Last night I had the pleasure of attending the third round of the NIPA inter club competition. As well as finally being a chance to meet John in the flesh, it was an opportunity to see what photographers in Northern Ireland were taking, the effects of different styles and get an idea of what actually works.

It also ended up turning into quite a handy overview of the power of layers and filter masks when editing images!

Looking at the photos on display my over riding reactions alternated between 'Wow' and 'I really suck at this'.

It was interesting to see how the judges had scored certain pictures. Shots I felt were breathtaking seemed to score average to high marks, whilst some of the winners (whilst brilliant, have no doubt) wouldn't have been on my top ten.I'd never considered things like the frequency the subject turns up in competition (lets be honest, if we live in Belfast we'll all take photos of the City Hall at some point). Equally people with the capacity to travel all around the world shouldn't win because their picture is from a far off land.

I believe the judges mentioned some/all of the pictures would be online soon and as soon as I get the link I'll post it.

I came away from the night inspired to keep on at this, though I've a brand new appreciation for how much I need to learn.

 

Still, as long as its fun...

It was 6 months ago today that I bought my digital SLR. In that time I've taken over 1800 photographs and tried a number of different techniques and tools.
I guess some have worked better than others.

So, what have I learned?

Aperture Priority.
Probably the first thing I learned when I turned the camera from its seductive automatic mode was the aperture setting. Controlling the amount of light that gets through the lens it has a major effect on the length of time needed for the exposure and the depth of field in focus in the image. I also learned photographing a washing line in the rain will get you some strange looks from your wife...

Shutter Priority
If aperture controls the amount of light, then shutter priority controls the shutter time. Useful when taking pictures of fast moving objects or for intentional blurring effects and maybe something to remember when taking pictures of remote control racing cars (my brothers one comment on 100 photos I took one Sunday - "Why are they all so blurred?")

Shutter Priority versus Aperture Priority
These work together. The smaller the aperture, the longer the exposure time needed. Simple as that. Except it's not is it? Basically you seem to trade these off against each other to get the effect you want. Want a large depth of field (for some panoramic stuff), then you'll need a long exposure. When working in one of these modes, the camera will always manipulate the other setting. you can use a little under exposure or over exposure to help get the effect you want.

When in manual mode, you're on your own kid...

ISO Speeds
Basically how sensitive the sensor will be to the light presented. The higher the ISO, the less light needed. But, the higher the ISO the more potential for noisey pictures (unwanted grain). Mostly I learned it's important to reset it to 100 after you've been using it on a higher setting or you can end up in a pickle.

Tripods
The value of a good tripod is becoming more and more apparent. something sturdy, quick to erect and stable is essential for all but the most simple of snaps. And something you can trust is good too. The tripod I have is fit for purpose, but will probably be the first piece of kit I change as I find it impossible to get level.

Post Processing
When I started out on this, I'd feared I would be a purest in terms of post processing, demanding all photos were as is out of the camera. But image manipulation is a seductive mistress. (I'll try to show you in the next post I make).
It starts simple a little cropping, maybe some straightening and then before you know it you're in there burning shadows, cloning out annoying artefacts and generally making all manner of changes. Fair enough I say. Go for it.

I'm sure there are other technical things I've picked up over the past 6 months but what’s amazed me is the emotional or artistic side to it.

I don't want to come across like one of those "no one understands my pain, here's a poem" people*, but...

I’ve also started to appreciate the impact of properly framing a picture. Using things like the rule of thirds and perspective (which I’ll try to explain when I understand it a bit better myself) to make a landscape jump out at you. Or making sure a persons eyes are in focus to improve a portrait.

The thought process that goes into a single photograph amazes me. When I'd looked at a finished picture in a magazine I'd never considered that the photographer had maybe spent hours waiting for the perfect light, moving around to get the perfect line and spent hours puzzling out the perfect settings. Even one of those things wrong and a great photo ends up just a good one. (and if I could even get a good one I'd be delighted).

These days I've a habit of finding myself walking along framing things in my head, spotting abstracts and pictures and wondering if they'd work. I also find I never quite manage to capture what I thought I was capturing, either emotionally or artistically. Still, it's a learning experience.

Hopefully I'm improving. I guess as long as I'm having fun, that's all that matters.


*I have nothing against artistic people or poets. I quite like a good poem. I just can’t handle teenage angst very well. Oh, and Goths. I tried to be a Goth once, but it was so depressing…. And being ginger meant I could never quite pull off the look…

We took baba to the park today. The weather seems to have turned properly wintry at last with low temperatures and clear skies and since we were out and about and wrapped up anyway it seemed the thing to do.

I'm always keen to get out into my local park, something tells me there are good photos there just waiting for me to get enough skill and confidence to take them. Maybe next time...

In the meantime, I took this of some swings which had been abandoned until warmer weather brought the kids back.

 

The adjustment to grayscale was performed using Lightroom and a couple of minor tweaks were made to exposure and the curves stuff to try and make it a bit more dramatic.

 

Interestingly, by the time we'd finished our walk, summer must have arrived as there were a few kids about and the swings looked a lot less forlorn.

 

Oh, and for those that'll ask - Web Woes? Still ongoing. Defeated by the lack of a working KVM switch. I'm ordering one now.

One of the biggest problems I have right now is Workflow.

I feel I'm growing in confidence taking pictures and I'm a lot more comfortable with my camera than a few months ago. But, when it comes to prost processing, image storage and general workflow I'm in a world of pain.

It turns out some of the images I've posted on the web now exist only in that 800*600 format at something silly like 250Kb - 350Kb in size - After making modifications, I've gone and resized them without keeping a full size backup.

I've also got a hard drive which is starting to overflow with images and image folders. I tried to show the missus the Christmas photos and had to spool through something like 50 photos of waves in the middle of them!

So, I need to resolve my Workflow in two different ways. I need to rationalise how I go from a photo on the camera to a final picture and I need to make damn sure I don't lost the thing during the process!

I'm going to approach this in two parts.

Workflow Woes - Part 1

Storage and Backup Plans.

The plan is simple. Keep all images (I hate the thought of deleting any) in some form of master folder structure. Keep a copy of that master folder structure on a separate drive as backup.

Thanks to John who pointed out that DVD's can make lousy backup mechanisms and to Geoff who suggested I should make use of some form of separate drive environment, I sit here downloading Ubuntu and reconditioning an old machine...

I'll let you all know how I get on.

Hopefully you survived turkeyfest 2007 and are now in last minute training for achieving the end of the year? As an aside I always find New Year to be an odd celebration - Whoopee it's a new year? OK, yes it's good that by celebrating it you can safely say you've survived (2007 in this case), and OK you can say you're looking forward to a new year of dreams, promises, chances and such. But... Why not celebrate everyday if that's your thing? I mean, Whoopee it's Tuesday morning! I've survived the first day of the week and all that... Then again, maybe it's just me in my post festive blues. I'll just go back to bahing my humbugs*.

Anyway...

Christmas passed in a blast of Turkey, Santa, kids and weather. Since the turkey was for eating not photographing and I have this thing about not wanting to post pictures of people here, and since Santa waited till I was asleep before forgetting to leave me any presents, here's some pictures of the weather...

I was in Donegal for a few days at the inlaws and the weather was gray and blah. That said, the wind on Boxing (St. Stephens) day was kinda cool. I ended up out on Cruit Island again and managed to take a few pictures whilst standing in what must have been a force something wind.

They aren't great, but I thought I'd share them anyway. Hopefully the show some of the intensity of the waves. At the very least, they'll probably show how much the tripod was getting blown about.

 

(1/8sec, f/22, focal length - 30mm, ISO - 100, 26/12/07 13:31)

(1/6sec, f/22, focal length - 55mm, ISO - 100, 26/12/07 13:40)

 

I've a new appreciation for people who take fantastic pictures of oceans and beaches and such during storms. Not only do the have to contend with 'weather', but they also have to get to the spot to take the picture - something that can be one bugger of a challenge. I ended up staying quite high and dry on the day as it just looked a little too dangerous down on the proper shore line. That and the fact that I fell anyway...

 

In case I don't post again this year - Happy New Year.

 

 

 

*Yes, ok I know 'Bah Humbugs' more to do with Christmas spirit , but I only came up with that 'bahing my humbugs' phrase tonight and there was no way I could sit on it for a year! And yes, technically I 'enjoy' new year but I felt I needed to let off steam and it was a good line. Besides, it's new year - may old acquaintance be forgot and all that stuff.... See, you have to forgive me.

Merry Christmas folks.
May Santa give good toy.

It's been 5 months since I started this adventure. It's been a fun 5 months.

One thing I've noticed though, is the willingness of other photographers to help, give advice and share tips. Whether it's been the guys in Belfast, Geoff with the blog space or Dermot in Dublin, every single person has stepped up when asked or volunteered when they've seen me struggle. I thought I should take a moment and say thanks.

So, thanks.

Today was another example of the willingness of photographers to help. John (a friend of a friend) was shown my blog through the week and contacted me by email to give me his number for a chat. I gave him a call and spent an excellent hour or more chatting through the basics of photography, with him giving me lots of tips and advice based on the things I'd posted so far. His experience was obvious in the stuff of his I've seen and I look forward to trying out a lot of the things he suggested. The conversation has left me thinking I need to get involved in this hobby at a more social level, not just in books and the occasional walkabout.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you've stumbled across this blog and have some comments, please make them. I'm pretty new to this stuff and I'm keen to try and learn as much as I can.

Anyway...

On another note, with the Christmas festivities round the corner, I wanted to close off the Dublin walkabout pictures with a few more of my favourites.

In no particular order.

The Lights Under Ha'Penny Bridge

(2.5secs, f/8, focal length - 96mm, ISO - 100, 11/12/07 21:38)

O'Connell Bridge Ornament

(0.8secs, f/1.8, focal length - 50mm, ISO - 100, 11/12/07 21:27)

The Liffey Upstream

(10secs, f/8, focal length - 18mm, ISO - 100, 11/12/07 21:23)

(Turns out my over use of f/8 is probably a bad thing. I did know the depth of field effect of larger and smaller apertures, but had really only been applying it in shots like the bridge ornament above to educe the background visibility. Expect to see more use of aperture ranges for landscapes going forward).

Do you see what I did there?

Yeah...sorry, I'll not do it again.

I mentioned about Dermot's tirade on the power of over-exposing by two stops when taking night pictures a few posts ago. Whilst I think he quite enjoyed being painted as some form of manic overlord (a position we all know is held by Louise - lets face it, anyone who can con her hubby into carrying her camera kit around like some sort of bag boy deserves the title...), I thought it was worth sharing some of my over-exposed examples with you to show what he means.

Now before I go on, I'm still not sure if its as black and white as I make him out to be. Yes a lot of pictures benefit from it, but sometimes the opposite is true. I mentioned white balance changing the look of the image and being a nice way to add warmth of flavour, well I think the exposure tweaking is the same. Over exposing certainly brightens things up, but sometimes a little darkness can leave it a bit more sinister.

Here, look at these rather formulaic (look mama - big words!) shots of Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin.

(8secs, f/8, focal length - 18mm, ISO - 100, 11/12/07 21:52)

(2secs, f/8, focal length - 18mm, ISO - 100, 11/12/07 21:52)

The first image is a nice, bright, welcoming shot of the bridge at night. The second is much more somber. I haven't changed anything about these. (Though they may get doctored real soon...)

I guess it's all about what you want from the picture at the end of the day.

Oh, Dermot put his photos of Dublin here. Colour me jealous. (I'm assuming he's happy for me to link to them?)