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chromasia.com

Blackpool should have been a good place for photography today – there was the kite show (where I shot SG-Blackpool last year) and an air show – but both were a washout, quite literally. The skies were grey and flat, and by mid-afternoon it was raining. I did take quite a few shots, but none of them are worth posting. Well, there's one, which I'll put up tomorrow, but it has nothing to do with kites or aeroplanes.

Anyway, today's and tomorrow's shots are both HDR's, which, if you're cynical, is shorthand for shot in bad light ;-) Neither are especially stunning, but I like them both for different reasons: this one because it captures the age and history of this wall and gate, and tomorrow's ... well, I'll talk about that one tomorrow.

On a totally different matter: I downloaded the demo version of Flash Professional 8 yesterday evening as I thought I'd be able to use it to generate some pages for my portfolio. What I thought I'd try and do is put together about 20 images that fade from one to the other. I suspected it would probably be quite easy to do, but I really can't work it out. So far, I've managed to place the images on a timeline, but can't get the transitions to work, so if anyone could point me to a dummy's tutorial I'd be very grateful.

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
cropped?
12.00pm on 11/6/06
Canon 20D
EF 17-40 f/4L USM
17mm (27mm equiv.)
f/5.6
1/100
aperture priority
-2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
C1 Pro
perspective corrected
 
3x2 + HDR + urban
comment by peter at 09:22 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

Hehe - personally I'm still undecided about HDR because when done badly the results are seriously gimmicky, but in this case it's worked pretty well. But what really does it for me in this case is the upside down message :-)

comment by Karl Baumann at 09:23 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

Nice one, do you mirrored it? And by the way I think my English isn´t that good that I can help you with your Flash prob. I´m sorry but it´s hard to explain these things in a foreign language (for me!).

comment by Andy at 09:32 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

I really like this image. As you say, it has a history to it that makes you think.

On the flash issue, I would recommend having a look at Swish before you get too into Flash. For something simple like fading photos it really is much simpler.

comment by Darkness at 09:51 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

Great colors, and the detail is amazing. I haven't really had a chance to try HDR yet, but from what I can see here I should look into it. Very well done David!

comment by [ PIXEL VIKING ] at 09:59 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

There are many free flash slide shows out there, but I understand if you wanted to make one on your own, but have a quick look anyway at:

http://www.imagevuex.com

It is truly a great piece of work. I have used it for a long time on a non-photoblog site and I feel that it is extreamly easy to work with.

comment by Chris at 10:05 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

Have you thought about using Autoviewer? It comes in free and paid for versions and is pretty easy to set up. I use it for a slideshow of the last two weeks of images on my site.

comment by croz at 10:24 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

This big time botch job makes for a really excellent image.. The brickwork is magic as is the upside down message on the door.. A real backstreet image but full of class.

comment by Ash at 10:34 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

great shot...flash is a beast....have patience!

comment by JD at 10:37 PM (GMT) on 8 July, 2006

never sure on HDr stuff... couldn't you have got the lighting right with a flash??? great image tho! even better if it isn't just rotated, but thats my guess for it...

as for the portfolio thing... I'm gonna work on a small flash thing soon which will link into XML for the images and use some CSS files for the positioning and colours... should be relatively simple to use and should even be able to use too.
I'll give you a bell when I've sorted something out if your interested

comment by Svein-Frode at 01:59 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Check out Pro Show Gold. You can make slideshows and save them in almost any format, even flash animations with sound, if I remember correctly.

comment by bobr at 04:46 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Flash hint: be sure that each of your photos has been made into a Symbol ... (F6 to make a keyframe, import photo to keyframe, F8 to create the symbol) ... Once it's a symbol, alpha channel fades work.

Or go grab SlideShowPro, an excellent Flash slideshow component.
www.slideshowpro.net

Feel free to email me if you have questions about either, or need more of an explanation of the instructions above.

comment by Brett Admire at 08:15 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

www.flashkit.com is a very useful site on tutorials/templates/demos.. etc...

Convert your images to symbols for mac it's( fn F8 ) create keyframes and add the same image for begining and end of picture fade ( fn F6 ).. set the alpha of the beginning frame 100% and the ending frame 0%... create motion tween..then repeat

But if you're wanting to have it show the image and wait before it fades into the next .. add blank keyframes between the image and the motion tween

Hope that helps and not too confusing.. althought I think it may be. Good Luck!

comment by thomas at 09:27 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

i can't help you with your problem, but we use at http://zweistrom.net
a flash-plugin called 'simpleviewer'.

by the way, i like the image you posted. its a 'history-wall' with a great structure.

comment by Jide Alakija at 10:21 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

David I really wouldn't bother with Flash 8 when there are more user friendly programs like SwishMax. You can also get a trial version of it. Check it out at
http://www.swishzone.com/

comment by PlasticTV at 10:22 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Quaint. :) Reminds me of a short story by Roald Dahl of the same name. A great read, too. Meanwhile, garde au chien! :)

comment by Jon at 10:37 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

NIce shot. If you still need help with the Flash drop me an email and I'll knock a tutorial together for you. I'm a Macromedia certified flash developer \o/

comment by Doug at 11:43 AM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

ahhh i'm torn between feeling relieved that i didn't make the trip over to blackpool yesterday (i live over in pendle) and feeling sorry for your day being ruined by the weather, as i was very seriously considering going over to see the kite/air show.
I'll just have to wait for the Southport one in sept :D
Love your HDR's btw, i just can't seem to get the buggers how i would like them, ah well practice makes perfect, keep up the good work

comment by Jan at 12:49 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Really nice. The wall reminds me of the wall leading into Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films and books.

comment by mooch at 12:59 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Yes, I think that summariese HDR quite well. Helps make an image a little flat somewhat more dynamic. It isn't all that obvious with this image mind you. Looks pretty natural. Not sure if I'd prefer this shot to have been a little more panned out and thus provide some more context maybe? Brick contrast is good.

comment by navin harish at 01:30 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Amusing.

comment by Seth at 02:47 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Great colors! I like this one.

comment by Prakash 'pk' Trivedi at 04:29 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Imressive work day after day. Had a question on extension tubes and telephoto multipliers. I do not see them listed in your equipment. If I wanted by 2x converter what brand would be good or whu you don't seem to use them.

comment by djn1 at 06:11 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

Thanks all. I think I've decided to try SlideShowPro but will check out your other suggestions too.

Oh, and as there was a bit of confusion regarding this one: the image is the right way up – the gate isn't.

comment by lee at 08:18 PM (GMT) on 9 July, 2006

"HDR's, which, if you're cynical, is shorthand for shot in bad light ;-)"

haha, lol.

comment by San Sebastian at 11:57 AM (GMT) on 10 July, 2006

Great capture :)

comment by Andy at 09:10 PM (GMT) on 11 July, 2006

I guess the dog did some damage to the bottom of the gate as most do and the owner chose to rotate than replace :D

comment by Tara Holland at 08:11 PM (GMT) on 14 July, 2006

Ha!

comment by Myla at 01:18 PM (GMT) on 17 July, 2006

Dave! It's been tooo long -- how are ya? This, of course, is yet. another. brilliant. shot. Absolutely adore this one. Please give everyone a hug for me. BTW, have new website, do come visit when you have a moment. Cheers, M