"Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed – Garry Winogrand"

The above is one of my favourite photographic quotes, and one that tacitly informs a lot of my photography (e.g. my beachcombing images). It's also a very liberating motto to carry around in your head; i.e. anything and everything can form the subject of a photograph – it's the end result that counts, not the subject matter.

And if you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/its_all_about_appearance.php

As you can see, my aim with this one was to bring out the detail. There were a variety of ways in which this could be done (including creating a psuedo-HDR image, as described in this tutorial), but in this instance I used a plugin called Topaz Adjust to enhance the local contrast.

This is the last of the shots I took with Theis Dahl the other weekend and, in case you're wondering, this rung was about 10" long and formed part of the internal structure of the boat I put up in this shot.

If you're interested, the original is here:

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In this instance the processing was extremely straightforward; i.e. a 16x9 crop, a Curve to increase contrast, and another masked Curve to add a vignette.

Oh, and this one definitely looks better with the black theme!

And finally, if you didn't read my entry on my previous image, our latest tutorial – Working with textures: part two – has now been published. There's some further info here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/wwt2_info.php

This is another shot taken while I was out and about with Theis Dahl a couple of weekends ago, and beyond that I guess I don't have too much to say about this one other than that the warning sign caught my eye.

I would be interested to hear what you think of it though.

On a different matter: our latest tutorial was published earlier today - Working with textures: part two - and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, not least because it was a bit different from our usual tutorials.

If you are already a subscriber you will know that most of our tutorials are based around my own images, but for the Working with textures series I used some of Mike Regnier's, because a) he's an internationally renowned artist in this field, and b) he's considerably better at this technique than I am ;)

Anyway, I wont bore you with all the details, but if you are interested, you can read a bit more about the tutorial here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/wwt2_info.php

This is a much simpler and softer image than I've been posting recently, but there was something about the arrangement of these poles against the soft grass that appealed to me. It's not a 'wow' image, but I did think it was worth posting.

On a totally different matter, and several years later than everyone else, I finally got around to adding my RSS feed to feedburner.com. If you'd like to subscribe, you can do so here.

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on my last three IR shots. It was fun to try something different, so it was good to see that they were well received.

As for this one: it was taken on the same trip and I think that the object in the shot is the upturned roof of an old caravan or trailer.

In this instance the post-production was relatively straightforward, but if you take a look at the original you will see that I made quite a few changes:

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The most obvious change is I flipped the image horizontally, but you will also notice that the roof and foreground are quite a bit brighter in the final version. In this case I used Photomatix Pro to produce a pseudo-HDR version (as described in this tutorial), which I then blended with the original image. The final changes involved toning the image, as discussed in this tutorial, and a 16x9 crop.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

This is the third and last IR shot I'll be posting – until I can get my hands on an IR filter of my own – and of the three I think it's probably my favourite, though the first one I posted does come a close second.

In terms of this technique: I wont reiterate the points I made in my previous entry – you can read through it if you're interested in finding out a bit more about using an IR filter – but I will say that this is definitely something I'll try again, not least because it does produce shots that would be very difficult to achieve using standard post-processing techniques on a non-IR shot.

And while I mentioned that this one is probably my favourite, do let me know which of the three you like best.

Update: I've posted a link to the original IR shot here:

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On an unrelated matter: thanks for all the great feedback on my recent interview with Scott Anderson from foliopodcast.com (both via email and twitter). If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, and you're interested in hearing a bit more about my thoughts on blogging, photography, and social networking, you can do so here:

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You can also subsribe to this podcast in iTunes.

This the second of the three shots I'll be posting that were taken using a Hoya R72 infrared filter (which I borrowed from Andrew Thatcher earlier this week). Of the three, this is probably the least dramatic, but I did think it was worth posting too.

From a technical point of view, shooting using an IR filter is relatively straightforward, but if you do decide to give it a try there are a few things you need to bear in mind. First, you need to compose your shot before attaching the filter as you can't see through them, i.e. they block available light.

Second, you will need to work out the exposure manually as your camera's meter will suggest a near-normal exposure – which will be way off. For example, this one was shot in bright sunlight, yet the exposure was around 20s at f/8.0.

Third, judging whether you have a correct exposure is a bit difficult as the exposure will be heavily biased towards the red channel. If you use the brightness histogram on your camera you risk overexposing the shot, so switch to using the RGB histogram. That way you can check the red channel and make sure there isn't any clipping.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_17.php

On a totally different matter: I was interviewed by Scott Anderson from foliopodcast.com a couple of weeks ago. If you're interested, you can listen to the interview here:


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You can also subsribe to the podcast in iTunes.

I was going to post another of the shots I took while out and about with Theis Dahl at the weekend, but I went back up to the Wyre wrecks on Tuesday and shot some new material. As you can see from the title, this is 16th image I've posted in this series, but it's the first new one since September 2007 as each time I've been back I've struggled to find a new angle; i.e. I ended up duplicating, or near-duplicating previous shots.

On Tuesday though, I tried something different, but rather than explain it I'd be interested to hear if any of you can work out what's different about this one. I should say that this is a pseudo-HDR image, created with Photomatix Pro as described in the following tutorial:

.../tutorials/online/hdr3_info.php

In this instance though, this isn't what I'm referring to; i.e. there's something else too.

Let me know if you need a clue ;)

While many of my recent favourites have been shots of the kids (this one, for example) this is probably my favourite non-human shot that I've posted in ages. And in case you're wondering, it's an old fire extinguisher that Theis and I came across at the weekend.

In this instance, the post-processing is quite extreme – insofar as the original looks a bit different – but I think it suits this object quite well. As always though, do let me know what you think.

The original is here:

.../archives/putting_out_the_light.php

And finally, while I used a variety of techniques to post-process this shot, the tutorial that is probably the most relevant is my Toning colour images one.

This is the first of five shots that I took while out and about with Theis Dahl on Saturday. Theis was down in Blackpool for some photography and Photoshop training, and while we spent most of the time on post-production, we did spend a few hours up at Fleetwood – photographing the beach, washed up stuff, the Wyre wrecks, and so on. It was a good weekend.

Of the five shots that I'll be posting there are three others that I prefer to this one, but Theis also has a shot of this plastic bottle so I thought it would be a good one to post first. If you're interested, his shot is here:

http://www.theisdahl.com/photo/56

Hopefully he'll be posting some more shots from our shoot over the next few days.

In case you're wondering about the colour, my version was processed in LAB Color mode (as described in this tutorial), i.e. I manipulated the 'a' and 'b' channels to alter the colour balance and saturation.

As always, let me know what you think.