Rochester in HDR

A few images that I took Today and processed using HDR software, Some of these im quite pleased with and others im not so sure on, Im still not completely convinced of HDR software, it does add something to the images but also seems to take something away, still an interesting process.

Sea urchin

Water Drops

Slightly cliché but nether the less a fun process to go through and im quite happy with these three, even if it did take a while to get there.

Whitstable

A couple of photos from an evening trip to Whitstable at the weekend, weather wasn't looking that great on Sunday evening but it turned out to be rather nice. The first photo has just had some contrast added and I reduced the exposure abit making the sky darker. the second photo has been converted to black and white and the curves changed giving it more contrast.

Sunset was around 7:40 and getting there and about 7:20 we had just enough time to take a few shots and watch the sun go down.

New Shoes?

Visiting Lower Halstow the other week I found this old shoe and finally got around to photographing it yesterday, using my new tripod I was able to place the camera directly over the shoe creating this perspective, in lightroom I added a sepia tone to the image some sharpening and changed the curves making the photo more contrasty, I fairly pleased with this image.

Tomatoes

This took a few shots to get right I started off with a low f number and worked my way up to f9 finding that this gave enough sharpness on the for most tomato but also allowing for some nice bokeh towards the back of the photo.

Hive beach

In this image was taken at iso 100 f22 at 42mm for 15 seconds, my main goal here was to create a silvery effect on the water and the minimal composition of the photo was aimed at creating an abstract image of the landscape, there is however slightly to much going on the the picture for this to be achieved as I wished.

West bay

Here is the first of a few images from a recent break in Dorset. these two were taken in west bay on evening, using long exposures to make the water blur across these rocks.

Im happy with both of these images these two are the best from a series of similar photos I took, timing the exposures so that the largest waves hit the rocks took a while.

Sunset

Both of these images were taken in riverside country park this evening, the sky was perfect and having the foreground completely black seems to emphasize this. This were both taken using my 70-200mm lens so unfortunately they don't really capture the whole picture.

The first image was taken at 91mm at f9 and the second image was taken at 70mm at f5.6

Down the motor way

A random but interesting photo from driving down the motorway the other week.

Ightham Mote

This weekend I took a trip to Ightham mote an example of a moated medieval manor house. built around the 1320's the house has been added to a great deal over the years and has recently undergone a restoration project.
This photograph was taken down one side of the building and shows the moat that surrounds the hole house. As it was the middle of the day I used a graduated filter to help bring out the clouds in the sky and finally manipulated the image in lightroom giving an sepia effect.

Sunset through the Lubitel

Today I brought half a lubitel camera the other half being brought by the other half....

So using my SlR I captured the sunset through the view finder lens.

Reculver black and white

Here is two more photos from the sunrise at Reculver last week end. Only just uploading these now as my laptop has been ill all week.

Sunrise at Reculver

This morning I stayed up and went out to catch the sun rise at Reculver, we got there around 4 o'clock just as twilight started and stayed till just after the sun came up, these images are the first I have taken at this time and as such there's plenty for me to improve on.

The first image was taken at ISO 100, f11 for 20 seconds at 21mm. This image suffers from over blurring of the sky the foreground of the picture is better however, I dodged the nearest wooden post slightly just to bring it out abit.

The second image was taken at ISO 100, f11 for 13 seconds at 18mm, I'm pleased with this image the water has washed over the rock during exposure creating the wet and shiny look, unfortunately the long exposure has meant that the clouds have become somewhat blurred. something to improve on.

Low Tide

Low tide in Lower Halstow and this small stream runs off into the river Medway. Taken as the sun had just set I slowed these shots down further with a ND4 filter creating a nice blurring of the small stream.

The first shot was take at F11 for 2 seconds at 34mm I also used a graduated filter on the top half of the picture to level out the exposure.

The second shot was taken at F18 for 3.2 seconds at 18mm again with this picture i used a graduated filter to level out the exposure.

The Shoe Maker

These series of three photographs are of a shoe makers blank. all three were taken at F5 at 3 different exposures and the put together to create and image that has more dynamic range.

Edith May

The Edith May has been restored to its former glory and this photo on the eve of its relaunch shows it docked in the small village of Lower Halstow.

Using a ND grad filter I brought the sky and foreground into the same exposure, the sky however wasn't that interesting. using a normal ND filter I also lengthened the shutter speed allowing the small river that runs through the picture to become nicely blurred. although not perfect I am quite please with this photo.

Lavender

These two photographs took a while to get, I must have taken at least 100 shots before I managed to get anything half decent. Thank god for digital. both shots were shot at f4 ISO 400 trying to make the shutter as fast as possible. As usual I have manipulated these slightly in lightroom adding vignettes mainly to make the backgrounds more pleasing to look at.

Black and white leaves

Green Thingy's

Another Foliage inspired photograph, this on was also slightly underexposed and then manipulated in photoshop, adding vignettes and adjusting the curves. Ive also added a 100% crop of a section of the image to show how sharp my new lens is.