Deacon Broadie's Tavern

Nikon D70 @ 60mm, 1.3 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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I was taking shots of the tavern on the Royal Mile when this group of guys came by. They weren't going anywhere fast so I thought I might as well make them part of the scene...

No Parking

Nikon D70 @ 20mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

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Finally managed to find a few moments to myself. Recently, I've been feeling that updating this blog has been a bit of a chore, but now that things are back on track it's good to be back! :)

So I was back home to see the parentals this weekend and stopped by Glasgow on the Saturday. It was just a quick wander around the shops, but I couldn't help but stop and photograph this scene which was up a little alley. I've been finding myself enjoying this kind of photography more and more recently, but appreciate that it's not the most popular genre.

Your comments on this one are very much appreciated.

Taxi!

Nikon D70 @ 56mm, 1/10 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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Taken on a foggy night on Princes Street.

Playfair House

Nikon D70 @ 55mm, 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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I'll be surprised if anyone likes this photo... :)

Taken from Royal Terrace.

I'll get back to everyone's emails and comments ASAP... promise!!!

Playfair Steps

Nikon D70 @ 10mm, 25 secs, f/14, ISO 200

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Another one taken from the archives...

Just waiting for some free time now to get out shooting again.... it's been too long!

Belford Park

Nikon D70 @ 10mm, 4 secs, f/4, ISO 200

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I've been quite bad with my updates recently... hopefully normal service should resume shortly. Been a particularly busy time for me recently but I think things should settle down a bit now.

Partly to blame is Jem @ shutterjunkie ... she forced me to buy a new computer, so I've been playing about with that. Thanks Jem :)

Hopefully this will save me quite a lot of time PPing my shots as I was getting to the point where I was spending most of my time waiting for PS to do things, as opposed to actually editing them.

I haven't taken any shots with my camera in over a week now. Shocking. So I've been relying on some of my archive shots. I took this one a couple of months ago just after I got my sigma 10-20. For some reason I really like this shot, even although it's one of these shots of nothing. It's a good example of balancing the ambient light with artificial light... no HDR required for this one.

on thin ice

Nikon D70 @ 56mm, 1/10 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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Another busy few days and another slow update...

Again, this is one taken from my Christmas archives. A temporary ice rink was set up in Princes gardens along with some other attractions. I didn't have a tripod with me for this one so shot off quite a few frames in the hope that one would come out sharp. And amazingly enough, this one did.

I actually took shots of this scene over the course of a few nights and it was usually a lot busier than this. But I like this one because you can see the reflections of the slide on the rink. I also like the positioning of the girl with arms outstretched just below the centre of the saltire.

Choice 2

Nikon D70 @ 18mm, 1.3 secs, f/3.5, ISO 200

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Back to a plain old normal single exposure shot now...

I actually took this shot a good few months ago just after they put the Christmas decorations up. Which really scares me - was Christmas really 3 months ago?? Where has the time gone?!?

I was raking through my archives and thought that this one deserved a second chance.

Lady Stair's Close

Nikon D70 @ 10mm, 1/3 to 20 secs, f/4, ISO 200

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Edinburgh is full of narrow streets and closes and this is quite possibly my favourite. A number of entrances from the Royal Mile leads onto this square which is surrounded by some fantastic buildings. The lonley light in the middle just completes the scene. Because the area is so quiet and deserted there is a very eerie and unsettling atmosphere. Just the way I like it!

I walk past this scene regularly on my night time travels, and have always been prevented from getting a good shot because of the severe dynamic range. So it was the perfect conditions for another HDR!

While I did create an HDR image from a combination of 6 images, I actually relied heavily on one frame in particular. I've actually been doing this for all of my HDR to some extent. Essentially, I decide on a single frame which looks the best overall - one which has good tones and which, but for the clipped highlights/shadows, would be a nice image. I then paste a copy of the HDR image over that layer. If the highlights are blown then I'll set the HDR layer's blending mode to darken. And if the shadows are lost then I'll set the blending mode to lighten.

And violla! Look at all the detail you've recovered.

You can then adjust the opacity of the HDR layer to your taste in order to avoid the unnatural effect that HDR images often result in (I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing).

Anyway, I'm extremely pleased with the result of this shot. It's probably one of my favourites from recent times. And you gotta love the Sigma 10-20mm :)

I've also linked to a larger version of this shot as I don't think the smaller picture does the scene justice.

Sign Me Up!

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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I have to admit that whenever I see a homeless person, I feel the need to photograph them. But I never do. I think it probably all stems from my mother always telling me not to look at them. Well, if you're going to say that then I'll just want to look even more!

And as much as I feel the need to photograph them, it seems that they feel the need to talk to me. The last guy that cornered me (not the one in the picture) told me that he makes £600 a week from begging. That's not a bad little earner. The hours and location are pretty flexible and you're your own boss. I don't think you need any qualifications either, and the training's relatively straightforward. Quite a nice little job actually. The tax man doesn't bother you either, which is nice. No company car though. Bummer.

He then proceeded to tell me that he was going to America to see Coldplay perform. At this point I was wondering where I could get my Mcdonalds cup and cardboard sign. Although, he did tell me that he was having to go into America through Canada... as he'd been banned from the country as a result of drug dealing. Damn nuisance.

That was the weegie. The one in Edinburgh (again, not the one in the picture) told me that he makes £100 for a two hour stint on a Saturday night. Now that's what I'm talking about... sign me up for some of that action!

Castle and Gardens

Nikon D70 @ 11mm, 1/3 to 25 secs, f/4.2, ISO 200

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Thanks for all your comments on yesterday's shot, glad you all seemed to like it.

I should perhaps explain a little more about HDR (High Dynamic Range) images for anyone who hasn't heard of them. It's quite simple really: you take a scene with a really high dynamic range - one that the camera can't cope with - and compensate by taking a variety of images with different exposures. Make sure that you expose for the highlights and the shadows, and get a few exposures in between (I don't know enough about this yet to know the optimum settings to use). You then use a program that'll combine these images and make some tone mapping adjustments. I've been using photomatix (as opposed to what I called it yesterday: photomatrix!) but I know that you can do this in PSCS2 as well.

You can check out the flickr HDR pool for a lot of shots with this effect. Most of them are overdone and completely unnatural looking, but there are the occasional phenomenal shots that make a visit definitely worthwhile.

This one is of Edinburgh casle (if you didn't already know!), taken from Princes Street. The lights on the castle are incredibly powerful, and so a normal exposure for this kind of scene is near impossible. The HDR technique allowed me to combine 7 images, with shutter speeds ranging 1/3 sec to 25 secs (in one stop increments).

The Door

Nikon D70 @ 22mm, 1/15 to 2.5 secs, f/4, ISO 200

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Jeez, it's been quiet here recently...

Tried to update last night, but blogger was down... again.

HDR images seem to be all the rage at the moment, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. I've not actually seen any hdr night images yet so I thought I'd start there. Plus, it's easy to find high contrast scenes at night.

So I took this one a couple of nights ago as an experiment more than anything. I got a few funny looks when I was taking it, as if to ask "what on earth are you taking a photograph of?". Well, it's a door... of course.

I combined 5 images using Photomatrix with exposures of shutter speeds varying from 1/15 sec to 2.5 seconds. I'd definitely recommend this program - it's incredibly easy to use and gives you some crazy results. Initially I wasn't very impressed with hdr images I'd seen, but recently londonrubbish and chromasia changed my mind.

I'm sure you'll be seeing quite a few more of these types of images from me over the next couple of months.

Skyline

Nikon D70 @ 62mm, 1/2500 sec, f/8, ISO 200

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Taken from Carlton Hill in Edinburgh, you can see (from left to right) the silhouette of the castle, the Balmoral Hotel and the Walter Scott Monument.

Take me out here

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200

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You'd think that with me having a long weekend that I'd be able to keep this blog updated daily, but it seems that I'm still as busy.

I took this one on Saturday while having a wander around town. I'm still not sure why the boy has his school uniform on given that it's not a weekday. I saw the sign at the side of the bus stop and the attraction was obvious. I really liked the look of concentration on the guy's face and so snapped off a few frames. Was pretty pleased with the results.

Anyway, the sun's is out so I must dash and make the most of it!

Let it snow

Nikon D70 @ 19mm, 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO 200

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Blogger appeared to be down when I tried updating yesterday, so apologies for the delay.

We got some snow on Friday but unforunately I wasn't able to get out and take shots. So instead I had to wait until today. The weather wasn't the best but I still managed to get a few shots.

Conehead

Nikon D70 @ 50mm, 5 sec, f/8, ISO 200

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I took this shot quite a few weeks ago now, on the same night as my other fog pictures. I was surprised at how many decent shots I came back with from that night – was quite a fog fest…

The statue, located on the Royal Mile, is of David Hume and has been decorated the "weegie way". St. Giles church provided for an interesting background, as the spotlights highlighted the foggy conditions. The fog actually helped to control the exposure tremendously in this case, as the harsh lighting from the spotlights usually makes the dynamic range of the scene too great for the camera to control.

When I started taking this picture I notice a little old man stop about 15 feet to my side. I gave him a quick smile and got on with making my shot. Five minutes later (yes, I'm slow) and he was still standing there. I thought it was nice that he was taking such an interest in my work and so glanced up to see what was looking at. It turned out that the poor old guy just wanted to walk past and was worried about ruining my shot! What a shame!

Edit: I've just realised that this must be the first portrait (orientation) shot I've posted in months! Hmm… I wonder how I can fix the alignment problems with the date and exif data…