Leaning Tree, Bradgate Park

hdr, trees No Responses »
Jun 202009

Leaning Tree, Bradgate Park

One of my first experiments with monochrome HDR photography and still one of my favourite images. This shot was taken about 30 minutes to an hour before sunset on a sunny but bitterly cold and windy winter afternoon out with Dan in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire. The angle of the sun lit up the grass, and the shadows added depth in front of the tree – I’ve been back to this location since but I’ve never found the light as favourable.

Three shots were used, each two stops apart (-2EV,0EV,+2EV). Processing was done with HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro, with the black and white image then being split toned to give it an antique look.

Purchase print at RedBubble | imagekind | Photo4me

Posted by Andy at 12:07 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Swan On Swithland Reservoir

sunsets No Responses »
Jun 182009

Swan On Swithland Reservoir

The light just after the sun has gone down can make for some really remarkable shots – Ok, sunset shots can be a bit cliched, but searching around (or waiting) for a bit of foreground interest can make all the difference.

If you are lucky and have a steady hand (or a lens with optical stabilising) you can get good shots at a low ISO without having to bother with a tripod (although using a tripod is recommended for sharper images). This shot was hand held as that is just how I prefer to take photos – I like to feel like I’m involved, rather than controlling a piece of machinery :)

I like this location as the expanse of water makes for a great reflection on a still day but despite the colours being pretty it really needed something extra. Fortunately after about 5 minutes a swan started to come towards the shore.

Technical details:- Cokin P121 ND4 Grad, ISO200, 1/15s, f/16.0, 20 mm

Posted by Andy at 2:21 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Frosted Barbed Wire

b&w, hdr, landscape No Responses »
Jun 102009

Frosted Barbed Wire

Another old image that I was never entirely happy with. This was taken on chilly morning excursion out at Beacon Hill with Dan and was one of the few shots I got – the rest being spoilt by the lens misting up all the time.

Whilst I liked the original image at the time I thought the contrast could have been better.

For this newer version I went back to the original shots (3 exposures, each 2 stops apart) and reprocessed them in Photomatix. This resulting image was then desaturated and had contrast adjustments.

Purchase print at Photo4me

Visit http://www.hdrsoftwaretutorial.co.uk/ for tutorials and a discount code which will give you 15% off the purchase of Photomatix.

Posted by Andy at 11:52 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Railway Bridge

people 3 Responses »
Jun 052009

Railway Bridge

This was taken earlier in the year, when the school was closed for a few days due to snow. We all went out to build a snowman and found a small disused bridge over the Great Central Railway that we’d not noticed before. It was covered in graffiti and the colours looked quite striking against the snow, but it wasn’t that interesting on its own so became the backdrop for a rare family photo.

I overexposed this shot (by 1 to 2 stops) for two reasons:-

  • Shots that feature snow generally need to be overexposed anyway, otherwise the snow comes out looking grey rather than white
  • I wanted to lose the snow-laden grey sky which would have made the top half of the shot look muddy

This didn’t work entirely as planned because I did get a small amount of vignetting in the top corners of the shot, but I corrected this by placing the photo on top of a white background layer in GIMP and then erasing the offending bits from the photo to reveal the white background beneath.

Posted by Andy at 1:14 pm Tagged with: , , ,
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