After the Harvest
Following on from yesterday’s post, fields are being gradually cleared of their grain crops. The oil seed rape is also being cleared away. But the architectural items of the harvested fields are the bales of straw dotted around. The weather has been rather mixed round here, as you can see, so the whole harvest is a series of short sprints to get the grain in inbetween showers.
Following conversion from raw, I warmed up the white balance with a cludy preset, took Recovery fully to the right to deal with small specular highlights, Definition was boosted to bring out the texture of the straw and boosted contrast and colour through slight Vibrancy and a s-curve. A light vignette was added for emphasis.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour, Landscape | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Colour, DP2, Harvest, Landscape, Light, Texture
Harvest Time
It’s that time of the year now. The combines have just started and will keep going, all night if necessary, to bring the harvest in. This is mostly what’s planted round here, barley – excellent in beer and for malting for whisky!
and, as you might expect, I think it works in black and white as well …
Relatively straightforward processing took place after the conversion from Raw. The main changes were a quite a bit of Recovery to deal with the reflected highlights on the stalks and ears of the grain, a touch of Vibrancy and Definition, colours were balanced through auto curves separate and a very slight tweak downwards targeted in the mid tones.
Filed under: Aperture, B&W, Colour, Landscape, Macro | 2 Comments
Tags: Aperture, B&W, Colour, DP2, Harvest, Landscape
Pyramid
Modern architecture can produce some striking geometric shapes. This is a modern block of flats in Argyle Street, Glasgow (and yes the sun is shining!):
Shot straight up the corner of the building, this shot had exposure reduced by about two-thirds of a stop and the black point moved significantly right to increase the contrast. This was further boosted by a s-curve. Colour was deepened by an increase in Vibrancy and detail brought out with Definition.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Architecture, Colour, Geometry, GF-1, Street
Bicycle Mayhem
Even though people take precautions, sadly it isn’t sometimes enough …
This bicycle was securely fastened to a bicycle stand in Buchanan Street, but it didn’t stop it from being stripped ..
I was rather lazy for this photograph. I applied a Holga preset in Aperture, because it gave the rather grainy, gritty look I wanted and then bumped up the Definition a little more. That was it.
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Tags: Aperture, Colour, GF-1, Street
Gypsy Busker
This old gypsy busker is a frequent sight on Buchanan Street playing tunes straight out of eastern and Central Europe. I finally took her picture today:
Taken with a long lens, this has been heavily cropped for compositional reasons. Apart from that, the image needed to be boosted by just over two-thirds of a stop. I then desaturated it a bit – it helped with the slightly sad mood that her music inspires. To emphasise the hard life she has Definition was pushed to maximum and her face, hand and accordion were heavily sharpened. Finally, a vignette was added.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour, Street | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Colour, GF-1, Street
Endless Woods
On a long walk round the Atholl Estates in Glen Barvie and Glen Bruar there were long stretches going through woods and forest plantations. I tried to get a sense of this in the picture below. I tried this in colour, but couldn’t make it work for me.
Taken in Dynamic B&W mode on the GF1, the Black Point and White Points were moved sharply inwards to increase contrast greatly. I also moved Definition to the maximum level as well. The intention was to emphasis the woods stretching on and on.
Edit: Steve asked if a less contrasty treatment might work better. It’s all a matter of taste, but just to compare, here is the original jpeg (no adjustments at all):
Here is an intermediate step between my first post and the original:
It’s all a matter of taste. For me the more abstract high contrast version was best. I suppose that a high key treatment might work as well. I was after the impression of the woods going on for ever and too much detail gets in the way of that I think.
Filed under: Aperture, B&W, Landscape | 1 Comment
Tags: B&W, Colour, Drama, GF-1, Landscape
Queen’s View
Coming back from a cycle round Loch Rannoch deep in the Highlands on the eastern edge of the desolate Rannoch Moor we stopped at Queen’s View, a favourite stopping place of Queen Victoria. This looks along Loch Tummel west towards Loch Rannoch and Rannoch Moor. On the left is the mountain of Schiehallion, where the ancient fairy folk of the Highlands, the Sidhe, are supposed to live.
It was a grey day, which really pushed me towards a monochrome treatment, which I carried out in Silver Efex Pro based on a a straight conversion of the raw file with a green filter effect. I then darkened and increased the contrast in the sky, slightly darkened the flank of Schiehallion, lightened the sunlight on the water and increased the structure (mid tone contrast) of the trees in the foreground. Finally a slight vignette was added centred on the light in the water. It sounds complicated, but using the U-point technology in Silver Efex Pro, it was really quite quick.
Filed under: Aperture, B&W, Landscape, Raw Photo Processor, SilverEfex Pro | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, B&W, GF-1, Landscape, Light
This Morning
This was the sunrise on the way to work this morning. It seemed too much of a gift to pass up; so, I made a hasty stop in a layby to take two pictures.
I shot this in jpeg (by accident), and had dialled in a little exposure compensation in camera to reduce blown out colours in the sun. The shadows were opened up slightly in PP, some Definition added and the image was cropped to eliminate dead space in the sky.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour, Landscape | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Colour, GF-1, Landscape, Light, Sunrise
The Bend of the Tay
As none of my cameras has the latest new-fangled in-camera stitching or sweep technology for putting panoramas together I have to do this the old-fashioned way – through software. I took some pictures to allow me to experiment with a new application I was trialling – DoubleTake.
This shows the River Tay from near Dundee (top left) to Perth (right) from the vantage point of Kinnoull Hill. Beyond the fields on the far side of the river are the fields lying between the Tay and the River Earn, its major tributary and large river in its own right. In the far distance are the Lomond hills of Fife, with West Lomond almost in the centre of the picture:
This was a series of 7 individual images stitched together using DoubleTake. The resulting panorama was imported back into Aperture where it was tweaked slightly. Auto curves separate balanced the colours from the jpegs that I used. Definition increased mid tome contrast and improved small details. All this required full use of the Recovery slider to bring back the details that had been lost in the earlier adjustments.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour, Panorama | 1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Colour, GF-1, Landscape, Light
Half Tide
The Forth Bridges are normally photographed from the larger town of South Queensferry; however, its smaller and less well-known equivalent on the north shore of the Firth offers some interesting and different perspectives – particularly of the Victorian rail bridge, where you can get a real sense of the massive iron structure. North Queensferry, like most of the coastal villages along the Forth, has a drying harbour. This yacht was at the betwixt and between stage of being afloat as the tide ebbed. The sky, with clearing rain clouds, was a bonus.
This shot was processed in RPP to default settings but with a bespoke colour profile. Apart from a little Definition and slight Recovery in the clouds there was no post-processing.
Filed under: Aperture, Colour, Landscape, Raw Photo Processor | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aperture, Colour, GX200, Landscape, Raw Photo Processor, Ricoh, Ricoh GX200, Seascape, Storm
One Picture, One Day 