HDR
Here is an image i have taken in London on a cold 4am morning.
Westminster with Big ben clock face is an iconic view and a tourist hotspot, but at this hour not a sole around.
I hope that you enjoy and are having a great weekend.
Lee
With recently spending some time at the in-laws waiting for the baby to arrive, i have used the time to head out and about at sunrise
Above is an iPhone image of my location on the Thames.
Alarm call for 02:15hrs - and headed out, just a shame the weather did not really play ball, but thats landscape photography for you.
Below is the image created by the d-slr.
This is certainly a location ill revisit to try and capture an image of more what i had in my mind.
Thanks
Lee
15 minute exposure using Lee filters big stopper and circular polariser.
Hi, hope your keeping well and have had a good weekend.
Here are some images from the previous London landscape image that i have posted.
I wanted to show the images used to create the final image.
I clamped the camera down to the handrail using the Manfrotto Magic arm and using a cable release i rattled a few bracketed frames.
I have included the metadata on each image, but other then converting to jpg, they are straight from the camera and in the order the camera took them and i added to Nik softwares HDR efex pro 2.
Here is the first base image. In face i quite like this exposure but i personally prefer having the extra range to play with.
And finally this is the out put from the software. As you can see it has little punch, no halos. or even much contrast going on. But the key is to get a nice base to start with, and then bring this into photoshop and make it your own.
I have tried many different HDR software on the market and not one will you be able to click process- done.
But i do think that this is a good thing, no 2 images will ever be processed the same and so this way it makes you take your time and make something unique and more realistic.
Here is the final image.
Thanks.
Lee
Photographing The Shard Viewing Gallery, London
The Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, standing 309 metres above London Bridge at its tip. Designed by Renzo Piano and completed in 2012, it's become one of the most recognisable additions to the London skyline in a generation. The viewing gallery sits across floors 68 to 72, giving unobstructed 360-degree views across the city.
I visited specifically to shoot the transition from sunset to dark — the window when the city starts to light up while the sky still holds colour. Getting that timing right requires some planning. The booking system lets you choose your time slot, so I researched the sunset time in advance and booked accordingly. The weather cooperated, which after a prolonged cold spell felt like a result in itself....
Practical Photography Tips for the Shard Viewing Gallery
A few things that made a genuine difference on this visit:
Tripods are banned, as they are at most tourist viewing platforms. The workaround I used was a Manfrotto magic arm and super clamp, which attaches to the barrier rail and gives a completely stable platform for long exposures. Security observed me using it and raised no objection — it's discreet enough not to interfere with other visitors and doesn't technically break the no-tripod rule.
Shooting through glass always risks reflections. A circular polarising filter cuts through most of this.
I was using a Hoya 52mm Pro-1 Digital CPL, which handled the glass cleanly and brought out the contrast in the city lights below. Without it, the reflections from the interior lighting would have competed with the view on every shot.
The Nikon D700 was the body used here — one of the frames in this set was actually pulled from a timelapse sequence. I had changed the ISO to 3200 mid-session and forgotten to reset it, but the D700 handles high ISO well enough that the image was still usable. A lesson in checking your settings between sequences.
The Building Itself
From street level and from a distance, the Shard reads as a glass spike — almost impossibly thin against the sky. From inside the viewing gallery you get a different perspective on how it sits within London, with the Thames directly below and the city grid spreading out in every direction. Canary Wharf, St Paul's, the Tate Modern, and Tower Bridge are all visible simultaneously, which gives you a sense of the scale of the city that's hard to get anywhere else.
For more of my London and places photography, visit the Places gallery.
December i bought i brand new Volvo V50.
the previous car was a guzzler and so was fed up of paying through the nose to keep it on the road..... Que the volvo... and being an estate car its a true family work horse, loaded to the hilt with gear and getting away for weekends is fantastic.
Here are a few images of the car on a great rough location 50 metres from the house, plus some detail images.
These two images are a mock advert that i made.
This evening around 1600hrs the sun looked stunning, and so i grabbed my camera bag and headed out, to catch a sunset.
the sun had other views and finally set behind a huge cloud.
Here are the images i took, and so i hope that i did not waste my time.
This HDR is made up of around 54 images.
Another HDR image
This was lit by an oncoming car.
A play with car lights.
