One of the things I think I'm reasonably good at is shooting in natural light. What I'm less good at though is shooting using artificial light. Sure, I can bounce a flash of the ceiling (or wall, or floor), I can use ETTL fill-flash to good effect, and I can use additional strobes to add more light to a scene when it needs it. But it's not something I'm especially comfortable with and I don't feel as though I have any real creative control over the process. In short, lighting is a bit of a dark art as far as I'm concerned.

My reason for mentioning that is that I've been feeling a bit under the weather over the last few days so, rather than dragging myself around taking crap photographs, I've taken the opportunity to catch up with one of my favourite blogs – Strobist, produced by David Hobby. If you haven't seen Strobist, and you're at all interested in lighting, you should check it out – it's extremely well written, and very informative.

Anyway, having read through quite a few of his tutorials today I thought I'd try something a bit more adventurous than usual; i.e. switching my flash to manual.

The set up for this shot was as follows:

The flash was set to 1/4 power about two feet below a glass table: snooted with a cardboard tube and triggered with a Pocket Wizard. The item on the table is a crystal ball, resting on a crystal stand, and my model for today was Camilla (who made her last appearance back in August). The end result is probably more interesting than worthy, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. As always, let me know what you think, and don't forget to check out Strobist if you haven't already done so.

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on my last entry. As always, they're much appreciated.

As for this one: it's been a while since I went down to St. Annes, and even longer since I photographed the pier, so I headed down there this morning. I had intended to shoot some long exposures while this section of the pier was under water, but must have misread the tide times because by the time I got there the tide was already quite some way out.

Anyway, I spent about an hour taking photographs, and can't say that I'm particularly impressed with any of the other shots that I got. I like this one though.

In terms of the post-production: there were two things I concentrated on here - balancing the sky to the foreground (using two masked Curves), and toning the image using a Curve to alter the blue and green channels. If you're interested, I've posted a copy of the original here:

.../archives/tide_down_5.php

This is one of those images that owes its existence to the process of post-production, not any plan on my part – by which I mean that it evolved rather than being intentional. The original was shot using a 3 stop ND Grad – to balance the foreground and the sky – and I had intended to produce a much colder, more 'accurate' version than this one. The longer I worked on it though, the worse it got, so I decided to take a different approach; i.e. a sunset rather than a late afternoon shot.

If you're interested the original is here:

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Despite the major transformation the post-production was relatively straightforward; i.e. a few masked curves – one for the foreground and two for different arears of the sky – and some tweaking of the colour using another curve and the Selective Color tool. If you're interested you might want to take a look at my tutorials that cover these topics: Landscapes: creating dramatic skies and Toning Colour Images.

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

This is a follow up to the one I posted the other day, and I thought I'd try something different with this one.

One of the techniques that I understand in principle is how to layer textures into an image, but I don't yet feel as though I have much of an aesthetic grasp of how the final image should look. For example, I think that this one is interesting, and I did have a vague idea about using the textures to add a rain-like effect to the sky, but it seems to have ended up looking a bit more random than I intended.

It is a technique I'm working on though, as I'm planning on releasing a tutorial on this topic in mid December. Because I'm less familiar with this topic than some of the others I've written about, and because I think it will be an interesting and rewarding experience, I'm co-writing it with Mike Regnier. If you take a look at his website – linked below – you will see that he's a definite master at this technique:

http://www.regnierphotography.com

This is a combination of two exposures, one exposed for the foreground (1/30s), and another for the sky (1/200s). These were subsequently merged in Photoshop after which the image was converted to black and white (using the Channel Mixer) then toned using the Selective Color tool. And beyond that I don't have too much more to say about this one other than that I totally failed to come up with a title. So, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

And if you read through my last entry, just ignore the next bit as I'm repeating myself ...

On a totally unrelated matter: if any of you have been pondering signing up for our Photoshop tutorials, now would be a good time, as we're giving away 75 copies of our 2009 Calendar to the next 75 people who sign up for an annual subscription or lifetime membership. If you're interested, you can find out more about the tutorials and the calendar here:

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

If you're already a subscriber, then you can also win a copy of the calendar by entering our new competition, full details of which have been posted in the members' forum.

For some reason, nearly all the stuff I find on Fleetwood beach is man-made - old bottles, buckets, bits of old signs - so it was refreshing to come across something a bit more natural for a change. And I was tempted to produce a much more dramatic image than this one but, somehow, this one seemed better suited to a more subtle treatment.

On a totally unrelated matter: if any of you have been pondering signing up for our Photoshop tutorials, now would be a good time, as we're giving away 75 copies of our 2009 Calendar to the next 75 people who sign up for an annual subscription or lifetime membership. If you're interested, you can find out more about the tutorials and the calendar here:

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

If you're already a subscriber, then you can also win a copy of the calendar by entering our new competition, full details of which have been posted in the members' forum.

My apologies for not posting for the last few days but I've been working on my latest tutorial – Photoshop for Night Photography. It's still not finished, but the end is definitely in sight and it will be published at some point tomorrow.

Anyway, as it's almost finished, and I've been neglecting the kids for the last few days, we decided to head out to the Forest of Bowland this afternoon. It was cold, and damp, but we did have a good time, and I did get this shot. In terms of the post-production: there's some added blur, I've done some work on altering the colour palette, and I've lightened some of the darker areas of the image.

If you're interested, the somewhat less interesting original is here:

.../archives/autumns_end.php

And I know I say this quite often, but as this is a bit of a departure from my usual style (or styles) I would definitely be interested to hear what you think of it.

At some point in the future I may well get fed up with photographing the sea, but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon :-)

This is the second of two shots of this structure. In some ways I think I prefer the previous one – it seemed much bleaker – but I also like this one too. As always I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, either about this one or about how you think the two compare.

I'm now back from Bulgaria, having had a great time in and around Veliko Tarnovo, but don't have any other pictures to post. As I mentioned, it wasn't a photographic trip, and I didn't have a great deal of free time, but I will be going back again in the future.

So, it's back to more usual material for the next few days, shot up at Fleetwood beach this afternoon. I have two new shots of this structure, which I'll put up tomorrow and the day after, but in the meanwhile, here's a shot of Tabby - our youngest daughter and least photographed of all our children.

When I posted my last entry I mentioned that I would be spending a week abroad. What I should also have added is that it isn't a photographic trip. The reason I should have mentioned this is that I'm finding that I haven't had much time so far to take any pictures, and those I have taken have been shot in poor light. Anyway, excuses aside, I thought it was about time I posted something so thought I'd put this one up. Technically, it's not great, but it is an interesting shot of this wonderful town.

So, who can tell me where I am?

When I first processed this series of images, shot with the Tamron AF 11-18mm, this one was definitely my favourite of the four. Now though, I'm not so sure; i.e. I really like the vibrancy of the previous one I posted.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, either on this one or the series as a whole.

Oh, and this one definitely works better with the black theme.

Like my previous two entries, this is a partial HDR; i.e. the foreground was created with FDRTools while the sky was dropped in from the original exposure. Unlike the previous two though, this one was constructed from a single RAW file rather than a bracketed sequence. The net result is that there's more noise in this one (though it's not especially obvious at this resolution) so a bracketed sequence would have produced a technically better image. In this case though it just wasn't possible as the plastic basket was vibrating in the wind; i.e. there would have been too much movement between the different frames to produce an HDR from multiple exposures.

This is the second of the four shots that I mentioned yesterday, taken with a borrowed 400D and a Tamron AF 11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di II LD Aspherical [IF]. It's not my favourite of the set, but I was pleased with how it turned out. I'm also glad that I went out yesterday, despite the rather fierce wind, as it's poured down today.

Having rediscovered my previous image in a folder from early 2007 I thought I'd track back a bit further through the archives in search of something else to rescue ... and came across this one. Like the previous one it's a partial HDR; i.e. the helmet and foreground were produced with FDRTools, while the sky was dropped in from the original shot.

Personally, I prefer the previous one I posted, but I'm reasonably happy with this one too.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/untitled_0073.php

I was browsing through a folder of old RAW files earlier today and came across this one. I did try to process it at the time, but couldn't come up with anything I liked. Anyway, motivated by the fact that I don't have anything else to put up, I thought I'd give it another try.

This time around I decided to try an HDR version so used Photomatix Pro to generate and tone map a pseudo-HDR image. If you take a look at the original, you'll see that this version has a lot more detail and texture, especially on the surface of the object:

.../archives/the_entrance.php

The rest of the changes were fairly straightforward (Curves, Hue/Saturation, and so on) other than that I used the sky from the original image, not the tone mapped version. If you've tried single shot HDR's you'll know that one of the major problems is that they can be quite noisy. This doesn't much matter for textured areas of an image - such as the sand and scratched object in this image - but can be very noticeable in smoother areas such as the sky.

As always, let me know what you think.

Since I got back from Barcelona I've struggled to take any decent photographs, mostly I think because I'm lacking in inspiration at the moment. So, in an effort to kick-start some creativity, I went up to Fleetwood today with my Lensbaby. Unfortunately though, I didn't get anything I was especially happy with, other than part of this one. And in case it isn't obvious, this is two images - a lensbaby shot of the iron structure on the beach, overlaid by a shot of a cracked wall.

I realise this won't be to everyone's taste, but a) it's different, and b) I really like the how the different points of focus appears to be on different planes; i.e. part of the ironwork, some of the background, and so on.

And I haven't posted the EXIF data, as it isn't really relevant, but the beach shot was taken with the f/8.0 aperture insert.

This is a shot of Rhowan, taken on Fleetwood beach just after she'd had a row with Harmony. I can't remember what they were arguing about, and she was running around playing again two minutes later, but she did look very forlorn for the few seconds it took me to take this shot.

On a side note: Libby took some shots of me photographing the kids that I've posted here:

.../archives/helping_out.php

I was trying to photograph Harmony, who you can see running off in the top-right corner of the first shot, but I was slightly hampered by Tabitha's attempts to help out :-)

This is a shot of a reflection in the sloping front of the maremagnum in Barcelona. As you can see from the shot I've linked below, it was an especially strenuous shoot:

.../archives/maremagnum.php

And in case you haven't seen a shot of me before, I'm the slightly less active one on the right, while the guy on the left is Paul :-)

While yesterday's 'reluctant performer' was shot in an open square, today's was taken in a partially underground area of Park Güell in Barcelona. What drew me to this shot, other than the guy himself, was the instrument he was playing ;– as it wasn't one I was familiar with. It turns out that it's a stick, a two-handed tapping instrument originally designed by Emmett Chapman.

In terms of the shot itself: while I liked yesterday's, I much prefer the harsher contrast of this one. If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/the_reluctant_performer_2.php

If you've taken a look at my Black and White: part one tutorial you'll probably have already worked out that this was converted to black and white using the Channel Mixer, biased towards the blue channel. My reason for this was that I really wanted to bring out all the detail in his face, but an added bonus was that his shirt became much darker too – emphasising the detail in his face, the 'stick' and his hands.

And finally, a few days ago I mentioned that the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS wasn't ideal for street/candid photography (it's not exactly an unobtrusive item), but in this instance I wouldn't have got the shot without it as a) I wouldn't have been able to get close enough with a shorter lens, and b) without the IS there's now way on earth I'd have been able to handhold at 1/30 using a 200mm lens.

As always, let me know what you think.

Not the best dressed tailor's dummy I've ever seen, but certainly one of the more stylish :-)

In case you're wondering: this is a shot of a photograph (of a bird behind the bars) beneath a ceiling (the bars at the top of the image) with a red wire running the bars.

Of all the shots I took in Barcelona this is the one that Libby likes least but, for some reason that I can't quite explain, it's close to being my favourite from all the ones I'll be putting up.

This one was fun to shoot :-)

Update: if you're reading this then your looking at the new version of chromasia. Well, to be honest, it's exactly the same version ... just on a new server. Hopefully, I can now forget about HTML code, firewalls, FTP transfers, MySQL dumps and everything else that goes along with a server migration, and get back to some photography :-)

I finally managed to liven up a bit today, and while most of the shots I took were a bit of a disappointment, I was pleased with how this turned out. As with most of my recent HDR work this one was also processed with Photomatix Pro, from a seven shot sequence bracketed at 1 EV intervals (as described in this tutorial).

Oh, and this one works better with the black theme.

This is another shot from Fleetwood beach, taken a few minutes before yesterday's, and beyond the fact that I'm pleased with how it turned out I don't have too much to say about this one. I would be interested to hear what you think though, especially since I seem to have drifted away from producing this style of image in recent months.

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I'd been up to Fleetwood to shoot some HDR sequences, and that none of them had worked out, but I finally managed to sort out one of them. The reason I said that I didn't think that any of them would work is that I initially tried to process them using Photomatix Pro, but just couldn't get rid of the halos around the various struts and ironwork.

So, having failed with Photomatix, I thought I'd try a version using FDRTools and, as you can see, it's done a pretty good job. There were some HDR artefacts that needed correcting, and some minor haloing in some parts of the image, but on the whole I think it's done a pretty good job. There are still some minor areas of the image that I think could do with a bit more work, but I ran out of editing time today.

Anyway, this is a shot of the underside of Fleetwood Pier (as was this one). It was constructed from a seven shot sequence, all of which were taken at f/11.0 with a shutter speed range of 1/640s for the darkest shot to 1.6s for the lightest. To give you an idea of the dynamic range of the original scene, here's a straight conversion of the metered exposure:

.../archives/under_fleetwood_pier_2.php

As always, let me know what you think.

This is a combination of two handheld shots: one shot at 1/30 (to expose for the foreground) and one shot at 1/320 (to expose for the sky). These were then aligned in Photoshop and merged using a mask (then adjusted using a variety of masked Curves, Channel Mixer layers, and so on). And technicalities aside, this is probably one of my favourite shots in recent weeks - there's just something about the light that I really like.

Oh, and this is definitely one that looks better with the black theme.

I went up to Fleetwood this afternoon to shoot some HDRs (all of which are rubbish) and Milly, Amirah and Harmony came along for the ride. I wasn't planning on photographing any of them, but couldn't resist snapping this shot of Milly as we strolled along the beach.

I have shot some new material since I returned from Barcelona, but haven't been especially happy with any of it, so am posting another shot taken at much the same time as this portrait of Harmony. In some ways I think I prefer this one.