Westminster

London Eye, South Bank, London black and white.

<img src="Big Ben" alt="London eye river thames london bridge long exposure lee filters lee ramsden monochrome black and white fine art">

Nikon D800 f8 30sec ISO100 24-70mm@28mm

Morning, 

An image, of the London Eye, on south bank river Thames. With Big ben and westminster in the distance. 

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

 

Thanks

Big Ben on the river Thames, London

<img src="Big ben colour image.jpg" alt="London Bridge River Thames City of Westminster capital government Lee Ramsden">

Nikon D800 f13 5min ISO100 70-200mm@100mm

Morning, 

Following on from yesterdays post, this image was taken at 05:20am (the official sunrise time.) As you can see it was an overcast murky looking morning. But there is something i like about this print, the colour tones are what we normally see on a day to day basis. 

This sums up what i love about Landscape/cityscape photography, where it is a gamble. I edge my bets by checking weather reports the night before, i turn up at the location at least an hour prior to sunrise, but you just never know how it will turn out. Some mornings fog comes in and you see nothing, or its overcast and the sun doesn't even make an appearance. 

Not all was wasted though as while i am trying to make portfolio pieces, i am also shooting with the intention to create stock images. An image like this has more financial value as stock than an art worked piece with a dramatic sky. 

 

Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and often extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower.

The tower is officially known as the Elizabeth Tower, renamed as such to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II (prior to being renamed in 2012 it was known as simply "Clock Tower"). The tower holds the second largest four-faced chiming clock in the world (Minneapolis City Hall being the first). The tower was completed in 1858 and had its 150th anniversary on 31 May 2009, during which celebratory events took place. 

The tower has become one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom and is often in the establishing shot of films set in London.

 

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

 

Thanks

London Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster on the River Thames. London

<img src="London river Thames.jpg" alt="Big Ben Westminster houses of parliament government Lee Ramsden capital city london bridge clock face">  

Nikon D800 f11 5min ISO100 24-70mm@50mm - taken 04:46hrs

<img src="Big ben.jpg" alt="westminster river Thames London Bridge houses of Parliament reflection long exposure lee ramsden">

Nikon D800 f8 30sec ISO100 24-70mm@50mm - taken 04:33hrs

A couple of images taken from Jubilee bridge in London of Big Ben, westminster and London bridge on the river Thames. The difference to the colouring is not photoshop, it is time. 

From checking the META data to these files there are 13 minutes difference from when they were taken. Its amazing how fast the sky changes and it can dramatically change the feel to your image.

Alarm set at 3am, drove into London and set up for 4am. 0520hrs sunrise time, my fave time to shoot is just before sunrise, and the time on the above files are 0433hrs and 0446hrs. 

For long exposure images like this, i use Lee Filters. Either the big stopper which is a 10 stop filter or the 0.9 Neutral density filter. 

 

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

 

Thanks


I love London.

Anther early start yesterday,

02:15hrs wake up call to try and get a nice sunrise image in London.

The sky literally went from black to grey... Which was a shame. 

I can't get enough of the landmarks in London. They are so iconic and look amazing. I understand what I am doing is nothing new, thousands of photographers better then I, have stood in the same place capturing these beautiful sights. 

To make one of your own and with your stamp is nice though and enjoyable.

I will post the finished edited image in a few weeks but it is up in the landscape section on my website. 

www.leeramsden.com

That's the mrs and I suited and booted off to a wedding (as guests) in the nice weather...

London Big ben river Thames Professional camera landscape photographer

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lee 

HDR Photography.

HDR.... No, stop, don't click away! I know that high dynamic range techniques can be controversial, mainly due to the way that the extreme forms of hdr - alien skies, over saturation, halos, are more like computer generated images than real photos. But if you have a go, and take it easy, you may find that the results are pleasing to say the least

The Meaning of High Dynamic Range Imaging in Photography

Some people might think that the purpose of HDR is to produce unrealistically colorful, flat, or artistic photos. In my opinion the real purpose of HDR photography is to produce a photo, the quality of which is higher than that of a normal photo. The purpose of HDR is to overcome the limitations of camera equipment. HDR photography has the following advantages when compared to normal photography:

HDR photography captures higher dynamic range

HDR photography can produce noise free photos

HDR Photography Captures Higher Dynamic Range

Let's imagine a situation where one photographs (without a flash) a high contrast scene where the subject is against the sky. Typically there is a problem in the result. Either the sky is too bright (over exposed), or the subject is too dark (under exposed). That doesn't equal to what was seen with eyes. Eyes can see details in both the subject and the sky clearly. Normal digital camera isn't able to see as high contrast as a human eye is. In other words a digital camera isn't able to capture as high dynamic range as a human eye is able to see.

An HDR photo can have a very high dynamic range which makes it possible to capture scenes with extremely high contrast. HDR photo can include all the details that a human eye is able to see. In photography, the goal is often to capture the view and the mood that was seen and experienced. Unfortunately, because of the limitations of digital cameras, some details are often missing in photos. In high contrast scenes, a digital camera isn't able to capture both the brightest and the darkest areas simultaneously. HDR photography offers a solution to this problem.

Taking the photo(s)

So what is HDR? High Dynamic Range is creating images that contain more data than normal, usually by combining three pictures. This enables you to pull out details in the darkest and brightest areas of the image, without having to resort to lots of dodging, burning, gradients, or pasting two pictures together. A HDR photo in its original form is in no way a finished product - you have to use further processing to pull out these different details, this is usually called Tone Mapping, and tools in Photoshop, or the very popular Photomatix achieve this.

Here i am using the new HDR efex pro by Nik software.

To create an HDR photo you need at least 3 differently exposed photos of the same shot. That's not as difficult as it sounds. Many cameras give you the ability to change exposures from shot to shot. Since all cameras are different you'll have to figure out how to change these exposure settings on your particular camera. Look for Exposure, AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing), A-EV, BKT, or a little +/- graphic.

Important: Make sure the camera does not move between shots. Use a tripod or place the camera on a stable surface, minimizing movement as much as possible between shots.

HDR image of all exposures

Here are the 8 exposures i used for the final image.

HDR image photoshop tutorial explained

Using the new HDR efex pro by Nik software.

You need to make up your own mind up about hdr, all I will say is give it a go, and see what you can come up with. In the past i have over done it with HDR and so backed right off. With recently downloading HDR efex pro from Nik software i have certainly got the bug back to play. 
HDR image London eye westminster big ben