While this image (and the next one I'll post) are not quite as striking as my last one, I am pleased with them, not least because both do a good job of demonstrating the capabilities of the Ricoh GR Digital III – my new compact camera. In this instance, I was testing the macro mode, and while the Ricoh can focus a lot closer than this (i.e. 1cm from the end of the lens), I was pleased with how much detail it recorded in the old rusty ring.

If you're interested, the original cropped image is here:

.../archives/ring_and_rig.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.

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:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_18.php

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 ;)

We gave the kids the option of the park or the beach this afternoon, and I was pleased that they chose the beach, not least because I didn't fancy photographing the ducks again :)

And beyond that, I don't have a great deal to say about this one other than to tell you that a) it's a shot of Rhowan, wandering about in a very calm sea in her wellies, and b) that it looks much better set against the black theme.

If you're interested (at Gary's request), I've posted the original here:

.../archives/the_butterfly_effect.php

On an unrelated matter: if you're a subscriber to our tutorials you have just over 24 hours left to enter our Creative Point of View contest to win a Lensbaby Composer and Optic Kit. Even if you don't plan on entering, you should definitely take a look at the entries in the forum: the quality of many of them is stunning.

My apologies for not posting anything recently but it's been one of those weeks; i.e. too much to do, and not enough time to do it in, and despite my best efforts I don't really seem to have achieved all that much since getting back from our recent trip to Centre Parcs. Anyway, rather than spend another afternoon trying to write, and not getting anywhere, I decided to take Libby and the kids up to Fleetwood to stretch their legs. I also decided to take my new Lensbaby Composer for a spin. I've used various Lensbabies in the past, but never quite got the hang of them - the Lensbaby 2.0 was just too difficult to use, and the 3G was too fiddly - but I found the Composer much easier. You can move the sweet spot by moving the front element, as you can with all Lensbabies, but once you've moved it it stays put. The focussing is also a lot easier with this one; i.e. you focus by adjusting a ring at the front of the lens. In short, it's a lot easier to get exactly the effect you want without having to fight with the lens to achieve it.

I'll write more about it when I post my next shot, but in the meanwhile, do let me know what you think of this one.

Oh, and if you're interested, we're going to be giving away a Composer and Optic Kit in our forthcoming competition, details of which are available on our main tutorials page.

On a totally different matter: a while ago I mentioned that I'd be instructing at the Gulf Photo Plus 2009 training event in Dubai (March 30th to April 4th). If you're interested in attending they've just published the schedule as a downloadable PDF. It looks like it's going to be a great event :)

A couple of entries ago I said that my previous would be the last I'd be posting from my various trips out with Craig a few weekends ago, as I'd looked through the hundreds of shots we had taken and couldn't see anything else that would work. Anyway, Craig posted this shot a few days ago, and as I'd shot much the same sequence of images I thought I'd see how mine turned out.

As with my previous couple of shots this is an HDR, constructed with Photomatix Pro, but I've tried to keep the tone mapping quite moderate with this one. It's not entirely what I was after, but in this case I couldn't quite work out how I wanted the final image to look. Initially, I was going for a colour version - much as Craig did - but I just couldn't get the balance between the pier and the sky looking anywhere near natural.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up going for a black and white version that I toned with a Curve.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this structure before, it's both bits of the pier at St. Annes.

Finally, my next HDR class with PPSOP (the Perfect Picture School of Photograph) will be starting on Friday (i.e. the 6th), so if you want to learn a bit more about constructing HDR images you might want to take a look. Alternatively, you can take a look at either or both of my HDR tutorials (details about part one are here, while details about part two are here).

First of all, thanks for all the comments on my last post. I know that HDR images aren't everyone's cup of tea so it was good to see that it was well received.

On the subject of HDR images, Craig posted an HDR portrait of me a couple of days ago. In terms of technique, I think it was pretty well done, but the content leaves a bit to be desired. Mind you, I really hate seeing photographs of myself – there's just something really odd about the whole experience :-)

On a different matter, and related to this image, I just posted our latest tutorial – Working with textures: part one. I'm particularly pleased with this one, not least because I used some of Mike Regnier's work to illustrate the tutorial in addition to a couple of my own. If you're not familiar with Mike's work then you really should pay his site a visit – he's a genius when it comes to working with textures.

Anyway, having said all that ...

This one combines one original image and two textures: a shot of the North Pier, another of a ripped canvas blind, and another of a water stain on a wall. It's not quite up to Mike's standard, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

As always, let me know what you think, even if it's only to tell me that you don't like it :)

It would be fair to say that I don't like this anywhere near as much as the last one I posted, but I am reasonably pleased with it (and don't have anything else to post).

Fortunately though my good friend Craig is coming up on Friday, and we're going to spend most of the weekend out shooting. I'm really looking forward to it, not least because it's been ages since I went out shooting with anyone else. Also, we're going to visit a couple of places I haven't visited before, so I should be able to get at least one or two interesting shots :)

After yesterday's rather over-the-top HDR I thought it was about time for something a little less (over-)processed. So here's a reasonably straight shot, processed almost entirely with ACR.

On a related matter: I upgraded to CS4 a little while ago, not because I thought there would be any real benefit, but because I thought I ought to keep up-to-date for the tutorials. Anyway, the changes between CS3 and CS4 aren't massively significant, but one change that I do like is that there is now a post-crop vignette tool within ACR; i.e. you can add a vignette after you have cropped an image. As I often crop to 2x1, 1x1 and 16x9 this is a useful addition, and while it's an effect that can be easily achieved in Photoshop, it's good to be able to add it from the outset.

As you will all have noticed I haven't been posting at all regularly in recent weeks, not because I don't want to, but because I haven't had anything to post. The upside of my lack of blogging is that we've been busy arranging a variety of things, all of which will carry us through until May 2009.

Our major project for the New Year, and the one that will keep us busy up until mid-March, is a book on HDR Photography. It's provisionally titled 'Practical HDR', was commissioned by Ilex Press, and will be published by Focal Press at some point in the 3rd of 4th quarter of 2009. If you've been visiting for a while, you may remember that I did a book on baby photography for the same publisher last year, so it was good to get asked to do another one.

As I'll be writing a whole book on the topic I'll also take the opportunity to write a couple more HDR tutorials to add to part one and part two that have already been published alongside our other online tutorials. I'm not entirely sure of which topics I'll be covering yet, but I suspect that one will be on creating photo-realistic HDR images and the other will be on either working with low-contrast scenes or single RAW files (or maybe both).

And if that wasn't enough on the same topic, I'll also be running an HDR class at this year's Gulf Photo Plus training event in Dubai (March 30th to April 4th). I've attended the last two GPP events but this year promises to be better than ever with a great list of photographers: Joe McNally, David Hobby, Drew Gardner, Vincent LaForet, Zack Arias, Carol Dragon, Chase Jarvis, Cliff Mautner, Asim Rafiqui, Chris Hurtt, Bobbi Lane, and Robin Nichols (and probably a few more I've forgot to mention).

I'll also be continuing to run my HDR class at PPSOP (the Perfect Picture School of Photography). I've been running the course for around three months now, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If you've interested in signing up for any of their courses now would be a good time as they're offering a 10% discount until tomorrow (i.e. the 21st).

And finally, I'll also be running an HDR course for Aspen Photo Workshops (run by Charlie Borland) in Tampa, Florida, from the 19th of April until the 23rd. If you're interested, there's more information about the course listed here. I'm really looking forward to this one, not least because I've never been to Florida.

So, if you are an HDR fan, then it's all good news. If not, then ... err ... come back in May ;-) More seriously though, I won't just be posting HDR stuff as I imagine that I'll probably fancy a bit of a change at some point – probably by the end of the first week in January :-)

All of which brings me neatly to today's shot: the old lift tower at Bispham, a couple of miles up the coast from Blackpool. It was constructed from a a seven shot sequence (with a 1 EV spacing) and processed with Photomatix Pro, after which I merged the sky from one of the original images. If you're interested, the metered exposure is here:

.../archives/the_lift_tower.php

This is a shot of Blackpool's Central pier, located about half a mile south of the North Pier, the subject of my previous entry. As with my previous two shots, it was taken shortly before sunset on Saturday evening, and for this one I decided to emphasise the various textures within the image – the movement of water in the foreground, the sharp lines of the pier, and the rolling clouds in the background.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/untitled_0077.php

Update: this is just a quick note to let you all know that I won't be updating the blog for a few days as the hard drive in my laptop has failed. Coincidentally, I recently ordered a backup machine, but that won't arrive for another ten days or so, so in the meanwhile I need to wait until I can get my current machine fixed and restored from my backup. Fortunately, I do have an almost current Time Machine backup, but don't have any way of accessing the files until I get my laptop back. Fingers crossed it should all be sorted by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Update #2: I had an appointment scheduled for 12.20 today (Sunday 30th) at the Genius Bar of the Trafford's Centre Apple store. Unfortunately though, we were a bit late. Just as we were coming up to our junction on the M60 we blew a rear tire and by the time I could pull over it was smoldering on the rim. Anyway, as we had all six kids with us, we decided to ring the AA and get them to sort it out while we huddled on the other side of the barrier - and I'm glad we did, because our spare was damaged too.

We haven't had our new van long (it's a Transit Tourneo) and hadn't noticed that there was a flat spot on the spare, so ended up having to go and get two new tires before we could go to the Trafford Centre. Anyway, we got that sorted out so went off to try and get my laptop fixed.

I got a new appointment for 3pm, explained the problem, and asked how long it would take to fix it. I was expecting them to say some time tomorrow, i.e. Monday, but the 'Genius' said "we don't have the drive in stock so it will probably be Wednesday".

"OK, so what drives do you have in stock? I could do with getting it sorted ASAP so would be happy to pay for a drive upgrade".

"You can't. Although you've got the three year warranty it has to be a like-for-like replacement".

"I can't give you more money and have another drive installed?"

"No. And we don't have any in stock anyway."

"So it will definitely be ready on Wednesday?"

"It should be. I'll order the drive tomorrow and providing it turns up on Tuesday we should be able to have it done by Wednesday".

Hmmm.

I have to say that I love Apple computers but their after-sales support, in the UK at least, isn't quiet as efficient as it could be. So long story short, I won't be posting anything until late Wednesday at the very earliest.

This one was taken six minutes before my previous entry, and while both share the same sky (this one was taken about 90° to the right of the previous one) I've gone for a much softer, colder look with this one.

I managed to get down to the beach today – 20 minutes before the sun went down, just as the tide was coming in – and took a lot of shots of this sunset. This is my favourite of the set, shot with a 3 stop ND Grad, and was taken about five minutes before I got soaking wet. The tide on Blackpool beach comes in at around walking pace, so taking photographs at the waves' edge means shooting, then moving quite quickly, then shooting again, and so on. And that would have been fine if the beach had been flat flat. Unfortunately though I was shooting from a raised section of beach and hadn't realised that the tide, in addition to coming towards me quite quickly, had already swept around behind me. By the time I did realise there was quite a lot of water between me and the shore. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep. Unfortunately, I was wearing a good pair of shoes. But I did get this shot, so I can't complain too much :)

Oh, and if you're interested, I've linked the original below – not to make any points about the post-production, but to demonstrate that the colours are pretty faithful to the original scene:

.../archives/the_evening_fire.php

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

I went up to Fleetwood this afternoon with the intention of shooting some slow shutter speed images at high tide. Unfortunately, it was raining, windy, grey and dull, and none of them worked out. So, especially since I haven't had anything to post for a few days, I'm really pleased that I decided to shoot a couple of HDR sequences while I was there.

This one was shot at the top of the sea wall and was constructed from seven exposures (with a 1 EV spacing between them). I used Photomatix Pro to produce two versions: one optimised for the foreground and another, less radical version, tone mapped to produce a less HDR-like sky. These were then merged in Photoshop and toned using a Curve.

If you're interested, I've posted the metered exposure here:

.../archives/storm_conditions.php

On a totally unrelated matter, and my apologies for bringing this up again: 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. Well, there were 75 when we started – we now have around 30 left.

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. There have already been some great shots posted so even if you aren't interested in entering the competition you should definitely take a look.

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 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.

Given the opportunity, and the required physiology, I think I would probably hibernate at this time of year rather than endure the wet, cold, windy, miserable drabness of the UK autumn and winter. From a photographic point of view, there are numerous opportunities - stormy skies, frothing seas, rain against windows ... - but, on some days at least, I'd much rather just sleep until spring.

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.

This is the first of two shots of this structure – a warning beacon, close to the high tide mark on Fleetwood beach – and beyond that I guess I don't have too much more to say about this one. I would be interested to hear your thoughts though.

Here's one last shot taken with the Tamron AF 11-18mm - a shot of Blackpool's North Pier, taken from about five inches above the decking.

Oh, and by the time this gets (automatically) posted I'll be in London. I'm going abroad for a week - I won't tell you where yet - so should have some new/different material to post.

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.

As I mentioned yesterday I'm currently writing a review of the Tamron AF 11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di II LD Aspherical [IF] for Digital SLR User magazine so went up to Fleetwood this afternoon to try it out. It was a glorious afternoon - though rather cold and windy - and I got four shots that I'm happy with.

All the ones I'll be posting are partial HDR's, constructed with FDRTools. This one and tomorrow's were constructed from a three shot bracketed sequence, while the ones I'll be posting on Sunday and Monday were created from a single shot. In all four cases I've used the sky from the original shot (or one of the originals).

Of the four I think that the one I'll be posting on Monday is probably my favourite, followed by this one, then Sunday's, then tomorrow's - but I'm pretty happy with all of them.

Oh, and the only other thing I can tell you about them is that they were all shot with a 400D - which I've borrowed to use with the Tamron lens.

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.

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 :-)