If you ever wondered what the footprint of a world champion skier looked like, now you know. This was taken outside the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, alongside a range of other footprints, and if you're interested the original is here:

.../archives/barcelona_6.php

As you can see, I exposed to the right, to maximise the amount of data in the original capture (as described in my digital workflow tutorial), then used a couple of masked curves to bring out the details in the plaque and the surrounding concrete.

And finally: this one looks much more dramatic with the black theme.

I recently got hold of a new lens ;– taken from a Holga 120S and glued to a body cap – but haven't really had time to try it out, at least not seriously. I did spend some time snapping shots of Rhowan this morning though, and this is a heavily modified version of one of them (i.e. there's a lot of added blur in addition to the blur/soft-focus caused by the lens itself).

When I've got a bit more time I'll try and shoot some more material with it as I think it has a lot of potential, especially for portraiture.

As always, let me know what you think.

This is the third and final shot in this sequence: the second shot of Harmony and my favourite of the three.

I don't know what it is about Rhowan, but even when eating an ice cream she can look as though she's a million miles away.

On another matter: if I don't post much over the next day or so, don't be surprised. My server (a ReadyNAS NV+) has fried its power supply and I'm currently waiting for a replacement - and keeping my fingers crossed that the disks aren't fried to. Once I get back things back to some sort of technical stability I'll post more regularly again.

This is the portrait of Harmony I mentioned yesterday: wearing her princess dress and Stephanie wig. And you probably won't be too surprised to hear that I'm pleased with this one :-)

Once again, my apologies for not posting much, but things have been hectic - some of which has been great, some not. On the 'not' side, I currently have Rhowan sat next to me, who isn't at all well, so I won't write more now. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

As for this one: it's a single shot HDR of some torn posters I spotted in a shop window on my way to town this afternoon.

I'm not too sure that the humour of this shot will translate but, for those of you aren't familiar with the WKD adverts, the basic premiss of each one is that everyone, despite appearances to the contrary, has a wicked side.

Oh, and my apologies for not posting last night but I ended up wandering around Blackpool with a rather fractious Tabby who's currently teething, and by the time I got home I was too tired to put this one up.

As I mentioned at the weekend, my next tutorial is a follow-up to my first LAB Color mode tutorial. As such I've been using LAB Color mode to process a number of my recent shots. What I didn't realise though, until after I'd finished this image, was that I'd used a very similar approach to the processing I applied to the original snow queen image.

If you're interested, I've posted a colour-neutral version of this one here:

.../archives/blackpool_pride_2008_5.php

I have another shot of this guy with his partner, that I may post later this week, but I think this is probably the stronger of the two.

As always, let me know what you think.

This is my final shot from my recent trip to Dubai and was taken facing away from the DIFC towards one of the countless new buildings that are springing up all over Dubai. As with a lot of the architectural shots I've posted recently, this one is also an HDR. In this case it's a seven shot sequence, with a one and a third EV interval between each exposure; i.e. the original scene had a dynamic range of around 15 stops. The sequence was shot at f/16 and theshortest exposure was 1/4000 while the longest was 1/15.

What I especially like about this one is that it would be totally impossible by any other means other than HDR, i.e. there would be no way to capture detail in the face of the building without blowing out the sky. That said, it would probably have been better if I had used a larger interval between the exposures, as I only just managed to capture the detail is the shadows at the bottom of the building, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think.

I do have another eight shots that I'll be putting up from my trip to Dubai, but by the time this one gets posted I'll be nearly home – sitting on a train, somewhere between Manchester airport and Blackpool. I'll probably be complaining about how cold it is, despite having spent the last two weeks moaning about how hot it's been in Dubai, but I'll definitely be looking forward to getting back to Libby and the kids.

As for this one: it's another HDR of the DIFC, and the twin towers in the background are the Emirates Tower hotel - the 3rd most luxurious in the world (according to their website).

This is the first of three portraits I'll be putting up that I took in the souk last Sunday. This is probably my least favourite of the three, but it's the only one of the set that contains any context - the other two are headshots.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm going away at the weekend and have loads to do before I go. Fortunately, I'm probably going to get it all done, but I haven't had time to take any new photographs. I have found a couple that I think are worth sharing though, starting with this one: a shot of Harmony with her buggy and bubbles at our local park. I'll post the second one on Saturday.

This is a psuedo-HDR image, processed from a single RAW file using Photomatix Pro, and the default ACR conversion and the tone mapped versions can be seen here:

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My reason for using Photomatix Pro, rather than working with a straight RAW conversion, is that I wanted to produce an image with a more even distribution of tones. This is much easier to achieve with a tone mapped image as it tends to create an image with a normally distributed histogram: i.e. the tones are bunched in the middle, tailing off towards both the highlights and shadows.

As for whether it works or not, that's another matter :-)

It's been a while since I posted a shot of Milly, but she's back with a vengeance this evening, mere seconds after roller-blading head-first into a puddle ;-)

As for the post-processing: this is an HDR image constructed from a single RAW file – one of the subjects I'll be covering in next month's tutorial. What I like about this technique is that it allows you to add local contrast to an image without the need for a whole slew of masked adjustments, all of which can take a considerable amount of time to get right. I did use some masked Curves for this version, but nowhere near as many as I would have needed had I not started with an HDR.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you're not entirely bored with HDRs, I'll be posting another much less subtle one tomorrow.

As I mentioned last week, my next tutorial is on HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. As such I've spent quite a lot of my photographic time over the last week or so thinking about the various ways in which this technique can be used (or misused).

Anyway, I'm reasonably pleased with this one, but much prefer the one I'll be putting up tomorrow – both as a photograph in its own right and as an example of this technique.

As usual, I haven't included the EXIF data, as this was constructed from three bracketed exposures, but I can tell you that they were all shot at 24mm and f/5.6.

As always, let me know what you think.

I was going to post another HDR today – of the underside of Central Pier (Blackpool) – but I didn't have time to finish it so you'll need to wait till tomorrow for that one. In the meanwhile I raided the archive and found this one: taken back in January of last year at the same time as this one.

This continues the 'moody sky' theme from a few days ago (this one and this one), but in this instance I used two Curves to adjust the image – one for the sky, and one for the foreground/horizon.

This is the first of two seascapes, both of which were taken at the weekend. Of the two I think I probably prefer tomorrow's – it's fractionally more dramatic – but I'm pleased with this one too.

My apologies for not posting much recently, but I'm still trying to shake off a cold. I've been feeling a bit better over the last couple of days, and have now managed to finish the masking tutorial, but prior to that I just wanted to curl up somewhere warm and quiet, close my eyes, and sleep until Summer.

Anyway, I'm still not exactly full of beans but I am hoping to get out tomorrow and shoot some new material (weather permitting).

In the meanwhile, here's one of Finley, taken early last month.

I'm not expecting a slew of comments on this picture as I suspect that the reasons that I like it are a bit idiosyncratic. The main reason is personal, i.e. it captures an aspect of Harmony's and Finley's relationship that I find endearing – Finley being a bit rough, but not aggressive, and Harmony letting him get away with it. On occasion, he does push things too far – and ends up getting in trouble and upsetting Harmony – but generally they're pretty good with one another.

The second reason I like it is technical, i.e. I like the way this lens produces a really smooth out of focus background when used at a wide aperture.

Oh, and having just read through the comments on yesterday's picture, I also have a third reason. Looking back through the last ten months it seems that I've only posted one shot of Tabitha, and that was taken on the day she was born. So I guess it isn't all that surprising that some of you thought that Finley was our youngest.

So, this shot is a current one of Finley, and at some point later this week I'll post a more up-to-date one of Tabby.

My apologies for not posting anything over the last couple of days, but as I mentioned in a comment on my previous image, both Libby and Tabby (our youngest) have been unwell. In light of this I've been looking after the rest of the kids, in between supplying Libby with cups of tea and carrying Tabby around the house on an almost constant basis. Anyway, they're both a lot better today, so I should be able to get out and shoot some new material either tomorrow or the day after.

As for this one: after spending two days with almost no time to myself at all, I can certainly sympathise with the mother of this young lad as she smokes a quick cigarette while he strides on ahead.

This is my third and final image from the Heat the Streets event I shot on Saturday evening – taken during the finale. On reflection, I wish I'd gone for a tighter crop, but I was shooting over the heads of the people in front of me and had Harmony sat on my shoulders, so it wasn't taken under the most relaxed of circumstances ;-)

First, thanks for all your comments on the images that were posted this week – they're much appreciated.

As for this one: this is Harmony, playing on her DS outside our chalet at CenterParcs, where we spent most of this week. It was a good trip, and the kids all enjoyed it, but I didn't spend a great deal of time taking photographs: a) because I didn't really have time, and b) because the light was terrible.

This is the first of two images taken on the same trip as this one, though I've gone for a slightly different colour this time round :-) Of the two I think I prefer the next one, but Libby likes this one best. And for those of your who are interested, both were processed/toned in LAB Color mode, as described in my LAB tutorial.

On an unrelated matter: I'm away for a few days next week, and don't have enough material to post an image a day: so this one's going up today, it's companion will be automatically posted on Monday, and another one will go up on Wednesday. I'm back on Friday so should have something new to post by then.

This was taken back in May 2006, at the same festival as these ones, and I did try processing it then. From what I can remember though I had big problems with the wig. If you take a look at the original you will see that the wig is extremely saturated (to the point where the red channel is blown out):

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At the time I hadn't come across LAB Color mode and every attempt I made to edit the image in RGB ended up looking terrible, so I gave up. This time though, I converted it to LAB and used the ‘a’ Curve to decrease the saturation of the red tones within the image (discussed in more detail in my LAB tutorial). The end result may not be to everyone's taste, but I'm really pleased with this one.

As you all know, I'll often revisit my archives to find something to post, but this is often a rather haphazard procedure. Today though, I decided to be a bit more systematic about it and went through all my RAW files from 2005 to April of last year. In the process I discovered that most of them were as bad as I remembered, but I also found around a dozen that I thought were worth working on. Of those, I'll be posting seven over the next seven days, starting with this one – a shot of Rhowan (on the left) and Harmony taken in September 2005. Of the rest, I'm really pleased with two of them, another two I'm happy with, and the remaining two are more experimental. I'll post one of my favourites tomorrow.

On an unrelated matter: I've started to receive quite a lot of emails asking about shots that I've posted, and how they relate to the material I've included in the tutorials. So, whenever I do post something using one of the techniques I've covered, I'll include a brief mention here.

In this instance, I used the Channel Mixer to convert the image to black and white then a Curve to create the high-key effect. This was covered in my Black and white: part one tutorial when I discussed this image.

I had great photographic plans this Christmas, which included taking shots of the kids enjoying themselves, opening their presents, and so on; but I came down with some sort of virus on the 22nd and haven't felt right since. As a result I haven't shot any new material, and don't expect I will for the next couple of days. So I've been archive raiding and constructed this one from a shot of some graffiti I came across in Leeds a while ago. If you're interested, the original is here:

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As you can see, the version I've posted isn't much like the original, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out, even if it is more Photoshop than photography :-)

As I mentioned in my last entry, I was shooting a friend's wedding today. Generally, wedding shots don't make great blog shots, but I thought this one was worth sharing :-)

And just to remind you all ...

If you're interested we have 150 signed and numbered calendars for sale. Full details are available on our store page:

http://www.chromasia.com/store.php

My apologies for not posting anything last night (hence the rather odd time I'm posting this one) but Libby and I were invited to give a presentation on our experiences of running chromasia at a Sizzle event, a networking meeting for creative industries organised by Creative Lancashire. The keynote speaker at the event was James Bartholomew – a painter based in Parbold, Lancashire – who was talking about his work and company. He paints a variety of subjects but his speciality is seascapes – a subject close to my own heart.

Anyway, my reason for mentioning his work is that I was inspired to head up to Fleetwood today in search of seascapes to photograph. I wasn't out for long, and didn't get any decent shots other than this one, but I'm really pleased with how this turned out. The title, in case you're wondering, is borrowed from one of James' paintings.

In terms of the post-processing: despite this being a fairly flat original (linked below) I knew exactly how I wanted this one to look and used LAB Color mode to tone the image. You'll probably see quite a lot of shots processed in this mode over the next couple of weeks as I'll be starting work on our LAB Color mode tutorial sometime over the next week or so.

The original image is here:

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And finally: I think this one looks much better against the black theme.

I had hoped to get out today but what with one thing and another it didn't happen, so here's one taken on a trip to St. Annes a couple of months ago. It was taken approximately 90° to the right of this one this one, and while the end result isn't quite as striking, I am quite pleased with how it turned out.