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.

This one started out as a snap, shot from the hip as I walked past these two kids on the beach. As you can see from the original, my composition wasn't great:

.../archives/an_august_day.php

After rotating the image, producing two versions from the same file (one optimised for the sky, one for the foreground), and with the addition of a few Curves and a slight shift in colour balance, it looks much better.

As for the shot itself: when I was a kid I suspect that I'd have run into the sea and joined them but, as an adult, I can't think of anything less enjoyable than sitting half-clothed in the Irish Sea on an overcast day :-)

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.

Despite the fact that we're based in the UK our biggest audience has always been in the US. For example, in the last 12 months we have had 878,731 US visitors - distributed across all 52 50 states: 136k from California, 67k from New York, 54k from Texas, 39k from Florida, and so on. By way of comparison, in the same period we have had 235k visitors from the UK, 108k visitors from Canada, 49k from France, and so on. In fact, according to Google Analytics we have had visitors from a total of 205 countries, including the Vatican and Antarctica, but the bottom line is that almost a third of you are based in the US.

So, on that basis: happy Independence Day :-)

This is the first of two shots taken on the way back from my walk to the Wyre Light. As you can see, the light was a lot better by this point.

And as this is a bit of a departure from my usual style I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

In my previous entry I mentioned that I'd taken part in the annual Fleetwood Wreck Trek, a six mile walk over the sands of Morecambe Bay with guided visits to the Wyre Light (an abandoned lighthouse) and the site of Stella Marie wreckage on the North Wharf Sands. I also said that I didn't think that I'd got any decent shots of the Wyre Light.

Well, after a lot of false starts I have managed to come up with this one. It started out as part of a sequence I shot for what I thought would be a good HDR. However, having tried various methods of using the HDR sequence (the Local Adaptation and Gamma and Exposure methods in Photoshop, Photomatix Pro, and FDRTools) I had to admit defeat, as none of them would produce anything that looked at all reasonable.

So, instead, I decided to start with the +1 EV shot from the original exposure sequence, and by being careful when I processed the RAW file I was able to bring out the detail in the sky while retaining the shadow detail from the original scene. It's not the most striking of shots I've ever produced, but given that the Wyre Light is only accessible a couple of times a year - it's about two miles from shore, and only on dry land when there's an especially low tide - I'm pretty pleased to have got a shot that I'm happy to post.

Oh, and if you're interested, I've posted a 'straight' version of the RAW file I used here:

.../archives/the_wyre_light.php

This was processed using the default settings in ACR, and as you can see, it doesn't bear a great deal of resemblance to the final image :-)

Despite the fact that yesterday was the longest day of the year the weather has been quite atrocious, and when we took the kids down to the sea-front this afternoon it was all we could do to stop them blowing away. Harmony (who's now five) just about managed to stay on her feet, but if I hadn't had hold of Finley he would have been blown over on several occasions.

As for this shot: it's a view you've probably seen before on chromasia, and while I'm normally quite happy to suffer for my art, today was not one for hanging about taking photographs :-)

Given that my previous image received a mixed, though mostly positive response I'd be interested to hear what you make of this one. Like the previous one, it's an HDR, constructed from a seven shot bracketed sequence using Photomatix Pro, but while the last one had almost CGI feel to it, this one is a lot less intense.

That said, if you didn't like the last one because it's an HDR, you're unlikely to like this one any better ;-)

Nonetheless, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as this is a technique that a) I still find fascinating, and b) will probably do quite a lot more of in the future.

My apologies for not posting recently but things have been hectic over the last few weeks; i.e. far too much work to do, and not enough time to blog - and it's going to be much like that for the rest of this month. And in the scale of things that's a lot better than having no work, but right now I'd settle for somewhere between the two extremes :-)

Anyway, I found some time to wander down to the North pier today and decided to shoot some HDRs. Most of them probably won't work out (for one reason or another) but I like this one, not least because it's a completely over-the-top use of this technique.

As always, your thoughts and comments will be gratefully received.

Oh, and I haven't posted the EXIF data but all the shots were taken at 16mm and I used a seven shot sequence with a 1 EV spacing between them.

I've had a thoroughly pleasant couple of days, photographing the Pierrotters (the last remaining seaside Pierrot Troupe in Britain) and the other performers in the Admission All Classes event on Blackpool's North Pier this weekend, but I also shot off a few frames for myself this lunchtime.

As usual, this is more about interpretation than photo-realism, but if you'd like to take a look at the original it's here:

.../archives/ordinary_beauty.php

All the shots I've posted this week were from the Blackpool Pride 2008 festival, and all were shot on Blackpool's North Pier. This one, on the other hand, was taken from the North Pier, and as you can see, the beach was a lot quieter than the pier.

Update: following a couple of the comments below I re-evaluated the composition and decided that it would look better if the horizon wasn't placed in the centre of the frame. So, I've gone for a 16x9 crop this time instead of the original 2x1. If you're interested, the original crop is here:

.../archives/all_the_time.php

This is an HDR of Blackpool's North Pier, constructed from a bracketed sequence of seven shots (1 EV spacing), tone mapped with Photomatix Pro. If you're interested, the fourth shot in the sequence (i.e. the metered exposure) is here:

.../archives/the_evening_gathers.php

I shot the sequence yesterday evening, just before meeting up with a film crew from the BBC programme Inside Out. They were shooting footage for a programme on piers in the North West of England and had googled Fleetwood Pier. After finding some of my shots of that pier they asked if they could interview me. Anyway, we spent about 40 minutes strolling up and down the beach, chatting about the local piers and trying to look as though we weren't half frozen to death. It was fun, despite the near Arctic conditions.

If you're interested, the programme airs at 7.30pm on the 2nd May, but it's a regional programme so you'll only be able to watch it live if you live in the North-West of England. I think it will be available on the Inside Out website shortly afterwards though.

On a totally different matter: I've been involved with helping out with the development of an OS X screensaver/desktop feed, that feeds images from chromasia and Daily Dose of Imagery to a folder on the client's computer. If you're interested in taking a look the script and instructions are here:

www.cneophytou.com

And finally: this entry should be automatically posted at 7pm tomorrow, round about the time I'll be clearing customs after a two-leg flight to somewhere considerably warmer than Blackpool. All being well I'll post something on Monday and let you know where I am.

Things will probably be quite quiet on chromasia this week as I'm going away on the 20th, won't be back to the 6th, and have loads of things to organise before I go. In other words I'm not sure how often I'll be posting. I will try and get something up. On a more positive note: the good news is that I'm going somewhere interesting and will be spending almost all of the first week taking photographs, so I should have some good stuff to put up next week.

As for this one: I don't have much to say about it other than that I wondered what it was she was holding in her hands. I suspect it was just something she had picked up from the beach, but the way in which she's holding it caught my attention.

Unusually, this is a more drastic crop than I usually apply, but had I waited till I was a bit closer I would have missed the shot. If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/these_things.php

I was chatting with John Washington yesterday regarding the recent series of shots he's been posting exploring the notion of nostalgia (of which this is a particularly good example). Anyway, having had that conversation, I was browsing through a folder of old images today and came across this one which a) also has quite a nostalgic feel, and b) entirely coincidentally, was taken with John's camera. All of which seemed like a good excuse to post it.

On another matter: I finished the latest tutorial in the Digital Workflow series today, so should have some time to get out and about to shoot some new material tomorrow.

First of all, thanks for all the thoughtful comments on my previous image – they're much appreciated – but there are a couple of points I'd like to pick up on one of them.

Garry and YETi both commented to the effect that they don't feel they should comment unless it will have some constructive impact. And clearly, from my perspective, constructive criticism is great – it helps me to move on – but I wouldn't want people to feel that that's all they should offer. Chromasia has been around for a long time, and as I write this there are 39722 comments containing over 1.3 million words – some of these are constructive, some are not, but all of them carry the various conversations forward.

There were also a number of interesting comments regarding the future of blogs, images on the web, and so on, but I need to think about these before I reply.

Anyway, on with the show :-)

The last few images I've posted were taken on a trip last week and, what with one thing and another I haven't been out since. So, I'm posting this one, a) because I don't have anything else worth putting up, and b) because I think it raises an interesting point. Personally, I really like this one – for reasons I'll come to in a minute – but I have to say that I don't think it works all that well at this resolution.

The things I like are the feathery detail of the structures on the pier, the couple walking arm-in-arm atop the new sea wall, the lone woman taking her dog for a walk, and a whole host of other small details – most of which are barely visible at this resolution. But what's the point in posting it if you can't see the things that make the shot?

My main reason (other than having nothing else to post) is that I wonder how acclimatized we have become to expecting an image to be eye-catching at the resolution we typically see on the web? Clearly, most photographs will look better when printed rather than previewed at a fraction of their original resolution, but does the fact that we spend most of our time looking at photographs on the web mean we have changed the way we see a photograph? I'm not sure I know the answer, but I do know that I very rarely post anything that doesn't work at this size.

Anyway, if you're interested, I posted another version of this image here:

.../archives/a_question_of_scale/index.html

As you can see, there's a lot more detail in the original image, and while you might not agree that "it makes the image", it does make for more interesting viewing.

I was going to write more this evening but both Tabby (11 months) and Finley (three in August) are sleeping really badly this evening – both are nodding off for around ten minutes then waking up again. Anyway, the upshot is that I've been trying to write this entry for almost two hours, and it's very slow progress.

So, the short version is that this is another shot of Central Pier, facing north; i.e. I'm further down the beach than yesterday.

If you flick through the other shots I've taken of Blackpool's Central Pier you will see that this is a vantage point I've used quite often, and its one that I'll probably use again.

My apologies for not posting anything over the last couple of days but I've been finishing off the first part of a two part tutorial on HDR images. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it's now finished, and if you're interested you can read more about it on either our main tutorials page or here:

../tutorials/online/hdr1_info.php

As for this one: don't be fooled by your first impression – it's not quite what it seems.

I don't think there's much I can say about this one other than that it was just something I noticed as I wandered along.

On a totally unrelated matter: we're currently having problems with our mail server – I can send mail, but not receive it – so if you need to contact me urgently please use the following address:

david.j.nightingale AT gmail DOT com

Update: my apologies for not posting anything over the last couple of days but I've been working on our latest tutorial. This will now be published some time during the early afternoon on Sunday.

If I had any shots in reserve I might not have bothered posting this one as I'm not entirely happy about the composition, especially the way in which one of the kiosks on the pier is obscured by the telegraph pole in the foreground, but I really couldn't find a position that worked better. That said, I'm sure there probably was one.

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the shot but I'm trying to document the ongoing restructuring of our seafront – albeit rather intermittently – and as I don't imagine that these poles will be there for all that long I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

As you can probably imagine this was one of those shots that came together in an instant, and I almost missed it. The shot I thought I was after is this one:

.../archives/the_geometry_of_flight_2.php

I.e. I was waiting for both aeroplanes to reach the edge of the frame. Just after I'd taken that one though I noticed the seagull enter the frame from the right. I took a couple of shots as it approached this structure, and a couple after it flew past, but this was my definite favourite.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/the_geometry_of_flight_2.php

What I especially like about this one, other than the seagull, is the way the lens flare interacts with the structure; i.e. it almost looks like clouds until you realise that it passes in front of the structure.

And finally: this was converted to black and white using the Channel Mixer (as described in my Black and White tutorial) then toned using a Curve (covered in my Toning Colour Images tutorial).

I went out for an hour this morning and came back with two shots that I liked, this one, and a much better one that I'll put up tomorrow. Oh, and you can thank Libby for the title of this one :-)

This is an HDR, comprised of six bracketed exposures, of the underside of Central Pier in Blackpool. The original images were taken quite a while ago, but it's only recently that I've been able to produce a decent HDR. The problem, in this instance, was that they were shot at 17mm with my 17-40 f/4L and the CA (chromatic aberration) at the edges of the images made creating a convincing HDR difficult. Anyway, I finally realised that all I needed to do was create some CA-corrected 16bit TIFFs and use them to construct the HDR image rather than the original RAW files. So, I processed the originals in ACR and loaded the subsequent TIFFs into Photomatix Pro, from which I created this image.

If you like this one you might also want to take a look at the following:

Under the North Pier #1
Under the North Pier #2
Under the North Pier #3
Under Fleetwood Pier

I think that the first is probably still my favourite.

On a totally unrelated matter: my apologies if you have been trying to access the tutorial pages today, but we ran into a technical problem at around 10.00 am this morning. For some reason, that we haven't quite managed to get to the bottom of yet, the entire folder vanished from the server. Anyway, we managed to get everything replaced by late afternoon (though had to recreate a few of the static pages and re-upload the masking tutorial), so everything should now be back to normal. That said, if you are a subscriber and run into any problems, please let me know.

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 second of the two shots I mentioned yesterday, the one I prefer. What I didn't mention yesterday is that neither of these shots are masked; i.e. I used a single Curve to adjust the contrast across the image as a whole. Normally, to achieve a sky as dramatic as either of these, I would use separate Curves – one for the foreground and one for the sky. On this occasion though the foreground was very well lit and the sky – heavy with rain – was comparatively dark.

As always, I'd be interested to hear what you think.

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.

Mckun left a comment earlier today, as follows:

"No new photos yet,david,Haahaa.
Maybe your want to give us a surprise."

And I wish I could say yes, but the reason I haven't been posting is that a) I've really been struggling to get over this cold, and b) we've had a really busy week with clients, presentations, meetings, and so on. I'm also frantically trying to get the latest tutorial finished, but as my head feels as though it's full of cotton wool and I can barely string a simple sentence together, it's not going as well as I would have hoped. Wish me luck.

Anyway, on the basis that you'll probably all think I've dropped dead if I don't post something soon, I thought I'd put this one up. I probably won't post anything tomorrow, as finishing the tutorial is now my #1 priority, but I'll try and get something new up soon.

This is an HDR of the underside of Fleetwood pier, created using three bracketed exposures. Well, to be accurate, it's mostly an HDR, but I used the sky from the underexposed original image as I felt that the sky in the HDR image was too contrasty and noisy.