My first new image for a couple of weeks 
I’ve been incredibly busy with a few things recently - work, getting prints made, cleaning up and reappraising some old shots - and I just haven’t had time to update this blog. I’ve got a few things that I want to upload but it’s finding the time to get everything done. I’ve only been out once with the camera in the last two weeks - I normally go out every 2 or 3 days - but at least I got lucky with my timing and choice of location here.
The above shot was taken at Beacon Hill, near Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire. I’ve previously avoided this location (although the fact that there are a couple of other shots from here on this blog would seem to indicate otherwise) but decided to try it as I was short of other ideas (and time).
Initially I was disappointed by the mainly clear sky but moments after the sun went down a blanket of fog began to fill the valley below. The remaining sunlight lit the fog in patches as it drifted towards me. All I had to do then was try to find a composition I was happy with before the moment was gone - whilst keeping an eye on the nearby cows to make sure they didn’t get too interested in the camera bag I’d discarded on the floor.
Purchase print at RedBubble
Posted in landscape, sunsets.
Tagged with beacon hill, cokin nd8 grad, fog, leicestershire, mist, rocks, sunset, tree.
By Andy
November 15, 2009
This image was taken during a short break in North Wales. The main purpose of the visit was for a family walk to the summit of Snowdon (and of course for me to take plenty of photos) but unfortunately the weather was too poor for either. In the end this was the only image I really liked from the trip, which was taken on the only really sunny day of the week, before the rest of the group arrived.
A Hoya circular polariser was used here to darken the sky and improve the contrast in the rest of the shot.
Purchase print at RedBubble | imagekind
Technical info : Sigma 18-200 lens at 18mm, 1/160s (because it was windy and I didn’t want the grass to blur), f8.0, ISO100
Posted in b&w, landscape, trees.
Tagged with gorse, llanfairfechan, north wales, penmaenmawr, rocks, tree.
By Andy
September 13, 2009
After taking this shot I was quite looking forward to seeing how it came out. I was using my Hoya Circular Polariser at the time and I’d rotated it to bring out the best of the colour both in the sky and on the rocks - the green of the seaweed was really emphasised by it and it was one of those rare moments when I was really glad I’d bought it.
Sadly, when I viewed the shot on the computer, this is what it looked like…
Notice the sad face being pulled by the horizon - I’d forgotten that the Sigma 18-200 has really noticeable barrel distortion (where straight lines are bent away from the centre of the image) at the wide (18mm) end. That’s not to say that it’s a bad lens - for the price it’s a pretty good all rounder.
Fortunately it’s possibly to remedy this (with a bit of trial and error) with The GIMP.
Versions prior to 2.4
Open the file and select “Distorts” from the “Filters” menu. Select “Curve Bend” from the sub menu that appears. You should then see something similar to the following:-
To correct the barrel distortion we need to build a curve which will be used to modify the image. To do this I first placed a straight line roughly where the horizon was in my shot by clicking on the left and right sides of the grid. Then I placed a point (by clicking in the desired place on the grid) in the centre of this line which I then I slowly dragged downwards, changing the straight line into a slight curve. Once the results of the preview looked acceptable I pressed the “Ok” button and waited for The GIMP apply the changes (which took about 15 seconds).
Versions 2.4 and up
A new filter was added in version 2.4 - Lens Distortion. Open the file and select “Distorts” from the “Filters” menu. Select “Lens distortion” from the sub menu that appears. You should then see something similar to the following:-
As the distortion on my original image was convex (bulging outwards) I needed to apply some concave distortion. To do this I tweaked the “Main” value and eventually settled on a value of -12.
From the manual…
Main - The amount of spherical correction to introduce. Positive values make the image convex while negative ones make it concave. The whole effect is similar to wrapping the image inside or outside a sphere.
More documentation on this filter can be found here - http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-lens-distortion.html
Posted in tutorials.
Tagged with barrel distortion, rocks, sea, seaweed, sigma 18-200, sky, st bees.
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