Flooding in Durham UK 2012

The North East of England was hit with flooding on a large scale this month. Many areas had roads closed and some houses and businesses were badly affected. The shots below are from Durham City. The River Wear begins in the Penines and runs through much of County Durham, via the city itself before reaching Sunderland. It floods almost anually. Prints of any of these are available if you'd like to get in touch.

 

Small car washed away... (top left of pic)

Graveyard Shift

Black and White

B&W or monochrome as it more popularly referred to at the moment, can give dramatic results. This is especially true if you have a very strong composition. Sometimes de-saturating your image can allow you to pick out the focus points where strong colours can cause a distraction. It was probably the best weather we've had for a long time the other morning so I dropped by a cemetary to try and catch some good light on my way to work.

Graveyards are a strange place to wander around but there are many people who find it fascinating to see the various sculptures and headstones. For a photographer they offer a place where you will probably not be disturbed and you can take your time setting up before taking advantage of all sorts of textures, contrast, decay etc etc.



Original and  (right) slight crop and b&w conversion







I really like the older areas of graveyards...

Some strong contrast and bold shapes lurking in the overgrown grass

Worn sculpture offering some 'soft' lines. Sepia used rather than staight forward b&w conversion



I like the way this has given the impression of a moonlit shot.




 



Green filter applied in Lightroom to make the grass softer and brighter



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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Realistic HDR Images

The winter can give us some excellent photographic opportunities; Dramatic sunrises and sunset, long shadows and lots of contrast. However, recently we have had a lot of what is referred to as flat light. That is the grey, dull daylight that seems to fade in and out quickly with very little inspiration to take pictures. That's not to say that flat light is a no-go, far from it. Using it correctly can add atmosphere and draw the viewer in. Having said that, I'm getting the winter blues and rather than sitting around waiting for some if the spring sunshine to arrive, I've been experimenting with High Dynamic Range photography in order to put some colour back into my world! I wanted to keep the images looking natural and taken in generally, good light levels. To the untrained eye you'd be forgiven for thinking they were the result of only one shutter release.

The images here have all been captured using a 'traditional' HDR method. That is, one under-exposed, one over-exposed and one at standard exposure. I have used a -1ev +1ev and 0ev setup in bracketing mode for these images. There are many (probably limitless) set-ups you can use to create an HDR image. Some people use up to 9 different exposures and various filters on top of that. It can create dramatic results but I wanted to keep these natural and just try and make the initial dull, flat, image into one that the viewer can connect with.

The morning light on the steeple was all the original single image had to offer. By using HDR it has improved the colour and contrast.

So what is the purpose of HDR? As our eyes move over a scene, they quite often make many adjustments. If you're looking toward the sun for instance, objects near to you will be very dark and not very detailed. But if you move your attention away from the direction of the sunlight and to the darker areas, your eye adjusts and then you can see the details in dark areas. HDR allows the full range of highlights and shadows to be displayed to the viewer at the same time. (see bottom image for an example of this) This quite often gives the photograph an 'other-worldly' feel. This is one of the reasons it has become so popular. Images can be created quite quickly and with fairly basic equipment and technical know-how.

I could see potential in this shot but even with a 'vivid' setting on the camera it lacked the impact the morning light commanded!

I'm currently using Lightroom for general processing and Photomatix for HDR. I like the way I can control the highlights and shadows detail in Photomatix and can generate, natural HDR or go for a more 'painted' feel with something that at first glance, does not look like a photograph at all (examples of extreme HDR to follow in another blog!) There are many other pieces of software and each has their strengths. It really depends on your personal preference.

The original image was quite nice but using HDR has allowed me to show you the scene as I 'saw' it.

I hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of HDR. If you'd like more info, or have any questions, please get in touch. Comments are more than welcome. Check back soon for more blogs!

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New year - New opportunities.