This is another image from my (not quite so) recent wander around Blackpool and the Fylde coast with Simon Jenkins: a shot of one of the wrecked boats in the Wyre Estuary at Fleetwood.

This is a second shot of the wrecked boat I posted on Wednesday, and while it's not as abstract I do prefer it. Let me know which of the two you like best.

In other news ...

My sixth Creative Workflow tutorial is now live: a 50 minute walk-through/analysis of the Omani seascape I posted earlier this week. If you're not familiar with my Creative Workflow tutorials (part of our online Photoshop tutorials), take a look at the following link for further details:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/cw_info.php

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

1.28am on 27/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 44mm f/11.0 1/320 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor rotation

First: thanks for all your likes, comments and tweets on my previous entry: the shot of the Dubai skyline taken from the Four Points Sheraton hotel on Sheik Zayed road. It's always great to post something that gets a really positive response :-)

As for this one: while I don't think that this one will generate quite so much interest I am pleased with it as it's been almost two years since I posted a shot of any of the wrecked or abandoned boats at Fleetwood. I also have a second, slightly less abstract/graphic shot that I'll post on Friday.

As always, let me know what you think.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

1.17pm on 27/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 44mm f/11.0 1/500 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 2x1

This is the third and last IR shot I'll be posting – until I can get my hands on an IR filter of my own – and of the three I think it's probably my favourite, though the first one I posted does come a close second.

In terms of this technique: I wont reiterate the points I made in my previous entry – you can read through it if you're interested in finding out a bit more about using an IR filter – but I will say that this is definitely something I'll try again, not least because it does produce shots that would be very difficult to achieve using standard post-processing techniques on a non-IR shot.

And while I mentioned that this one is probably my favourite, do let me know which of the three you like best.

Update: I've posted a link to the original IR shot here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_18.php

On an unrelated matter: thanks for all the great feedback on my recent interview with Scott Anderson from foliopodcast.com (both via email and twitter). If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, and you're interested in hearing a bit more about my thoughts on blogging, photography, and social networking, you can do so here:

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This the second of the three shots I'll be posting that were taken using a Hoya R72 infrared filter (which I borrowed from Andrew Thatcher earlier this week). Of the three, this is probably the least dramatic, but I did think it was worth posting too.

From a technical point of view, shooting using an IR filter is relatively straightforward, but if you do decide to give it a try there are a few things you need to bear in mind. First, you need to compose your shot before attaching the filter as you can't see through them, i.e. they block available light.

Second, you will need to work out the exposure manually as your camera's meter will suggest a near-normal exposure – which will be way off. For example, this one was shot in bright sunlight, yet the exposure was around 20s at f/8.0.

Third, judging whether you have a correct exposure is a bit difficult as the exposure will be heavily biased towards the red channel. If you use the brightness histogram on your camera you risk overexposing the shot, so switch to using the RGB histogram. That way you can check the red channel and make sure there isn't any clipping.

If you're interested, the original is here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_17.php

On a totally different matter: I was interviewed by Scott Anderson from foliopodcast.com a couple of weeks ago. If you're interested, you can listen to the interview here:


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You can also subsribe to the podcast in iTunes.

I was going to post another of the shots I took while out and about with Theis Dahl at the weekend, but I went back up to the Wyre wrecks on Tuesday and shot some new material. As you can see from the title, this is 16th image I've posted in this series, but it's the first new one since September 2007 as each time I've been back I've struggled to find a new angle; i.e. I ended up duplicating, or near-duplicating previous shots.

On Tuesday though, I tried something different, but rather than explain it I'd be interested to hear if any of you can work out what's different about this one. I should say that this is a pseudo-HDR image, created with Photomatix Pro as described in the following tutorial:

.../tutorials/online/hdr3_info.php

In this instance though, this isn't what I'm referring to; i.e. there's something else too.

Let me know if you need a clue ;)

I mentioned that I'd been up to the wyre wrecks with Craig the other day and as I was browsing through his site this evening and noticed that he had posted a shot of one them that I also photographed on the day. I didn't process it at the time, but thought I'd see what I could do with it this evening.

If you compare his to mine you'll see that we've gone for quite different interpretations. I'm not suggesting that you compare them - they're both very different - but I would be interested to hear what you think of this one.

It's been a while since I posted any shots of the Wyre wrecks so I thought I'd put this one up. For once though, I ended up being really undecided about which of two versions I prefer. There's this one, and there's a colour version here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_14.php

Let me know what you think.

I met up with Russ from syspix.com the other day and we went up to Fleetwood to photograph the Wyre Wrecks. This is only shot that I'm really happy with, but I may post another tomorrow.

Like yesterday's shot, this is an HDR (high dynamic range) image constructed from four originals, all shot at f/8.0 with shutterspeeds from 1/400th to 1/25th. Unlike yesterday's though, which looked reasonably natural for an HDR image, I've processed this one more extensively. I did think about going for a reasonably natural look with this one too but, in the end, decided to go for a more dramatic feel with this one, not least because I thoroughly enjoy processing this sort of image.

I don't know about you, but I find post-processing very therapeutic: it's absorbing, there's an end-point to discover and work towards, it doesn't require logic or verbalisation ... it's generally a relaxing process. Well, it is when I've got something decent to work with in the first place; it's more of a pain when I'm archive raiding and trying to make something out of less than ideal material. Under these circumstances though, it's definitely a thoroughly pleasurable experience.

Anyway, I'm rambling, not least because Finley has kept us both up for most of the last few nights. I don't think there's anything especially wrong with him, other than a slight cold, but he seems to think that the hours between 1.00am and 5.00am are ones during which he should be awake ... which is a bit of a pain.

On which note, I'll shut up. Let me know what you think about this one as I suspect there will be some of you who like it and some who think it's overdone.

Oh, and you should view this one with the black theme.

I don't imagine that anyone will be too surprised to hear that I much prefer this one to yesterday's. Both are part of a series, but, on the whole, I think this is a much better shot than my sixth 'keep out' shot.

As with the other shots in this series this is an HDR (high dynamic range) image. While I know that some of you find these a bit gimmicky, in my opinion it's definitely one of the best ways of capturing this sort of scene; mostly because it captures the richness and texture of the wood, peeling paint, and so on. Under absolutely ideal lighting, I guess a straight shot would probably be as good, but it's rare that such light comes along.

Oh, and I've finally worked out that HDR shots are a lot more successful when shot under very flat/even light. I shot a few this afternoon, and as the time went on the light improved: the HDR's I took at the time though, didn't.

Anyway, let's hope that this one gets a few more comments than yesterday's effort ;-)

First of all, my apologies for not managing to post anything yesterday, but by the time I had some free time I was feeling terrible, so went to bed instead. I've now posted an image to cover yesterday's shot: it's not a great photograph, but it does contextualise mine and Paul's experience.

As for this one: I don't think it's as striking as the previous one (thanks for all your comments on that one) but there are two things I like about it: the apparent left-right shift from night to day, and the mix of sodium lighting and the much colder light of the moon.

Update: following a couple of the initial comments I've darkened this one slightly.

I went back to the wrecks last night, with Paul, and what should have been a gentle stroll under the stars turned into something a little more adventurous ... to say the least. It was 11.30pm, and the tide was coming in as we were taking a shot of one of the boats.

We checked the tide times on Paul's web-enabled phone, and confirmed that high tide was 11.36pm. So, almost high tide, but we were getting our feet wet. We decided to climb aboard one of the boats I'd photographed before – wyre wreck #5 – and wait until the tide receded. We took a few shots and noticed that the tide was still rising – it was now about a foot deep around the boat. We pondered for a while, and it got deeper. At this point it was beginning to look as though we were stuck on the boat for a while.

When it started filling the bottom of the boat we decided we better climb onto what was left of the roof, Paul on one side, me on the other. We checked the website again and found out that the tide time were GMT, not British summertime; i.e. high tide was expected at around 12.36pm.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the tide came within three feet of the roof of the boat, by which point we were several hundred yards from the shore, and we didn't manage to get off again until 2.30am by which point we were frozen silly. Still, I did get this shot and we didn't have to call the coast guard, so all in all the trip probably counts as a success ;-)

Oh, and I haven't put up the EXIF data but this was taken at 17mm (or thereabouts) and was a four minute exposure at f/5.6.

Ok, here's the last one in the series, for the time being at least. Like the other seven, this is also an HDR, but the effect is much less noticeable in this one; partially as a consequence of the way in which it's been processed and partly because it's a monochrome image (for some reason monochrome HDR's look much more 'natural' than colour ones).

As for what's next on chromasia: I'll have a go at some of the suggestions you posted on yesterday's entry, though I'm not sure what order I'll tackle them in, so look out for portraits, colourful images, animals (probably our cat) and various other objects and things.

Oh, and this is probably another one that looks better with the black theme.

For those of you who are getting bored with HDR shots of these old wrecks you'll be pleased to hear that this is the last but one I'll be putting up for a while as I think it's about time I took some photographs of something else.

At some point, I'll visit them again, as I suspect that there are dozens more shots to be had. In fact, some of the ones I tried yesterday almost worked out, and could easily be re-shot, but I'll leave it for a while.

What do you suggest I shoot next?

I went back to visit the wrecks again today, this time with John as well as Alistair, and this is one of my attempts to come up with a more creative composition than the relatively straight shots I posted last week.

As to whether it works or not, I'm not sure, and I'm not especially sure about any of the other shots I took today either (though haven't really processed them yet). I think that part of the problem in attempting to create a different view of these boats is that a) they're striking in their own right, and b) I was especially pleased with the ones I put up last week.

Anyway, time (and your comments) will tell.

Oh, and my apologies for this going up later than usual – it's been a hectic day.

I did think I'd processed all the worthwhile shots from my trip to the Wyre wrecks, but, as I didn't manage to get out of the house today, I thought I'd have a go at processing this one. Like the other four in the series, it's an HDR, composed of four original RAW files, one stop apart, and is taken from inside the second boat in this series.

Unlike the other four though I've gone for a much more dramatic feel with this one. And I know that some of you will find it a little over the top, but I'm really pleased with how this one turned out. All the more so because I nearly didn't bother processing it at all.

Anyway, this is definitely the last in the series, for the time being at least, so I'll have to go out and shoot something different tomorrow.

Oh, and this is definitely one that should be viewed with the black theme.

My original intention was to post this as a colour image, but the more I played around with it the less I liked it, so I've gone for a toned black and white instead. If you're interested, the colour version is here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_4.php

I like the colours, but what I'm less keen on is the rather plastic-like look of the boat itself – it didn't seem to suit the mood of this shot, or match with the other three shots in this small series.

Taking the four as a whole I'm undecided which I like best but it's probably the second one, closely followed by the first.

This is the third of four in this small series, and the first of two shots of this boat. Of the two I'm not sure which I prefer. Tomorrow's takes a wider view and different angle, and is more of a typical HDR shot (it's also processed in a style more like some of my landscape shots), but I like today's, both in terms of composition and the vibrancy of the colours.

And again, as with the previous two shots this one at a fairly wide angle, f/8.0, and was constructed from four original RAW files, each one stop apart.

As always, let me know what you think.

Update: Following Elissa's and Alistair's comment regarding the blue tinge to the interior of the boat I've amended this one.

When I posted yesterday's shot I wasn't sure how many of the HDR's I'd taken would work out. The answer is four: yesterday's, this one, and two more shots of a third boat taken from different angles, both in colour.

As for this one: it was taken with much the same settings as yesterday's: 17mm focal length, f/8.0, and a set of four exposures one stop apart. If you're interested I've put small versions of the original exposures here:

.../archives/wyre_wreck_2.php

What's worth noting is that the lightest of these exposures (the one at the bottom) still has quite deep shadows, as did the set I used for yesterday's image. Of course, you can include further exposures to bring out this detail, but in my opinion the end result can end up looking rather odd. And I know that HDR's look fairly odd anyway, some more than others, and that isn't something I'm especially bothered about, but I'm not a great fan of the ones that seem to be entirely composed of mid-range contrast. That said, one of the two I'm going to put up over the next couple of days is more of a typical HDR than this one and yesterday's so I'll be interested to hear how you think they all compare.

So, my apologies to those of you who aren't fans of HDR images and/or wrecked boats, but there are two more to come ;-)

Update: I've finally managed to work out how to use Google maps so if you're interested here's a link to a satellite view of the wrecks. Yesterday's shot was of the bottom-left one, today's is the one that's furthest right, and tomorrow's and the day after are of the top one (I think).

I went up to Fleetwood today – no change there – but instead of going to the beach I took a walk along the river Wyre with one of Fleetwood's local photographers, Alistair Parker. Alistair has a few websites, including:

http://www.digiphotology.co.uk
http://www.photology.co.uk
http://torshovblog.blogspot.com

Anyway, back to this shot ...

It's the first of several shots of the wrecked boats that are abandoned along the western bank of the river Wyre. I'm not sure I'll be putting any more up from today's shoot (as I haven't had time to process them yet), but if not, I'll certainly be visiting them again.

As you'll probably be able to tell, this is an HDR, though unlike my recent HDR shots, which have been processed from a single RAW file, this one uses four RAW files, each a stop apart. From what I can remember they were all shot at f/8.0 and the exposure times ranged from 1/50 to 1/400. All were shot at a focal length of 17mm.

Oh, and just in case it's not obvious, I really like this one :-)