Depth of field.

When photographing at the Autosport show I found it difficult to photograph the cars on a whole without them being lost within the background, or the surrounding colours etc.
I decided to take the editing a step further to try and see if there was any possible way I could help make the cars stand out, while keeping the image pleasing the the eye, and not losing too much of the original image.

The first image I tried it with was with a plain white car, in a quite simple background, but the main problem I found with this image was how the bar at the front was distracting from the front of the vehicle, which then seemed to shake off the balance of the image.

My plan of action was to see if I could blur out the background to give some depth of field to the image, also especially for the perspective the image was taken in.

I also decided to do it with the above photograph as I found the yellow carpet was taking away from the colour of the car, and the information behind the car seemed to be slightly more eye grabbing than the actual vehicle, if it was an advertisement shot, I would have left the image as it was, but as my images are more about just the cars themselves I wanted to try and bring the car forward more to the viewers eye.


To create this effect I took the following steps:-

1. Using the quick selection tool to highlight the area I wanted to keep in focus.
2. Going to the toolbar to select - Filter - Blur
3. Depending on how much blur you want, adjust as you will.

If you want to do the whole thing completely manual you can always use the blur brush but this is guaranteed to be as clean cut as the method I used.

I'm currently using Photoshop Elements 10 which might ork differently to other programs therefore steps may vary.

Light Trails.

Yesterday was the trade day at Autosport show, on the way home it was getting dark so since I didn't take many photographs at the show itself, I thought i'd take full advantage of the motorway and my camera.

I haven't long had my Nikon D7000 which meant that I hadn't fully figured it out just yet. I've worked with it manually for the waterscapes, with keeping the shutter open longer, but with that I had filters to help. Being at the show I kept my equipment to a minimum as for carrying it around all day, which meant no suitable filter.

For some reason whenever i'm shooting in shutter priority mode, no matter the setting, all I get is a black image. So for these 2 photographs I shot in Aperture priority mode.

The settings were trial and error, as for each shot was different from the amount of light in the photo, amount of cars and as to how dark it was quickly getting.

I really like the above image, for how some of the cars are almost transparent from the movement, and how most cars are still visible but yet the light trails are enough from the car lights and the lights on the motorway. I'd love to try this in daylight with the appropriate filters to see what effect I would achieve.

This photo really stands out to me, I'm dissapointed in the quality, but i'm impressed with the small light trail from the oncoming cars. With having no cars in front or passing it allowed for a different style of image, which to me stands out just as much as the one above. The blur of the surrounding trees/hedges is really effective for how it frames the image, along with the clear lines from the road.
This was definitely a trial and error technique, but with perseverance the right image can be found :)

Hot shoe flash lighting.

  Since deciding that I wanted to create an equine book, filled with equine portraiture of all styles and concepts, lighting seems to be one of the important aspects that i'm going to need to make sure each image is to the best of quality and stands out tremendously.

Limited to a certain budget my main lighting equipment consists of a hotshoe flash, lighting stand, 1 white umberella and 1 black/silver reflective umberella, along with a wireless trigger set. I am in possession of a soft box but without the correct fixtures I cannot place it onto the light stand.

As Wales has it's typical horrible weather, and I'm a current shortage of models, as my little brother has pretty much gone on strike, I decided to use the house dog.

I needed to experiment with lighting with using the only equipment I had, to be able to understand what placings can create which effects etc.

This was the first photography I took, the flash was relatively close, with the white umbrella attached facing scrappy so it's acting like a softbox.  It did turn out to bright as I have lost some of Scrappy within the photograph i.e his legs, but in a way I quite like how it makes his head and facial features stand out more. There's a sort of sincerity/sympathetic glow to it.

This was the second shot, which as you can already see is a huge improvement. There is a nice visible blur to his feet and the background to help the main part of him (face and features) stand out, and also makes the photograph look less flat. The lighting is just nice here, it seems more balanced and not over exposed. The only issue I find within this photograph is that his nose is more in focus than the rest of his face.

This was my third and most favourite shot. For my taste I think that the lighting is perfect, He stands out in the image, and it looks very three dimensional. Along with his face being all in focus and the front of him being in focus to slowly fading out in a blur further behind him. There also seems to be more of an expression in his face, and I do find that this image just show us his little mischievous character.

Shooting indoors was quite easy and having a set area to work in and a model that co-operated made it all the better.
My next challenge will be to adapt this to people portraiture and shooting outdoors.