Black & White or Colour?

Hi, my question today is Black and white, or colour?

I think both images have their merits, but which do people prefer?

Please let me know via the comments section, thanks.

Photoshop experimenting.

Hi, I've been trying a bit of editing in Photoshop and wondered what people's thoughts were?

The first is obviously a WWII Spitfire flying away from the explosions on the runway.

This second one is the Vulcan bomber.

I'm not sure which looks better or indeed if either of them look any good?

Please let me know what your thoughts are on them via the comments section, thanks.

Back Again!

Well I find myself back at the keyboard

posting pictures that I hope you love 💖

and in so doing, I hope they measure up to your expectations.

Day 2 of our family holiday to Pas de Calais, France.

 

The first thing my daughters did on waking, on the second day of our holiday, was to go for a swim. The private pool attached to our cottage was certainly well used over the weeks holiday.

The pool itself may not have been very big but because of the amount of natural light streaming in through the windows and the high arched and beamed ceiling it was bright, airy, and inviting.

Breakfast was fresh croissants and pain au chocolat, purchased from the local boulangerie which was a few 100 meters from our cottage. Freshly brewed strong French coffee complimented the meal, yum.

We decided to head up to Dunkerque (Dunkirk) to go to the beach and do a bit of site seeing for our first full day of the holiday.

Looking across the beach in the above photograph, If you look carefully you can see there is a lighthouse at the harbour mouth. This gave me an opportunity to play with my new toy an Opton 500mm telephoto lens for my Canon DSLR camera.

I was quite impressed with the quality of the image it gave of the lighthouse, as I only used a monopod to steady the camera not a tripod. Fitting a 2x convertor to the lens allowed me to get a shot of another lighthouse further down the coast that was out of frame on the original photograph.

The beaches at Dunkerque were almost completely empty due to the weather so as we went along the seafront these brightly coloured beach huts stood out against the quite beaches.

As you can see from this picture the bright beach huts are doing there best to cheer up the overcast sky but only two are in use.

Even though the weather was overcast and cool our daughters still had fun on the sea front or even on the beech at times.

After a lovely lunch of baguettes and crepes on the sea front, we headed across town to visit the British war memorial to those who lost their lives in Dunkerque during the campaigns of the 2 World wars.

Dunkerques’ British War Memorial commemorates more than 4,500 casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the campaign of 1939-40 and who have no known grave.

The memorial was designed by Philip Hepworth.

I was interested, but saddened to find servicemen of my own regiment ‘The Royal Welch Fusiliers’, both listed on the memorial and buried within the cemetery.

 

As part of the memorial building there is a beautiful large memorial window designed by John Hutton, depicting scenes from the heroic evacuation of Dunkerque in May 1940.

It was quite a moving experience viewing the rolls of servicemen listed on the memorial. An experience that I shall not forget.

The day was rounded off with a return to our cottage in Arques after stopping off at a local supermarket for supplies. More swimming, games and general relaxation rounded off a lovely day.

Join us tomorrow for a trip into Belgium, (chocolate yum yum!)

Technorati Tags: Calais,France,cottage,Dunkerque,Dunkirk,beach,image,memorial,Hepworth,regiment,Royal,Welch,Fusiliers,Hutton,evacuation,Arques,relaxation,Belgium,chocolate,beaches,daughters,lighthouse,lens,camera,servicemen

Reflective Pool.

Be back soon!

Colour – The subtleties of colour in nature.

 

For those of you who have been following my mini series of posts on colour (those who may have missed it can see the first post here: colour-red-standing-out-from-crowd) I have been exploring the vibrancy of colour and how it can help a photograph to stand out from the crowd. Well today I’d like to bring you some examples of the more subtle hues found in nature, that if photographed correctly can still stand out just as well as there more vibrant cousins.

By keeping the background out of focus it gives all the emphasis to the flower and its subtle shades then become its virtue. Using natural light and taking care of your composition will also help to enhance your photos.

So although bright bold colours can mean striking pictures, photographs of objects with more subtle hues, with a little thought, can also make outstanding pictures.

Go on give colour a go!

 

Colour – The good the bad and the story.

 

Colour as we have seen in resent posts can enhance a photograph such as this one…

It can also spoil an image too…

The lovely architectural splendour of this building is marred by the bright yellow traffic light in front of it. It is the bright yellow of the traffic lights that grabs the attention the most and not the intended object the building.

Sometimes colour tells a story as in this shot…

This unfortunate gentleman was the object of much frivolity when he fetched his girlfriends bright pink handbag whilst wearing full Scottish attire at a friends wedding.

Colour where would we be without it?

Well, in black and white I suppose and that is a whole different story…

Technorati Tags: Colour,image,lights,attention,handbag,Scottish,attire,friends

 

Colour gives an edge to photos

 

Continuing from my post Colour – Red, Standing out from the crowd I’d like to show that it is not only man made objects that stand out from the crowd due to their vibrant colours but also nature has it’s own way of displaying itself in fiery colours.

Take this scene…

The blossom on the tree and the tulips around the base shout out look at me! Look at me!

Flowers by their nature are often brightly coloured in a bid to attract insects to help them pollinate.

It is often us humans that take second place to the wonderful displays put on my mother nature, although this clown is doing his best to contradict everything I have just said.

Vibrant colour whether it is supplied by nature or man can certainly help to make a striking and memorable photograph.

Technorati Tags: Colour,nature,tree,Look,Flowers,Vibrant,photos,insects

Colour – Red, Standing out from the crowd

Colour plays a huge role in photography. Yes I know you can get excellent black and white photographs but the greater majority of pictures are taken in colour.

What I have found with colour, is that it can change a mundane, or basic picture, into something that is eye-catching and memorable.

For example…

would this picture catch your eye without the boy with the bright red top sat on the branch. The red transforms the subtle shades of green into a picture that says look at me.

In this next picture the simple garden path has also been transformed with colour.

The addition of the red rake in the picture adds a focal point to attract the eye to the image, before it wanders around the rest of the picture. It also adds a feeling of story to the scene and that is a key element when viewing a photograph.

Red, being one of the prime colours, is dominate in drawing your attention, even in busy traffic the addition of a red bus stands out from the rest of the scene.

The rest of the scene in this photograph may be worthy of attention in itself but it is the red bus that attracts the eye first.

Red is used by nature to attract attention, such as a flower to attract insects or an insect saying leave me alone I’m dangerous to eat. We use red in our road signs too to symbolize danger as it stands out from the rest of the scene and attracts the eye to it. Red is used in advertising as well as it’s strong colour attracts the eye.

Red = Strong colour = Attracting to the eye.

(Not always pleasing to the eye but always attracting).

By my use of colour, in this instance ‘Red’, to accent my photos it helps to accent the image, and hopefully for these examples you will agree it has worked to a greater or lesser extent. That doesn’t mean it will work for every photo, you still have to balance the pro’s of the boldness of the colour attracting the eye against the subtleties of the rest of the scene. A red object will nearly always steal the attention of the viewer, so if the main object has more muted tones, then try and avoid getting the strong red coloured object in the frame so it doesn’t steal the show.

Why don’t you have a go yourself photograph bold, red images.

For those followers of the header challenge I am very pleased to announce that my fellow contributors saw fit to award me Gold this week. I am as you may guess very happy and somewhat shell shocked that I received this accolade after only just joining the group two weeks ago. A very big thank you to fishing guy, imac, Lanny and Gailsman for this honour.

Why don’t you go and visit their blogs and check out their wonderful posts and headers, just click on their names or follow the links in the right column.

 

Technorati Tags: Colour,photography,pictures,example,garden,image,nature,signs,danger,Strong,photo,images,header,Gold,photos

Colour – Sheep – Tranquillity at Norfolk Lavender.

 After watching the distillation of the Lavender oil that I posted about yesterday at the Norfolk Lavender centre, I wandered into the garden centre section.

These glossy planters caught my eye almost immediately a definite photo opportunity. The colours were amazing and the high gloss sheen caught the light beautifully.

The cheeky sheep were opposite keeping an eye on me as I took the photographs of the planters.

We decided after wandering amongst the flowers of the garden centre (photos for another time) we would go into the gardens and then on further to the rare breeds section.

I will leave you today with the scene that greeted us as we crossed the bridge…

Very tranquil I am sure you will agree.

Little house on the lake. Belton House & Gardens Lincolnshire.

Belton House in Lincolnshire has extensive grounds which include two lakes. I’ve only found one so will have to ask imac of Photos from the minds eye blog to show me where the other one is. He has a good blog too well worth checking out, follow the link here: http://imac-photosfromthemindseye.blogspot.com/

The lake I did find has a charming little house sitting over the edge of it. I’ve framed this photo with some foreground interest to give extra depth and character to this very picturesque scene.

Looking out from the veranda of this little house are lovely views across and around the lake.

The reflections are unfortunately a little muted due to the time of day I took the photo and the overcast sky, hopefully you can still see how lovely a location it is though.

Walking around the lake from the little house you cross a footbridge that cried out to have its picture taken.

Belton House is full of surprises, every time I go there I find something new. Each season brings fresh colours and plants too so there is always something to see all year around.

Don’t forget to check out imacs blog and come back tomorrow for some more views, through the eye of a camera.

Water Droplets.

I was browsing through the internet just looking at other peoples blogs (lots of good ones out there, (check my blog roll for a few suggestions) when I came across some pictures of water droplets. This set me thinking how can I, capture them. 

So with a lot of trial and error I set up a shallow bowl in the kitchen sink, set my camera on a tripod just above the height of the rim of the dish and started shooting pictures as the tap dripped into the full dish.

I found I needed a flash gun off to one side and I also used a torch the other side so that the droplets were evenly lit as in the diagram above.

I set the aperture to f4.5 to allow lots of light in and a shutter speed of 1/200 sec to freeze the droplets.

I had to manually focus on the water as my camera wouldn't focus lock on the surface of the water. In hindsight I should have held a pen or something over the point where the drips fell and focused on that. Will have to remember that for next time.

The way the water bounces back up after the drip hits the water made for very interesting shapes.

The water almost looks like blown glass. For some of the shots I added a coloured reflector behind the bowl to give an extra colour cast to the pictures.

I hope you like these pictures and if you do how about trying to take some yourself, I'd be interested to hear how they came out. If anyone can suggest a different way to do this let me know either by the comments or contact me sections. I'm always looking for new ways to take pictures.

Playing with macro frogs!

I was visiting Christine's Arts blog the other day and came across a drawing of two tree frogs she had done. Check them out at: http://christinesarts.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-eyed-leaf-frog.html I love Christine's art work, she puts so much work in to her pieces showing the various stages on her blog along the way. While you are visiting have a look at some of her other work too, the Calla Lily painting is especially beautiful.

Seeing these frogs of Christine's got me thinking. My wife collects frog ornaments, so we have lots of frog figurines around the house to practice my macro photography on.

The frog I chose first is a tiny little silver frog. Its only just over 2cm long so getting an interesting shot was going to prove tricky.

After photographing it on a ruler to show you its scale, I placed it on a green blanket, to give it a pleasing and textured background.

Although the shot above is ok I personally think it's a little boring. The natural light has bounced off the green of the blanket and highlighted the little silver frog green. Well aren't frogs meant to be green? 

I think the problem with the picture is there is just too much in focus.

So, I changed the camera's aperture from f29 used for the above shot to f4.0 for the shot below. As I was shooting in Aperture priority mode with my camera the shutter speed also changed from 6 seconds to 1/2 second. 

This I think has created a much more dramatic shot with the head still in focus but the body thrown into relief with the light playing over its surface.

Which do you prefer and why? Or it may even be that you don't like either? Let me know via the comments section what you think.

Daisy and Rose in the garden!

I popped out in to our garden this afternoon to see Daisy and Rose enjoying the sunshine, well what was left of it, its gone a bit overcast today.

The way the Daisies have clumped in this photograph reminds me of the expensive floral decorations you see in churches for weddings (ok, maybe not of daisies though).

The perfectly formed petals of this giant Daisy, (sorry don't know official name) are a wonder to behold. Isn't nature great!

 Daisy's friend Rose was also coming out to play as well so I thought I'd better take a photo of her too, mustn't have them getting jealous. 

The roses subtle colours against the green of the foliage was beautiful to behold.

The Camera Never Lies?

The old adage used to be, 'The camera never lies!'

These days, with the introduction of digital photography, photo manipulation has reached the masses. It used to be if you wanted to manipulate a photograph, you had to have your own darkroom and know your way around chemicals. Now all you need is a digital camera and a computer. There are numerous software packages out there to help you to manipulate your photos. Some like Photoscape and Gimp are free to download and use, others such as Adobe Photoshop you can pay almost a £1000 for.

So why would you want to change your photographs, aren't they good enough as they are you say. Well there is no substitute for taking a good photograph to start with. Training your eye to get the right composition for the picture. Using your camera settings to your advantage to create that perfect picture is always what we should be striving for.

But, what if you take a picture thinking it is ok, but when you get home it hasn't turned out as you wanted it to. If you took it in your garden you could possibly go back out and take the picture again. If it was taken while you were on holiday then its not so easy.

Take this photo for example.

It was taken in Bilbao in northern Spain. I'm not going to be able to go back to take the picture again so how can I make it better?

One of the things wrong with it, was it was underexposed. So, using a photo editing package, I adjusted the exposure slightly and tweaked the shadow/highlight setting a little. It now appears much crisper and less washed out. One of the other neat little tricks many of these packages allow you to do, is straighten the horizon. Obviously when I took the first picture I was leaning to one side and took a wonky picture. Using the editing software though this has now been straightened.

 Photo editing can be used for much heavier editing of your photos as well. Take this last example. It is exactly the same photo as the first one but with many differences due to post editing.

First the ugly building on the left has gone and it has been replaces with some trees. Second the row of bins in front of the building have been deleted and third the traffic on the road in front of the building has gone too.

The techniques to accomplish these changes require a lot more time and effort to do but the results can be rewarding when you get them right.

Getting it right first time when we take photographs is what we should be striving for, but don't be afraid to try out these packages if that all important photo doesn't quite turn out as you expected. Try them out just for a bit of fun too, you never know, they may lead your photos in a whole new exciting direction.