High Contrast

A bit of a tweak thanks to a magazine I picked up, turning a pretty ordinary portrait (taken by my 8 year old neice) into something with a bit more character.

Probably did a bit too much, but it's something to play with later.

Sunset

One thing I've been wanting to do more of is really long exposures, particularly of water. I took the camera, tripod and dog up to Harlaw reservoir at the weekend, and took a few pics of the sunset. Despite stacking two ND8 filters and a graduated ND filter, and winding the F stop as high as it would go, I still couldn't get above 6 seconds. With hindsight, the polarising filter would probably have helped, but I didn't have that with me.

I'm still quite happy with this - it's benefitted from a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, particularly getting the horizon straight! Next time I'll get there a bit earlier, and take some with the sun behind me maybe.

Forth Rail Bridge

Went to South Queensferry, intending to see people jump in  the river on the 1st. However the crowds and a tired dog made me turn back. I did manage to get this, which was the first proper outing with a graduated filter. The sun was quite low, which is why the bridge is lit the way it is. A train may have added to the picture, but as it was a bank holiday there weren't many to be seen.

December

Yeah, ok, so I've been crap at posting. I've been taking lots of pics, but most are pretty average and not been worth talking about.. Shot this looking across to Fife, where the sun was hitting the snowy hills. A bit of a tweak in Photoshop, and then cropped it to create a landscape.

Australian Beach

Just back from a three week trip to Australia, with about 900 pics to wade through.

Shot this on an empty beach at Queenscliff, south of Melbourne. I loved the patterns the sea had made in the rocks, which left rock pools when the tide was out. Tweaked it bit in Photoshop to bring out the colours.

Fireworks

Fireworks make great photographs. Except I seem to struggle.

The text-book says use a long exposure, as that gets you the "trails". For the second year running, I've tried this and got an absolute mess. It didn't help that there was a pretty strong wind, which was shaking the camera.

Then, to top it all, the batteries packed up. My own fault for waiting until they die before charging them. This is the best of a very bad bunch.

Blending

So I'm crap with photoshop, but I'm learning. I know enough to shoot in raw, so I can sort out the white balance and exposure later. Every now and then, though, I manage to do what I want.

Shooting from Bonaly Park across the city, I had a huge range in brightness to contend with. I exposed for the clouds, and hoped for the best. When I got home, I took a second jpg from the raw file, and boosted the exposure. Created a gradient layer, and blended the two pics.

Ok, I really should have gone for a much smaller aperture (F5.6 on this) and a slower shutter speed (1/500th), but compared with the picture I actually took, this is quite a result.