Here's another shot I took while in Dubai a couple of weeks ago, and beyond that I'm not going to tell you anything about it as I'm using it as the basis for our latest competition to win a lifetime membership to our Photoshop tutorials. If you're interested, there's some further information linked below:

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

It's not often that I'm a passenger in a car at night, but when I am I often sit there shooting out of the window, just playing around with the lights. 99 times out of a 100 I end up with pretty much what you'd expect – a blurry load of crap – but every once in a while I do get one that I like.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/light_trails.php

The post-production was mostly carried out in Camera Raw: I added some contrast and shifted the hue of some of the colours to broaden the colour palette.

On a different matter: if you didn't read my previous entry, I posted my initial thoughts on Topaz Detail, a plugin that does a great job of bringing out the detail in an image without introducing any obvious processing artefacts. If you haven't tried it I'd definitely suggest that you download the demo version and try it out.

I'm pleased to say that Libby is back from the UK – just one week later than expected – and I now have my new 5D Mark II. I haven't had a chance to use it in earnest yet, but did snap a few shots this morning. I'll post some more images and my first impressions over the next day or so.

In the meanwhile, here's my first effort.

Oh, and this one definitely looks best with the black theme.

I had hoped that this post would be a shot from Bulgaria, not another from Dubai, but since posting my last entry I've been somewhat under the weather (i.e. being ill, laying in bed, and generally feeling sorry for myself). The good news is that I'm now feeling a lot better so should be out and about shooting again fairly soon.

In case you're wondering this is a shot of a part of the DIFC – part reflection, part distortion through a window – and beyond that I don't have too much else to say about this one other than that I like the detail and the way in which the various elements of the original scene interact/overlap. As always though, let me know what you think.

On a different matter: I'm pleased to say that Craig and I are now in Bulgaria. I drove down to Welwyn Garden City on Monday, picked up Craig at around 1pm, then drove down to Dover. We then got the ferry to Calais and drove until 1am - through France, Belgium, Holland and a small part of Germany. On Tuesday we drove almost 1000 miles: through the rest of Germany, all of Austria and most of Hungary, which took us 15 hours. We spent the night in a small campsite at Mako, a few kilometres short of the Romanian border. On Wednesday we drove through Romania, which can best be described as hellish: not least because it took almost 17 hours to traverse the potholes and roadworks. We were also slightly hampered by the fact that the van broke down at one point. It has an electronic throttle: which failed; i.e. you could press the pedal, but nothing happened. It recovered after we stopped, but it did add a certain tension to the rest of the journey :)

We've been busy since we got here, so haven't had any time to shoot yet, but I'm hoping we'll get out over the weekend.

I don't have too much to say about this one other than that it's one from about 100 shots I took while being a passenger in a variety of vehicles in Dubai. Of the 100, this is the only one worth posting, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think.

On a different matter: I'm pleased to say that we've announced the winners of our Creative Point of View competition for our tutorial subscribers. If you're interested, there's some more info and the winning shots here:

http://www.chromasia.com/news/

I don't have a great deal to say about this one other than to let you know that it's mostly a straight shot: and if you're not sure what you're looking at, the windows are a reflection in another window, and the colour is caused by an out of focus piece of abstract art behind the window.

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 :-)

It's been a long week, but I've finally finished migrating chromasia to the new server and am fairly sure that everything's now much as it was. From your point of view, nothing should have changed, but from my perspective I feel about ten years older than I did at the start of the week. If you know what you're doing, there's nothing inherently problematic about migrating a website to a new server, but it's not something I have a great deal of experience with and have been running on adrenalin and caffeine for a bit longer than is either healthy or sensible :-)

Anyway, it's done now, and I think it's OK, but do let me know if you come across anything odd, broken or otherwise unexpected. I'd also be interested to hear how fast the new version loads. Our previous server was in London, but the new one is in a datacenter in the US. As such chromasia might seem slower if you're in the UK or Europe and a bit quicker if you're on the other side of the pond. Wherever you are though I'd be grateful of some feedback - just so I can be sure that everything's working as expected.

This is a shot taken during the European Photoblogger's meetup in London in 2005 using the somewhat clichéd technique of zooming during a long exposure. I can't now identify any of these shadowy figures other than Brandon Stone, with his back to the camera in the foreground.

I've posted it now because I've probably processed it at least a dozen times over the last year or so, and while I've never managed to get it quite right (whatever that might mean) I do think it has something. So, to save myself from having to revisit it yet again, in the hope of doing a better job, I decided I might as well put it up :-)

This is the second shot of the movie poster I mentioned yesterday and, for those of you who didn't see my comment yesterday, the film in question is 30 days of night.

This is the first of two shots, both of which reference a contemporary film. Personally, I wouldn't have had a clue from this shot, but I'm betting that at least a few of you will know the film in question. Let me know if you do.

I took this one when I was in Germany last month, and though it's fairly abstract I'm not going to be offering any prizes for guessing what it is.

I was going to post this as a single image, and then I thought I'd post it in 2x1 format; i.e. mirrored, and then I tried this version. I also made a 4x4 version, but it did seem a bit over the top. I know this won't be to everyone's taste, but I fancied a change ;-)

This week has been one of those that I'd rather forget. Libby and I have both had colds, as have Tabitha and Finley (our two youngest), and while neither of them have been particularly unwell, both have needed a lot of attention. Tabitha won't be put down, even for a minute or two, and Finley, in addition to waking us both up for the last few nights, hasn't been in an especially good mood the rest of the time.

And the hard drive in my laptop died which, given that it's only a few months old, is really annoying. What's worse is that I lost a fair bit of work too. I didn't lose any images, but I did lose the latest bit of the Tonal Range and Curves Tool tutorial and some writing I was doing for a client. I've also lost around the last six weeks of emails, so if you emailed me recently and I haven't got back to you, please send it again.

As for this shot: I know it won't be to everyone's taste, but I still find this sort of material appealing. I think that what draws me to this sort of scene is the way in which the various scrawls, scratches and letters build up over time, such that what was once a clear perspex window becomes a mess of unintentional colour and abstraction.

Update: I had hoped to find some time to shoot some new material today, but it didn't happen ... and nor did the birth of our daughter. She was expected on Monday, so is now four days behind schedule, and still shows no signs of arriving any time soon.

On which note: if there are a few thousand of you out there who believe in the power of positive thinking, now would be a good time to use it to start Libby's labour – preferably some time during the next 24 hours, but any time over the weekend would do :-)

--- original entry follows ---

This is the second smoke shot I mentioned yesterday, and I much prefer this one.

A couple of people asked how these are done so, if you're interested, take a look at my description for this shot where I explained the basic process.

What I didn't mention in my previous description is that I use a rather odd curve to adjust these images. Rather than a standard S curve, these use a slightly cursive V curve as follows:

What this does is remap the blacks to white, the mid-tones to black, and the highlights remain as highlights. And if that doesn't make sense, just try it. It takes a bit of tweaking to get it right, but it's an interesting effect.

Oh, and the title was my choice this time, though I won't be in the least offended if nobody else thinks that this one looks like a psychedelic guitarist ;-)

First of all: there's still no news regarding the baby. She's now two days late, and there are no signs that she intends to arrive any time soon. I guess she'll be here soon enough though.

As for this one: it's been a while since I posted any smoke shots, and this is the first of two that I'm reasonably pleased with. This one is Libby's favourite and I prefer tomorrow's.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the title: it was Libby's idea. Well, she said that it looked like a poster for one of his films, and I couldn't think of anything else to call it.

Here's the second of the sand pictures I mentioned, and I think I probably prefer this one to yesterday's. As always, let me know what you think.

I went out to the desert on Wednesday evening, near Hatta Road, and now understand why they're considered to be such inhospitable places. It wasn't especially hot - it's winter here - but it was very dusty, the light was extremely gloomy, and though I'm really pleased I had the opportunity to go, I was glad to get back to the car and drive back to Dubai. Despite its beauty, there was something oppressive and alien about that landscape - dead, dry and empty. That said, I would like to go again, but it was definitely an intimidating place.

This is the first of two sand shots - tomorrow's is a bit less literal - but I do have at least two more than I'll put up on Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow's will be posted by autopilot as I get on a plane at 1am on Monday morning and will be spending the rest of the night travelling home via Paris.

I know, it's remarkably similar to yesterday's shot, but a) I didn't manage to get out today and don't have anything else to put up, and b) I'd be interested to hear how you think the two shots compare. Personally, I much prefer yesterday's, but Libby says she thinks this one's a lot better. Let me know what you think.

Update: apologies for the lack of an update, but I've come down with a fairly unpleasant cold and don't have anything to put up. I'll try and put something up later today (Saturday) or tomorrow.

How to tell if you're a Photoshop geek ...

You're walking down the road and you notice some petrol spilt on a wet concrete pavement. You think:

a) that's pretty.
b) I hate this sort of urban pollution.
c) LAB color mode.

And if you don't get it, you needn't worry, it just means that you're not a geek ;-)

This one's for Libby too.

Like yesterday's, this is a shot of a rose, and there's nothing especially clever about how it was done. The roses were in a vase on our coffee table, lit by an overhead light (hence the long exposures), and the camera was on a tripod, two legs on the floor, one on the table. As for post-processing: this one has had it's hue shifted a little (the original was somewhat more orange) and both this one and yesterday's have been selectively blurred. Other than that I didn't do too much else other than adjust the contrast with a Curve or two.

Oh, and I don't know about you, but I think I prefer this one to yesterday's. Let me know what you think.

This one's for Libby.

This is fairly similar to yesterday's, and if I'd managed to shoot any new material today I would have probably posted that instead, but I do like this one, not least because it has a more organic feel, if that makes sense. Both, as it seems that it wasn't obvious, are shots of broken fire-glass in front of another sheet of glass; and both were shot in the same location as last Wednesday's entry.

This is the first of two quite similar images, both of which I like. If I can shoot some new material tomorrow I'll put the second one up as an additional entry, but if I don't manage to take anything decent, I'm afraid that it will have to go up on its own.

At the risk of boring you all, here's one more of my recent smoke shots, and while I still think that yesterday's is my favourite of the three, this one comes a close second.

Tomorrow, assuming I manage to shoot anything worth sharing, I'll put something different up.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had two shots of this type that I liked and that neither of them were perfect. Well, I've ditched the one I intended to put up in favour of this one, which is as near perfect as I think this type of shot gets. You're quite free to disagree with me, but this one is exactly the type of image I was after: lots of detail, razor sharp (unlike yesterday's, which was a bit soft), and interesting colours and tones.

A few of you asked how these are done:

1. set up a source of smoke in between the camera and a dark background. I used a joss stick.
2. light the scene from the side. I used my 580EX as the main source of illumination for this one, triggered using an ST-E2 transmitter.
3. set the exposure accordingly. I used a manual setting of f/16.0 for this shot coupled with a shutter speed of 1/30. From what I've read, if you're using a source of illumination other than flash, you probably need a shutter speed of 1/125 or above. You also need to be careful to pre-focus. I had the camera about 3 feet from the smoke for this one and even with an aperture of f/16.0 the DoF is only 1" deep.
4. take a lot of shots. I took over three hundred to get these two. There were a couple more that were ok, but only two I was really happy with.

As for the processing:

1. invert the image. This makes the background white rather than black.
2. adjust the overall contrast using a Curve.
3. tone the smoke using a Curve, Hue/Saturation, or similar.
4. use Noise Ninja or other noise reduction software as appropriate.

And that's about it. Let me know what you think.

This is the first of two abstract pieces, neither of which are perfect, but both of which I like. And before anyone mentions CGI or vector graphics, they are relatively straight photographs. As for what and how: I'll post more details tomorrow.

This one was shot in the same location as yesterday's – one of the stairwells where I work – and used much the same technique; i.e. rotating the camera during the exposure. And while a few of you came pretty close in stating that yesterday's shot was a stairwell, none of you got it quite right, mostly because what appeared to be shafts of light was actually the metal treads at the edges of the stairs.

Today's, on the other hand, is a shot of the railings at the top of the stairs. On the whole, I think I prefer this one, but I'd be interested to hear which you prefer.

Largely inspired by some of John's recent stuff, I decided to try something different today, though I'm not convinced this is entirely successful. And if anyone, other than John, can identify what they're looking at (the title isn't a clue), I'll do them a print.