100 Photos – the rest

Discovered Lightroom can do a batch export of files to jpeg format at 72 dpi. Very useful for when you have a lot of photos to upload. I’ve not done any editing of these as I wanted to share the raw photos.

Skimming the photos below I can see that some are underexposed, others are overexposed, some are slightly out of focus. There are even some that are properly exposed and in focus. I think uploading them like this, almost like a contact sheet, is a good way to see what stands out and is worth doing further work with.

100 Photos – the edited results

It took me a few days to get around to performing the exercises for the 100 Photos project but I’ve managed to work through them. Some of the exercises have been simple to do because the tasks are ones I’m familiar with. Others were more challenging because they involved using features such as Layers, which I’ve never used, not because I’ve not wanted to but because I’ve never known how to use them.

In this post I’m going to include the end result of my editing efforts.

 

 

Exercise 1.2 Basic Image Editing (ISO 100 f/5.6 1/60 sec 46mm)

 

Of all the photos I took this is the one that I liked the best. I’d just started taking photos and the rock caught my attention so I’d sat down on the bank to take some photos of it. As I was taking photos this dog came running up, it ran around me and then leapt into the lake. I know that I missed a number of photos that might have been more interesting of it leaping through the air and landing in the water. This was the point it stopped to lap up some water, just before its owner came rushing up and shouted at it to get out of the water. It’s a shame that it’s owner was so insistent on it getting out as it looked like it was enjoying having a drink.

 

Exercise 1.3 Cyclist White Balance Adjusted (ISO 100 f/5.6 1/160 sec 185mm)

 

As I was working my way back through the park I saw this cyclist coming towards me. I decided that a picture down the path would be a good one and with the cyclist it made it a bit more interesting than without. I like the way that the one edge of the path leads you from the front of the photo to the cyclist and then continues to take you to the trailer, which contains the part of the photo that I clicked on with the White Balance Tool.

Looking at the photo from that point the eye can continue to the picnic tables or cut across the photo to the greenery and then back down the path to the front of the photo once again

 

Exercise 1.3 Sailboat Colour Balance Adjustment Layer (ISO 100 f/5.6 1/160 sec 55mm)

 

Looking through the photos I took there weren’t a lot that I thought were too blue. This was probably the closest. I played around with the colours until I managed to get the grass to a colour I was satisfied with.

 

Exercise 1.4 Cyclist and Child Cropped (ISO 100 f/5.6 1/200 sec 35mm)

 

I spotted this father towing his young child through the park and decided they were worth taking a photo of. The original photo had much more sky and also more of the landscape to the left and right of the building. Cropping the photo I decided I could lose the extra landscape and part of the sky to bring more of a focus to the people.

 

Exercise 1.4 Bird Cropped (ISO 100 f/5.6 1/320 sec 55mm)

 

There were a lot of birds around the park, either flying or hopping along the ground. This photo was a good candidate from cropping. There was a lot of sky which made the bird look a lot smaller. Cropping the image makes the bird look a lot larger than it was in reality.

I’m still working on some of the colour correction techniques so that I can use them properly, the contrast adjustment technique is another that I’m not proficient with just yet. When I do I’ll update this post and include some extra images that I’ve edited.

In the meantime I need to produce some small size images so I can upload all of the 100 photos to this log.

 

 

 

 

100 Photos – Initial Evaluation

Today I managed to find  half an hour to do the 100 Photo project from the first part of the course.

We have been staying at a hotel in Bedford as we have tickets for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The hotel is close to a marina so with a bit of time to spend I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take half an hour to take photos for the project.

These are my initial thoughts about the activity.

I’d thought that taking 100 photos would be that simply, after all when I’ve gone away places or been at events I’ve come back with lots more photos than that.

How wrong I was.

Trying to get interesting angles, different shots, having the right exposure and shots that are in focus is surprisingly difficult. With 15 minutes of the activity done I’d only taken 40 photos.

Mindful of what I had to achieve I still wanted to get some photos that would say something, that would have some level of meaning.

A couple of the photos show bits of litter lying on the ground, in one case less than 10 yards from a rubbish bin.

Another photo shows the perils of trying to take photos while having your mobile phone in your back pocket. Thank goodness for the glass protector I’d bought at the same time, that took the brunt of the damage rather than the screen. A new glass protector is far cheaper than a new phone.

The majority of the images aren’t very interesting, I feel, however, there was one where I was in the right place at the right time. As I was taking a photo of a rock in the lake a dog leapt into the water in front of me. Admittedly a couple of seconds earlier would have been a much better action shot but the one I did get I’m pleased with.

There were also a lot of missed opportunities, lots of people walking, running and cycling, lots of dogs bounding around. If I’d had more time and also more confidence about approaching people then there were a number of shots I’d liked to have taken. Even so I managed to get a few photos with people in them by being  discrete.

I’m not going to upload any of the photos right now, I want to work through the rest of the exercise before I do.