, as the fisherman proudly displays his catch, which is about to be prepared for myself and a number of family members and friends to eat.

A couple enjoying a rest in Majorca.

In order to really show the ‘other cultures’ part of the title, it is necessary for the photographs to contain a human element more often than not, which takes the majority of the shots you will see in this post into the realms of ‘street photography’ – something that I am not fully comfortable with just yet! Whilst I really do enjoy looking at other people’s street photography images, and would dearly love to take many of my own, I think I need to build up my confidence in approaching random people and taking candid photographs of them, as I really feel as though I am intruding when doing so!

This smooth gent didn’t have much to say about me taking his photograph!

In theory, compact cameras like the NEX-6 are less obtrusive for street photography, when compared to something like a full sized DSLR, but I still seem to get gripped almost every time I point my camera at somebody that I don’t know! And in some ways the smaller camera makes me feel more self-conscious because it makes me look more like an amateur taking random shots of people (which I pretty much am!), than if I had a larger, more professional-looking DSLR – which may turn me from ‘strange creep’ to ‘interesting photographer’ in the mind of my victims. At least some of my subjects cannot complain though, as in the above shot.

Our waiter preparing flambéed crepes for dessert. Cinnamon powder being added is the cause of what he referred to as ‘stars’.

What I find easier than taking photos of complete strangers going about their daily lives, is when in a situation where you already have built a rapport with the subject, even though you may not have known them for more than a few minutes. I took the above image in a restaurant in Carvoeiro, whilst the waiter was preparing our dessert. He seemed to really enjoy preparing the crepes, and was more than happy for me to take photos of him at work. A slowish shutter speed of 1/50 of a second allowed me to capture some movement in the burning cinnamon, and I can claim justification for the photo’s inclusion in this theme because the waiter told us that it was now illegal for this to be done at the table of restaurants in the UK, for health and safety reasons! I haven’t checked to see whether or not that is true…

Some young models promoting Roxy and Quicksilver take a stroll, with price labels still attached to everything.

Towards the end of the holiday in Portugal, I visited a type of fair in a local town where many things were happening, including a dog show, fashion show, street entertainers, and many stalls showing off local products. I found this to be a good way of overcoming some of my concerns about photographing people that I did not know, as there were many people there working and expecting to have photos taken of them. I snapped the youngsters above from a distance to begin with (probably about 40 metres), using my telephoto lens, not realising that they were models and assuming they had been to the beach recently. It was only when they got closer that I realised they were promoting clothes and accessories, and I didn’t feel so guilty about having taken their photograph.

I took this photo of a Roxy model during their fashion show.

A little later in the day I happened to walk by the same models putting on a fashion show – along a catwalk with music and announcer. I have never photographed a model previously, but managed to get a couple that I was relatively happy with – for this shot I crouched down and angled the camera slightly, for a more interesting composition. I probably didn’t have to crouch too low in order to shoot up at the model, being shorter than her to begin with, but it was good to get some blue sky in the background.

A performer entertains visitors to the fair.

Walking amongst the visitors there were a number of other entertainers, such as mimes, jugglers and the lady above. The photo of her would have benefitted from a clearer background, but I was limited by the number of people walking by (there are others about to walk into shot from the right!), and I also had my 55-210mm telephoto lens attached when I saw her, so wasn’t able to get too close without completely removing the ribbon from the shot. Maybe it will be possible to remove the people walking behind, with the help of Photoshop, so I will need to look into trying that when I get a chance.

The local radio station was broadcasting from the event, which meant I was able to grab this shot of the DJ.

I caught this little chap taking a well earned rest, and looking proud of himself, having won a 1st prize in the dog show earlier.

Whilst people and animals are often very useful for telling a tale of different cultures, it is not always necessary for them to be the main focus of an image. During my earlier business trip to a convention in Majorca, I grabbed a few shots during one of the break sessions – when everybody was able to enjoy a bit of sun, outside on the balcony.

Not a standard business setting for the UK.

Simple objects can also be used to tell a story with your photography, setting a scene and telling people something about where you took the shot. Below are two images that I took in the town of Albufeira, along the coast from where we were holidaying. One shows a lifeguard station on the beach, and the other shows the effect of tourism on the town!

I’ve never seen this on Blackpool beach.

Brits Abroad! Presumably this outdoor escalator was built for tourists who find walking up and down ordinary stairs too much of a drag when on holiday.

Of course ‘culture’ can mean many different things, from food and entertainment, how the weather effects people’s daily lives, and even the way in which graffiti may be drawn or painted. In Portimao, I came across a couple of buildings that had been turned into a celebration of art.

This derelict building had been painted to advertise the Portugal Underground Film Festival, from the previous year.

Right next door to that was another wall which had been converted into a piece of art, which by itself was very interesting. However, I do believe that my photograph went from being a simple record shot of the artwork, into something telling more of a story, by the inclusion of the young lady that kindly posed for me to take the shot. This is definitely one of my favourite shots that I have ever taken, because I made the effort to add a bit of humour (or mystery) to the image, which makes it more interesting overall.

I enjoyed taking this shot above all others, as I had a direct impact on the outcome by asking the girl to pose in the way she is doing.

I have to admit that I did not come across a vast number of derelict buildings that had been turned into something more interesting, in order to brighten up the area, and I’m sure that there are a number of projects along the same lines in the UK as well, but it was still nice to see that people had made an effort to make the most of a potential eyesore. As in the UK also, not all of the graffiti I came across was particularly full of artistic merit, but I did quite like this small slogan spotted on the walk down into Carvoeiro one evening.

During my two trips abroad I took the opportunity to take more than just street photography and/or candid type shots, with plenty of landscapes and holiday snaps of my family and friends thrown in as well. They would not really fit into the theme of this post though, but I will let you into a secret of a special little beach that we found, just in case you are ever in the area. A word of warning though – it isn’t easily accessible to those who have difficulty with stairs, as you need to walk down a steep staircase through the cliffs. It could really do with an escalator!

A view of the rocky outcrop at Praia do Carvalho, taken from the surrounding cliffs.

I was experimenting with my fish eye lens whilst on the beach, to see how it suited a different style of photography to which they are normally used for.

Another shot of the rocky outcrop taken from the above cliffs, this time using a natural hole in the rocks to frame the shot.

So, if you plan on holidaying on the Algarve at some point, please do search out Praia do Carvalho if you are in search of a picturesque sun trap one day. It is fairly close to Carvoeiro, which is worth a visit itself as well, where I can recommend the restaurant Casa Ibérica – sit upstairs and when David (waiter and the owner’s son) gives you a free glass of port at the end of the meal, tell him I sent you and ask for one of his father’s cigars to go with 😉

A great restaurant, by Carvoeiro beach, for some tapas and a bottle of wine – finished nicely with port and a cigar.

So, during my time away I feel that I did get some good practice at taking street photography style shots, often helped by the fact that my subjects weren’t just random passersby, and as such were quite open to having their photographs taken. Now I just need to get some practice and build my confidence when shooting the general public…

The Colours of Infrared (1) (Fail!) (Photo 24)

Well, it was bound to happen at some point, and that point has arrived – I’ve failed miserably in my attempt to capture a photo for this week’s post! However, I have learned a fair bit in the process, which should hopefully help me to take a decent infrared (IR) shot in the future. I’m glad that there are two other photos using this technique, on the bucket list, as I’ve decided not to put up a featured photo because there really is nothing to be proud of! I will, however, try and share what I have learned (along with the photos I took), to help anybody who is equally surprised by the difficulty as I was.

Knowing that IR photography was on my list I have researched it from time to time, and basically came to the conclusion that I needed a specially converted camera, but then I saw a video on DigitalRev TV (see it here) which made me think that I would be able to achieve reasonable results with a filter on the front of my camera lens. So I ordered the Hoya Infrared (R72) Filter from Amazon, and looked forward to taking some great IR shots.

To see the potential of IR photography, take a look at some wonderful shots here – I underestimated the difficulty of achieving shots like those in a massive way.

Firstly, I should explain what IR photography is about, and that is using a camera to record the light that our eyes cannot see from the infrared area of the light spectrum. We humans can actually only see a fairly small proportion of the light that is around us, but camera sensors are sensitive to IR light although manufacturers add filters to block this light out to a large degree. This means that there are two ways in which you can allow your camera to record IR light – you can have the filter removed, which is probably expensive and restricts your camera to only taking IR photos, or you can buy a filter for the front of your lenses, which only allows IR light to pass through. The second option is much cheaper (around £30), but it does mean that you need to use long exposure times of at least a minute or two, to allow enough IR light to pass through the camera’s internal filter, which attempts to prevent the light from reaching the sensor. As I mentioned above, this is the option that I chose, and this is how my first test shot turned out.

My 1st test shot with the Hoya R72 filter attached to my NEX-6. I used a 2 minute exposure and an aperture of f/18

As you can see, this is NOT how the IR photos I had seen look – not even close! What was I doing wrong?! Even now I am not 100% sure, but I do now know that the IR images that you can see around the Internet are not straight out of the camera – they require a fair amount of post-processing in Photoshop. The image is red because although the IR filters look black, they are in fact a very deep shade of red. I also took the above photo whilst it was somewhat overcast, which meant that there was not enough IR light being reflected off the green leaves and grass for them to turn the white shade that is customary in IR photos.

Being somewhat perturbed by my very red image, I decided to do some more research and scoured the Internet for more tutorials. I found that many of the tutorials did not really explain what to expect a straight-out-of-the-camera IR shot to look like, despite going through the various steps that you should follow when attempting such shots, and so I was still left a little bemused. For that reason I think it is important for somebody new to IR photography to be able to know what they should expect, to avoid the confusion that I was suffering at that point, so I will now take you through my journey of discovery! I do not have all of the answers, but I think that I can at least provide some help and understanding to people just starting out with this. The first thing that I realised I was doing wrong was that I was not setting a custom white balance, which should be set against green grass in good sunlight, so I quickly set this using Aperture 3 (one of the benefits of shooting in RAW format is that you can change the white balance when editing your shots, without any issues). This is how the above photo looked with a white balance set against the grass in the photo.

Adjusting the white balance helps to bring other colours through the red tint.

Changing the white balance has brought other colours to the surface, but everything is still heavily tinted by red. If you click on the image, you will also see a brighter spot in the centre, which is apparently as a result of using a long exposure with a filter on the lens, as the IR light is reflected off the camera’s own filter, and around the lens elements before landing back on the camera’s sensor – effectively over-exposing the centre of the image. This does not happen with all lenses, and so really you need to test your own kit to find a lens that works well. Of my E-Mount 16mm pancake, 18-55mm kit, and 55-210mm telephoto lenses, I found that the telephoto lens was the only one not to suffer from this hot spot. It so happens that this is the only lens of the three which has glass across the full diameter of it, with the front elements of the other two being smaller than the lenses themselves, which may or may not have something to do with it. The main problem with this is that a telephoto lens is not particularly ideal for taking landscape shots! If you have a converted camera though, I do not think this would be an issue.

Another thing that I had read about IR photography was that you need very strong sunlight in order to get the best results, with midday shooting being advised for a change. The problem with living in Stockport is that many days can be overcast and wet, and so during Thursday and Friday I had no chance to take any more test shots. However, I had also read that IR light comes from any light source, even man-made light bulbs, so IR photography is also possible at night. This is backed up by some IR shots that I have come across being of night scenes, so I ventured out on Friday evening to have a go at taking shots of a church in Poynton which is lit up and also surrounded by fairly bright street lights. I decided to use an exposure time of 5 minutes, with a wide aperture to allow as much light in as possible. This is what I got in return.

5 minute exposure at night – the light trails are from cars on the roundabout, but none of the rest of the scene is visible!

Obviously, I was less than impressed once more, and so got straight back in the car and went home again! I had been taking some test shots in my kitchen earlier that evening, to prove to myself whether or not it was possible with artificial light, and also to test which lenses had a hot-spot, as well as taking the opportunity to experiment with the white balance settings. As I had at least been rewarded with more than just a black screen with those images, I was especially disappointed by the experience I had in Poynton. Here are a couple of the shots that I took of coloured chopping boards in my kitchen.

I set a custom white balance in camera, without the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I set a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I think that is probably safe to say that the custom white balance should be set without the IR filter on the camera’s lens, to avoid some overly green images, but then again – does it matter if your image is very green as opposed to very red?! If you can advise, please do so in the comments section at the bottom!

It probably makes sense to give you a quick checklist of things to do when taking your shots with an IR filter on the lens now:

• Use a tripod for long exposures – you will probably need a minute or two depending upon the light.
• Take your shots in Spring and/or Summers, when there are plenty of leaves on the trees to turn white in the final image.
• Set a custom white balance, based on green grass in direct sunlight – I’m not convinced this is necessary though, as when I have played about with custom white balances in Aperture, it doesn’t seem to make a difference what area of the photo I choose as the white balance point!
• Remove the IR filter from the lens in order to frame and focus your shot – use manual focus to prevent the camera trying to auto-focus when you take the shot. With the IR filter on, you will not be able to see anything other than a very dark red (if not black) image.
• Use the Manual setting of your camera, and turn it to Bulb mode for exposures of more than 30 seconds – you will need a remote to achieve this without keeping your finger on the shutter release button.
• Use a large aperture to allow plenty of light through the lens, although landscape photography is best with a smaller aperture to give a greater depth of focus – adjust exposure times to compensate for this.
• Try to shoot on a still day – long exposures and wind don’t mix well if you want sharp images of trees!
• Choose a bright, sunny day in order to get white leaves and grass.
• Images with a lot of trees, water and sky seem to work well.

On Saturday I did manage to get a couple of shots in my back garden, when the sun decided to show for about 10 minutes. I could immediately see the difference this made to the leaves in the image.

I left the camera in auto white balance for this shot. The bright sunshine turned the green leaves white at last!

This shot looks the most like the odd out-of-camera shots that I did manage to find on the Internet, so I think that it probably makes sense to not bother setting a custom white balance in camera, and deal with that in your editing software. This is what changing the white balance in Aperture, based on the leaves, looks like – along with a few other exposure and definition changes.

Setting the white balance against the leaves made them much whiter.

I also took a shot after setting a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens.

White balance set in camera, with IR filter on the lens.

This looks dreadful, but by setting the white balance against the leaves again in Aperture, the final image came out like this.

In camera custom white balance set, but then changed in Aperture.

To be honest, it doesn’t seem to matter how you set the white balance, and it probably makes sense to try doing so in different ways, as it then allows you to achieve different colours in the final image. The real magic happens when you move the image in to Photoshop and start playing with the channel mixer, and swapping the red and blue channels. You need the full version of Photoshop in order to this though, which is not cheap! I have Elements, which does not include the channel mixer, and so am currently unable to try and achieve a truly great IR photo look. There is a plug-in for Elements though, called Elements+, which promises to unlock the channel mixer, but I was unable to get this working in the short time that I had between realising the enormity of the task ahead of me and having to go and get drunk for a friend’s birthday!

I will of course be trying to get to the next step of IR photography in due course, but will be waiting for the leaves to come out on the trees, and I will also need to sort out access to photo software with a channel mixer! In the meantime, I hope that I have helped any newcomers to IR photography realise that they are not mad – it is just a lot harder to do than many of the tutorials on the Internet make it seem! Please leave any advice and comments that you may have, as I would really like to create a stunning IR image in the near future.

High Dynamic Range Magic (Photo 22)

High Dynamic Range Magic
NEX-6, 18-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 27mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/60 sec, ISO 1000, f/16, Auto Bracket Exposure Mode (13 shots combined using HDR Darkroom Pro)

This weekend’s post is all about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, which is the name given to a style of photography that allows you to create an image with perfectly exposed areas across the entire shot – even if this is not possible ‘in-camera’. When the human eye looks at a scene, it is able to distinguish detail in both light and dark areas (unless it is blinded by extreme light of course), but when we take a photograph of the same scene we must tell our camera which area of light we want it to bring out the most detail in. This means that the most shaded areas may come out black and the lightest areas white, whilst the focal point of the shot should be perfectly exposed. It also allows us to under or over-expose large areas of an image for artistic experimentation, such as when you want to capture a silhouette against a bright background.

Even though my focus here is on the foreground, I chose to expose this shot for the sky, to capture the colours of the sunrise in Cromer, Norfolk. This allowed me to turn the foreground into a sharply focused silhouette.

Obviously there are many times when an image is evenly exposed across the range simply because of the way it is lit (naturally or unnaturally), and in such cases HDR photography is not required. Having said that, the effects that can be achieved from using such a technique can often be considered to be interesting, and so it is fairly common for people to use it for more artistic reasons than practical ones. I was visiting St Andrews a couple of weekends ago, which is where I took the featured shot, and I experimented with a few different subjects, to see how the HDR treatment would effect them.

This HDR image of St Salvator’s Chapel is not quite so unrealistic as the featured shot, with areas of shadow still fairly visible.

I think my above shot of St Salvator’s Chapel is probably a respectable reason for using HDR, allowing the subject to still appear fairly natural, and not so obviously manipulated, whilst bringing out detail in all areas of the image. I would say that my featured image lies somewhere between the two extremes of HDR though, as it definitely brings out the detail across most of the image, but it also gives an unnatural feel to the shot – a sort of cartoony look, as though things are made out of plasticine. An averagely exposed image of this scene would look something more like this:

Average exposure of Castle Sands in St Andrews, which allows for some detail in both the bright sky and darker foreground to be captured.

As I was pretty much shooting in to the Sun, I was never going to get an evenly exposed shot of both the sky and the rocks by taking just one image with my camera. I knew that I would have to take a number of shots, with different exposure levels to take account for both the bright sky and dark shadows, and then combine them using HDR computer software when I returned home. The NEX-6 does actually have an HDR setting, whereby the camera will rattle off three shots in quick succession at different exposures, before combining them in a final JPEG image. However, I have started getting used to shooting in the RAW format, and I also wanted to have some control over how the final HDR mix was going to look, so I used the Exposure Bracketing feature of the camera to take 18 photos from -3 to +3 exposure, and various other points in-between. I won’t show you all 18 photos, but here are the two extremes of over-exposed and under-exposed:

Over-exposed shot, at +3 exposure compensation. You can see a good amount of detail in all but the very darkest areas of the foreground.

Under-exposed at -3 exposure compensation. You can see details in the sky, but the foreground is practically in darkness.

When using the bracketing feature of the camera, the NEX-6 allows you to take three continuous shots – one under-exposed, one over-exposed and one at standard exposure, and it also allows you to change how far this exposure range moves, at varying degrees from 0.2 to 3.0. In order to take the 18 shots, I had to use this feature and change the exposure bracketing amount six times, but this also meant that I had 6 photos at the same exposure compensation of 0 – I only needed to use one of these in the final combined image of course. To create the HDR image, you need to combine all of your shots together, and this means that your photos have to line up pretty much perfectly throughout the entire range that you take.

A slightly different view from the same spot – I have added a faux tilt-shift effect, by blurring the image but leaving a diagonal line of focus along the rocks.

I have used pretty cheap HDR software to convert my images, and it does have a feature that will align your photos pretty well. However, if you plan on taking more than a quick hand-held burst of shots, you will need a good, sturdy tripod to hold your camera in one place whilst you change the exposure settings before each shot, or else even the most expensive HDR software isn’t going to be able to line up your images successfully! Whilst on Castle Sands beach, I shot one more subject with the intention of creating an HDR image.

I came across this drift wood lying on the sand, so decided to incorporate it in the composition.

One problem that I have found with trying out various different types of photography in such a relatively short period of time is that I tend to take images for the purpose of trying out a certain technique. This means that I concentrate more on a technique than I do on the composition, focus and camera settings that would create the most pleasing final image. Take the above photo as an example – I was more interested in including the various aspects of foreground rocks, driftwood, shadows etc. so that I could see how the HDR treatment would work on it. This is fine from a learning point of view, and for demonstration purposes on this blog, but it is also really frustrating when I get home and see missed opportunities!

This was taken by the side of the M62 one Winter morning, when I decided to get up to catch the sunrise. I took a few shots to find out how the HDR effect would look in this scene. From what I have seen of other examples, landscapes tend to look better when there are plenty of clouds in the sky.

Once you have combined the images using your chosen HDR software, it is on to choosing the strength of the effect you desire. As I have mentioned already, you can choose a natural look, which is something that an in-camera HDR shooting mode would tend to give you, right the way through to a crazy-looking effect where colours are so vivid and everything looks as though it could be a painting. One of the most dramatic effects can be seen in a cloudy sky, such as in this next image where the clouds look as though they are from a different image altogether.

Another of my off the cuff test shots, where I have not paid enough attention to the scene. This was actually taken on the Sony NEX-5R, when I got to go to London and try out the camera just before its release last year.

HDR photography isn’t just limited to colour photography – in fact, some of the best examples I have seen are in black & white. Again, the effect can be varied, which can depend as much upon your subject and its lighting, as it can on how much you push the sliders to the right in your software package. I took some shots of the ruins of the castle in St Andrews as well, but the light was pretty even throughout the entire image to begin with anyway, which seemed to reduce the possibility of creating a strong HDR effect. I decided to convert the final image to black & white actually, more for my own amusement and education than anything else I suppose.

St Andrews Castle ruins, which sit just above the Castle Sands beach.

I had experimented with black & white HDR photography briefly in January this year, when I had gone on a night photography course with Manchester Photographic Society. I took shots of Manchester Town Hall from a couple of different angles, with this purpose in mind, and due to the contrast in the scene caused by light and shadow on a building at night, the HDR effect is much stronger in these images.

I really like this shot, and was tempted to use it as the featured image, but chose the beach because the colour gives a better understanding of the technique.

The HDR effect is slightly weaker in this shot, but still gives an otherworldly feeling to the Town Hall.

The second image above shows a good example of how different shots are layered together – as the wind was blowing a little, you can see a double exposure of the flag to the top left of the image, as my HDR software could not align the two different positions of the flag.

HDR photography is something that is quite popular at the moment it would seem, and whilst I do really enjoy looking at some of the amazing shots people have taken I think that it can be over-used just for the sake of it. It is something that I am keen to continue exploring of course, and it will no doubt appear at other points during the course of this project. Until then, I’m going to try and concentrate on thinking about my shots as much as the techniques that I am trying to use when taking them.

An Old Masters Classic (Photo 17)

An Old Masters Classic
NEX-5N, 16mm E-Mount Lens, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/1250 sec, ISO 100, f/5 – Photoshop Elements 10

Slightly later than planned, due to coming down with a nasty chest infection, this is my first post of 2013. The photo in David Busch’s book was very different to mine, with the theme being achieved through the use of setting up the photo to look like a scene which might have been painted by one of the Old Masters – a nude lady on a chaise longue, surrounded by furs and the like. In the absence of beautiful, naked women throwing themselves in my direction and asking me to take their photograph, I thought that I should approach my shot from a different direction (sorry!). I have used a photograph that I already had taken, and then used Photoshop Elements 10 to make it look more like an oil painting. This is my original photo though:

Rather than using the rule of thirds to set up my shot, I decided to go with a 50/50 horizontal split, in order to emphasise the reflection in the water.

My inspiration for doing this came from me stumbling across other photos which had had artistic filters applied to them in Digital Photo magazine. I wanted to initially turn a landscape into a watercolour, and when I searched Google for such examples, I found a YouTube video tutorial, showing how to achieve a great hand painted watercolour effect, by bluelightningtv, which I have to say is undoubtedly the best way that I have seen to do this, and is also a fantastic tutorial video – short, snappy and straight to the point, which is useful if you need to keep reviewing the steps taken, without having to go through unnecessary talking! I will not go through the steps on this post, you are much better taking a look at the video directly – here – I did make one adjustment to the technique, which was to increase the vibrancy of colours in Aperture, before exporting the photo to Photoshop, which is because Elements does not seem to have  a vibrancy slider – just saturation (and many others of course!). I found this out during my first attempt, so all of the starting photos I post will look a little bit too colourful probably.

My 1st attempt at turning a photo into a watercolour

As you can see above, my 1st attempt was rather woeful and flat looking, as I didn’t really appreciate the nuances of overlapping strokes in the way that a true artist would do, so that there are naturally darker areas of sky and other colour blocks. I had initially thought the photo I took in Aalborg, Denmark in the Summer of 2012, would make a good starting point to try out this technique, but I was mistaken as I think there are too many small details, which do not allow for nice broad brush strokes and areas of just one colour. I jumped straight back on the horse though, partly because I knew I would need to practice, and partly because I really enjoyed trying out this technique, and so I chose a photo of a fishing boat that I took in Cromer, Norfolk a few months ago.

My 2nd watercolour attempt – at least it looks more like a painting this time!

For my second attempt I made sure to try and overlap a few brush strokes, and also not quite go to the edges at the top of the picture when painting the colour back in. This time, however, I made a different mistake by not really taking into account the fact that an artist would not simply paint horizontal strokes across the whole picture and magically produce the necessary colours along the way, so a lot of my overlapping strokes go across different objects or areas of colour in the scene, making it look very unnatural. I do like the general affect on this photo though, and I’m glad that I have been able to use it after getting up for sunrise that day! Here is the starting image that I used:

A fishing boat which had just cast off for the morning.

Feeling more positive after the second attempt, I decided to press on and have another go. I quickly found out that some subjects don’t look too good after having the technique applied though, after I tried it out on this photo I took of some Mushrooms:

Starting image for my 3rd attempt.

When I followed the tutorial on this photo, maybe changing the odd setting slightly to suit the photos I was using, the result looked a little more cartoon-like, as once again I had chosen something with far too much detail and small colour blocks, which prevented me from building up brush strokes easily. I may have been able to do so if I had spent a very long time on it, with small brush sizes, but I didn’t feel that the end result would have been particularly worth it, so I just washed over the scene quickly and ended up with this:

3rd attempt failure!

I had taken the original photo for this attempt whilst on a walk through woodland to Vernon Park in Stockport, passing through Woodbank Park also, when I took a very stock image of a tree-lined path in Autumn, for no particular reason that I can remember. However, I am certainly glad that I did so, because I really like the watercolour version of it – it really looks (to me at least) like a true painting, and less like the doctored photograph effect I managed with earlier attempts!

The 4th attempt, which I was finally happy with.

Whilst there is still a great deal of detail in the top area with the trees’ leaves, they seem to have taken well to the watercolour effect, helped massively by the extra care I took when painting in the tree trunks, making sure to overlap my brush strokes here and there, and doing the same with the pathway and grass areas. I kept the overlapping fairly subtle, but I think that there is enough to maintain the illusion that this is a watercolour painting, rather than a fairly standard photo of some trees!

The starting image for my 4th watercolour attempt, taken on a sunny, Autumn day.

Spurred on by this small personal win, I looked through my photos for an image with large areas of single colours, that I could try to use to really get a great effect. I used a photo of Chloe, which I included in a previous post (A Child’s Anticipation), and again I am fairly happy with the end result.

Chloe as a watercolour painting.

I used a more ‘blobby’ approach with the brush over the stripes in her top, overlapped strokes in the background floor boards, and left her fringe fairly light to allow the pencil lines to show through and help complete the effect. I had also refined my approach by this point, using much lower opacity brush strokes, allowing me to build up the colours colours gradually and overlap brush strokes more subtly, which I tried to do on her rosy cheeks. Here is the starting photo for comparison:

Starting image for Chloe’s watercolour effect.

My last two attempts are probably my two favourites from all of the photos that I have applied a painted technique to, but this is after all supposed to be based on the paintings of the Old Masters, who predominantly worked with oil based paints. I was tempted to cheat and say that I was following the theme loosely by producing a painted effect, but I thought I would use that as a last resort and so started to try and find a tutorial for turning a photo into an oil painting. I found the odd thing here and there, but nothing that was as good-looking as the watercolour technique I was following, but I did come across the Palette Knife filter available in Photoshop, which gave me an idea, and so I followed Blue Lightning TV’s tutorial once again, but substituted the Smart Blue for the Palette Knife filter, and then used a different brush type to paint the colour back in.

My first attempt at an oil-painting conversion.

Now for a quick disclaimer – I’m not a very good artist, but I do remember back to my GCSE Art days and using oil paints, and I know that brush strokes can be quite an important part of this style of art, so I have made a concerted effort to build up these paintings using small brush strokes and different brush stroke directions. To be quite honest, this is a real pain to do over a full image, and people who are used to painting properly will probably have a much better understanding and feel for what sort of brushes and brush strokes to use to get a superior effect to my attempts. However, in this instance it is the taking part that counts, and I have done my best with the patience available to me! Another quick disclaimer I would like to make is that the larger the images are when you view them, the more like a painting they look – viewed on a smartphone screen they don’t necessarily look very different from the actual photographs they were created from! So, please click on the photos to bring them up full-screen.

The starting point for my 1st oil painting attempt.

At this point I was still following the watercolour technique, and including the pencil lines layer – this is mainly because I took a look at the first attempt without them, but the edges of the building looked very uneven and missing definition. However, other images definitely benefit from removing this step from the process, as you don’t really see pencil lines when they’re covered by oil paints in reality. I recently took a portrait type shot of my Grandma, and so thought it would be a good idea to try out this oil painting effect on that. I used the pencil lines in the first attempt, and also set the canvass texture too high, and wasn’t really happy with the end result.

1st attempt at turning my Grandma into an oil painting.

I added a little bit of vignetting to the corners of the original image as well, but didn’t really set the Palette Knife effect quite high enough either, and so I decided to make a second attempt, using slightly different brush strokes and no pencil lines layer. I think the result looks a little more natural.

2nd attempt at turning my grandma into an oil painting.

I used less ‘paint’ this time as well, which resulted in a lighter image overall, and am definitely happier with the final result, although it isn’t perfect. This was the starting image for these two attempts:

The starting image of my Grandma.

I finally settled on the featured image for this post, because it fitted in with the theme and I also quite like the original photograph. Having failed with my original attempt of turning it into a watercolour, I decided to have another go at it with the oil painting style. Again, I used different directions and sizes of brush strokes in different areas of the image, using longer, larger strokes on the water to hint at the fact the reflections are less detailed than the tress and buildings causing them. I also decided to see how this looked both with and without the pencil lines layer, and was happy that there seemed to be just enough sharpness for me to remove them and get a more natural oil painting effect. Here is the image with the lines in for comparison though:

The featured image, but with the addition of pencil lines.

I definitely do prefer the watercolour effect to the oil painting effect, assuming it is used on the right photo to begin with, but I think that somebody with a more understanding and skill could really create some great looking images with the oil painting as well. I’m not too sure that I would ever hang either one of them on my wall though, but maybe that is down to my lack of practice and/or skill!

If you have seen, or created some great images in either of these artistic styles, then please do share them with me if you can! I should be back to posting pretty much each weekend now, and have some ideas for photos that I am really looking forward to trying out and sharing.

Monarchs of the Air (1) (Photo 8)

Two paragliders float over Hope Valley, Derbyshire
NEX-5N, 18mm-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 59mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/200 seconds, ISO 100, f/13

Welcome back! This week’s post is my take on the first of the two’Monarchs of the Air’ photos from David Busch’s book. The two photos from the book are both of display planes (one stunt and one jet), which I would have to agree are worthy of majestic titles, but there are so many different subjects that could fit into this category, for many different reasons, and here I have chosen this shot of two paragliders sailing high above Hope Valley in Derbyshire. I think that most people would like to have the ability to fly, and paragliding seems to be one of the closest ways that we humans can get to achieving such a dream, which is why I feel they fit into this title from the bucket list. I chose the featured photo because the composition stood out for me, with the ridge of the hill leading us in to the photograph, with emphasis placed on sky over land, and the two paragliders give the impression that they are flying away in to the distance, following the ridge line, with a good amount of altitude as well. I also quite enjoy the way that there are a few patches of sunlight visible on the land, as the sun has managed to peek through gaps in the cloud. I haven’t cropped this photo, but I have made some slight (amateur) alterations in Aperture 3, such as using the auto enhance tool, warming up the colours, and some light dodging and burning (lightening and darkening) to add contrast to the sky and hills.

I first became aware that people were throwing themselves off the top of these very high hillsides whilst driving back through the area having taken the Moving Water photographs in my sixth post, but I did not have the time to stop unfortunately. However, I did keep in my mind the fact that I wanted to return at the earliest opportunity, to see whether I could get any good shots, which I managed to do in mid-August when the weather forecast looked good for the area (it wasn’t the most accurate forecast as it turned out, but I like the way the clouds add a little drama to some of my shots).

I was tempted to use this for the featured photo, because I like the extra foreground and the contrast in the clouds, but the paragliders were just a little too small to really be considered anything but added interest to a landscape shot, in my opinion.

I took Yoda with me, so that he could enjoy a good long walk across fields and up very large hills. One of the earliest lessons I learned that day was that whilst dogs seem to have no problem with stinging nettles touching their sensitive noses, they do in fact feel the effects when walking over too many of them, but he seemed to be fine when we moved on to more populated areas where he could bark at other dogs and eat sheep poo! One of the things that I have come to realise about photography over the last 9 months or so is that it is a great excuse to get out and about and see and do things that you would never normally bother with. If I saw paragliders last year I might have stopped and watched for a while, but I probably wouldn’t have bothered walking up a great big hill to get a closer look, and some gentle exercise at the same time.

Yoda takes a break from barking at other dogs and eating sheep poo!

I suppose that the shot I had imagined in my head prior to getting to the spot the paragliders used was probably of somebody taking off a steep hillside, just above me, so I could capture them from underneath against a bright blue sky. I soon realised that including the wonderful surroundings made for much more interesting shots though. At this point I don’t really have a great deal of technical advice to share, other than the fact that I used Aperture Priority mode to control the depth of field effect, as nothing was really moving quickly enough for me to worry about the shutter speed being too slow or too fast. I feel that this is a slight moment of epiphany for me, because it is probably the first time that I am looking at photos in a critical way, and applying only my own judgement rather than rules and advice that I have read in a book or online. For instance, as I mentioned earlier, I believe that the photos of the paragliders look better when shot against the surrounding backdrop, rather than simply against a relatively boring sky – this is my own opinion, formed from my own experience, rather than me agreeing or disagreeing with somebody else’s statement. You may disagree with me yourself, and prefer to not have the background as a distraction from the paraglider, but I am happy that I have been able to form my own opinion without knowingly basing it on something I have read previously.

This shot of a single paraglider is fairly boring against a flat backdrop of sky and cloud.

A similar shot of a paraglider becomes much more interesting when taken from a higher vantage point, so that the landscape is included. I didn’t ‘nail’ this shot, as I think that I could have found a more interesting position of paraglider versus industrial building, but it is still better than a flat sky.

Another way of experimenting to find the best shot is to turn your camera from landscape to portrait orientation, as you suddenly gain a different perspective on things, and can fill more of your shot with the main subject of the image you are taking.

Portrait orientation allowed me to zoom closer in on the paraglider (because of the natural shape of the subject), and again the landscape creates a more interesting backdrop than thin air.

I also looked to add variety by exploring the shapes that multiple paragliders made when included in the same shot – believe me, after approximately 4-5 hours you can end up with a lot of photographs which look all too similar, so it is definitely worthwhile taking the opportunity to explore different shooting angles and ideas that you may have.

I was experimenting with the relationship between two subjects here, allowing them to overlap but not cut out any of the important parts of the people or paragliding equipment.

Does a plain backdrop add more interest to the shape being made by multiple subjects in this shot – I think that it possibly does, but maybe I just like the fact there is blue sky in one of the photos!

I spent longer than I would have done photographing the paragliders, because I noticed that there were also a number of hang gliders being prepared for take-off, and they seemed to actually take a really long time to get ready, unless the pilots were just waiting for different conditions. However, I was happy to wait for the opportunity to photograph something a little bit different. I managed to approach the hang gliders in a couple of new ways, and they were even kind enough to fly straight over the heads of the spectators so that I could get my initially imagined shot.

This is the type of shot that I initially saw as befitting flying people, but there aren’t many ways of making them look different from one another!

I like the mixture of sky and scenery in this shot, with the hang glider heading out in to the distance.

Obviously, even air-based sports do have to begin on the ground, so it makes sense to capture this aspect as well!

In my search for variety I also looked to incorporate other surroundings in to the shots, which in these two cases means other spectators that were around at the time. There were many other people out walking as I think that the spot I was in is a popular area for walkers in The Peak District, as well as adrenaline-junkies and photographers (and dogs), and I think that including spectators in photography can often add a new and interesting dynamic to certain shots.

On one of the lower, harder to reach areas, the only people around were those participating in paragliding and their friends and/or families. Here, a woman watches on as her husband or boyfriend enjoys the sights.

A group of walkers stop at the highest point of the area, to take in the spectacular scenery and watch the paragliders in action.

I have really tried to keep to my main subject so far in the post, but when you are out walking around an area of natural beauty, in order to photograph something as man-made as paragliders and hang gliders, you will inevitably find many different natural subjects around you. I took photos of a wide variety of things during my visit, from animals to flowers and the odd still-life of sign-posts or fences, so here are two random shots for a bit more variety!

This cow was relaxing in the middle of a pathway up to the top of the hill.

I just liked this piece of eroded hillside, exposing the layers of rock and earth that make it, so decided to take a shot of it.

So that’s the end of this weekend’s post. I hope you enjoyed it and like some of the photographs at least. Please feel free to leave any comments or share your own experiences of shooting monarchs of the air. Next week is my shot for ‘Macro Moment’, which I really enjoyed using my macro lens to capture.