Leeds - updated blog at 'The Cultured Blog'

Leeds is a City that's changing but wherever you are there are still strong links back to it's industrial heritage. It's a place that is moving with the times but is proud of it's Yorkshire heritage and involves this in new developments. 

To see the full set of these images, click the link to The Cultured Blog at my website. Hope to see you there! Cultured Photography

Taking HDR further

From my previous post on HDR I talked about keeping things looking natural but still being able to bring out various tones and colours to counteract flat light. In these shots it's more about creating more vibrant and detailed images that stand out from regular exposures.


The street shot above, makes use of the various colours and textures. I tried to lead the eye into the scene when I set up the shot. I personally love the mixture of textures, from the worn paint on the railings to the bricks, cobbles and rendering on the buildings. To increase the tonal range of this shot and most of them in this blog, I increased the bracketing range from 0 to +1.3 & -1.3. The sky was pretty washed out but underexposing the shot by an extra .3 allowed a little cloud detail. .

In the image above of Durham Train station, I wanted to draw attention to the symmetry and repetitive pattern leading into perspective. Again +/-1.3ev and 0ev were used.

The shot above was, again, aimed at drawing the viewers attention to the dynamic shapes. The architecture of The Deep building in Hull is as impressive as the huge aquarium it holds. Sometimes it's all too obvious to stand 25m or so away from a building to capture it's design. The real architecture is sometimes best appreciated from up-close.



Tanfield railway above is a great place for photography in the North East. I love the station, complete with advertising and decoration from the old days of Steam. This image is the result of 5 shots -2, -1, 0, +1, +2ev and the details slider pushed all the way up in Photomatix. Not too much to worry about in terms of 'noise' (the speckles that can appear in digital images using high ISO settings) as the greenery does a good job of disguising it.

Images using only a few elements

Part of the philosophy I have around my images, is that I would like them to generate some kind of emotional attachment with the viewer. In keeping with this, I really enjoy capturing scenes which contain very few elements (Meaning, scenes which appear to be very sparse of movement, people or items). Upon first glance, the images appear very simple but correct use of main points of focus can allow the viewer to let their imagination wander as to what situation surrounds the image.


3 main elements in this shot. The lush, green grass and the roaming pathway that leads they eye to the resting point of the large rock.

The above shot was taken in a busy park during the middle of the day. however, the lack of movement and other distractions gives the impression of a private place for reflection and peace. Selective foreground blurring provides the element of distance and sharpening the rock itself helps lead the eye 'into' the picture.


The stones are the main focus here and everything else seems to 'blend' away.

In the original shot for the above, the sky was bland and grey. Adding a selective colour-faded filter in Lightroom has added interest without taking away from the main focus.

A Small boat on Ullswater. The poignancy of this, is that it was taken during terrible floods that ruined bridges, yet the boat remains calm and unaffected. Just sitting patiently and calmly

The key to capturing this type of image is looking at the scene and working out what it is that is important. A wider view showed the fence around the lake almost completely submerged but I felt that it distracted away from the peace that the boat was unaware of the chaos around it (Yes, I know it's an inanimate object, we're being philosophical here haha) once that is established, correct composition will allow the main elements to 'pop' out. It is less about putting elements into context and more about leaving the viewer wondering what the rest of the scene may look like.

A simple, large moon in the mid-afternoon winter sky.

In the above shot it was important to use a long focal length to make the moon larger and a low iso setting to keep the sky looking smooth and silky. Blue, cloudless skies can be hard to handle at higher iso's.

Hope that you enjoyed these images - Check back soon more updates on the way!

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