Mixing it up

August 12, 2015 by John Wallace in Moods, Night Images, Travel Europe and tagged alter, arena, beauty, Camera, Canon, change, Digital, enhance, EOS, History, images, manipulate, manipulation, night, Photography, scenic, sunset, Travel, Verona | Leave a comment

Sometimes I have images that in themselves are pretty straightforward but always look as though something is missing. Looking through my files I came across this image of part of the Roman arena in Verona Italy that I had taken on holiday.

Original

Final Image

The subject was interesting enough however there was nothing distinct about it that would make it stand out (ref the original image). I then stripped all the background from it, darkened the remains to resemble a night scene and changed the structure of the stonework to give a very grainy effect. Behind the image I added the moon with a blue tint and lined up the two, in all I was quite pleased with the final effect, open to comment.

The second image was treated similarly using another part of the same arena stonework, in this case the arches once cut out gave a window effect so I added the sunset taken at Verona that evening behind the arches and gave a hue to the stonework to match.

Archway

These are just examples of what can be achieved with a little effort so never delete shots just because they don’t look interesting, just mix it up a little.

Camera Canon EOS 550D with EFs 18-135 IS lens. More images can be found in this sites galleries as well as high definition versions available through my online shops.

Macros, or getting in a bit closer

July 16, 2015 by John Wallace in Cameras, Nature and tagged beauty, Camera, close up, Digital, floral, flower, macro, Photography | Leave a comment

As well as taking wide angle shots of landscapes I’ve always wanted to get in close to my subject, to do this properly takes a dedicated macro lens but most lenses on digital cameras will have a macro capability so until I’m rich enough to buy the lenses that I need like most I must make do. Flowers seemed the most obvious subject to try first as shown in the examples attached. Obviously stability is a prime here as I found that the slightest movement when in this close can cause a lot of movement on the image so a tripod is considered essential though it can be one of the smaller desktop models as the subject is only inches away from the lens and it allows a larger f stop to be set. If you haven’t thought about it then I can only recommend giving it a try, you might surprise yourself.

Flowers

July 2, 2015 by John Wallace in Cameras, Nature and tagged beautiful, beauty, Camera, Canon, Digital, display, EOS, floral, flower, fragile, images, nature, Photography, plant | Leave a comment

Flowers just ask to be photographed, I’ll bet that there is no-one who has bought a camera who has not taken a photograph of a flower at some time. Although you can take them outdoors on the plant itself I find that setting them in a studio type environment works much better, to start with there is not all that background clutter of other plants, fences etc and they are not always in the best position to be photographed or lit and of course you would need to get down on your knees in the flower bed. I did say studio environment but this doesn’t mean you need a studio.

I use sheets of black or coloured mounting card as a backdrop and natural daylight, often on the patio. With the flower in a suitable holder it can be rotated to achieve the effect, the backdrop is far enough away that the card doesn’t come in focus and the composition can be better displayed to suit.