Tag: photoshop

B342 -THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTOS.

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As this post is being written and photos are being edited, I am sat next to a bin on a floor, while travelling on a busy train back to London, as the person next to me is watching Marley and Me on his Iphone without the use of headphones. So its pretty difficult to keep positive and stop myself from standing up and politely asking him to watch something a bit more up beat. I mean who watches Marley and Me on a train journey?

Anyway, apart from this current situation today day has actually been pretty chilled out and that’s how a Sunday should be spent, chilling, sleeping and eating. Firstly I should say congratulations to Amy, It fell on her shoulders today to cook up her speciality breakfast for everyone which is kind of like baked Spanish eggs and its one of my favourite breakfasts. She smashed it and everyone thought it was a great little dish.  I did mean to take a photo of the dish but I think its fair to say that everyone just dug in before I even remembered to grab a photo, so sorry about that. I think I’ve posted the recipe before but if anyone wants it, let me know and ill track it down. Its really simple but yet effective way of getting ready for what ever the day throws at you.

After all that Amy and me decided to get some fresh air and head down to the beach for a little walk, and what walk is complete without my best friend the Canon 5d. we didn’t go that far but it was the perfect conditions to take some fun pictures. I feel that my photography style is changing so much at the moment and Ive gone from wanting bright blue sky’s and a strong sunny day, to loving the over cast flat lighting that we have been having recently. It really adds a completely different element to each shot.

My plan recently has also been to use a lot paler colours, as most of you know I love black and white photos they always look so strong, but at the same time just saturating photos to the point where they feel black and white but still have hints of colour mixed with my favourite nifty 50mm lens just feels right at the moment.

What do you guys think about de-saturated photos, do they work? I feel like if you leave the white tones over exposed and keep the shadows to a minimum then it really feels like you capture a moment in time but then add some extra style to almost help create a story behind the shot. Its something that I feel just works kind of perfectly at the moment, maybe its just this time of year and that it all change in a few months, but for now I’m really happy with this kind of weather (By the way this is my Sunday night rush hour train thought process, so if non of it makes sense to you, just check out my photos and see if that helps make it any clearer).

Hope your all having a good Sunday! Oh and Happy Mothers day mum, you’re card will be there tomorrow. Sorry its late!

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– walking along the beach, didnt notice the bird sat on the post at the end till I started editing it –
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– amy going for that country sheek –
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– breakfast ingredients –

B289 – AM I A FRAUD?

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Im not too sure on something, if I take photos on a digital camera and then edit them on Photoshop to make them look vintage is that being a bit of a fraud? I’ve just learnt this new technique and Im not sure if it makes me look like my film photo skills are better than they are, because as a lot of people know my 35mm skills are terrible. it probably doesn’t matter, because well I suppose I can do what I like.

The other day I took a trip over the Ridely Road Market to have a bit of a walk around and take some photos, shooting in places like this can be really hard because no one there wants to have there photo taken, so if they see my with my camera walking around taking photos they start to get a bit edgy, so the plan is to walk around quickly and just snap and move.

Ridley road market is a pretty cool place to go though because its like one of the last really working class markets that i can think of which is kind of central, that and Peticoat lane market, that place is on my list so maybe Ill have a little trip over there and take some photos. the only problem is that my camera is maybe a bit too big to take to these place, it maybe draws to much attention, what I might do is just go with my iphone and do like some iphone photos. I haven’t really done that in a while so maybe its time to get the phone out again.

got a pretty fun Thursday, meeting someone to talk through some ideas I have for a video thats going to get made later in the year and off to my mates house for a three course meal, hes trying to up his cooking skills so going to cook me some Pork belly. Should be a fun Thursday. Still going strong on Dry January!!!

 

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– that vintage look is something I really like at the moment –
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– maybe I just need to bite the bullet and buy a film camera –
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– it definitely adds some effect to this daily blog –

B288 – A NEW BAND AND A NEW STYLE

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A few days a go someone told me about this new technique people are using to add something else to their photos, its a preset that gives you the option to add a kind of vintage film look to their photos, im not sure what the app is called but I thought it looked sick. I’ve been thinking about giving it ago but instead of using a preset on my phone I wanted to give it a try on Photoshop, it might surprise you guys but I don’t actually know photoshop as well as I maybe should know it. This became the perfect way to improve my photoshop skills and pick up a new style for my photos.

Last night there was a gig at possibly one of my favourite east london pubs, The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston, its got to be one of the best free gig venues I know of in London, every week it has some kind of cool unknown band playing even on a Tuesday like last night. My goal was to get there for the start of The Leeches and then watch them and the next band The Dolce Vita, well I was kind of late to the party and only caught the end of The Leeches, which was really annoying, it was still good to catch the ending of them but next up at 10:10pm was The Dolce Vita, a band that ive heard a bit about the past few months, I would say they are just on the limit of rock music and kind of hitting those punk rock vibes in a way.

they’re both currently on tour with each other, ill link their tour dates below so if they are in an area near you, then it could be a fun evening.

Heres my photos from the gig and also the little new technique I picked up. I hope you like it.

tour dates: https://www.facebook.com/LEECHES/app/123966167614127/

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– trying technique one and my first time –
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– this style at first wasn’t really something I had liked but its kind of growing on me
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– it definitely adds something to a gig –

B133 – This is what I think: SleekLens

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The other day a company called SleekLens got in touch with me and asked if I would try out there PreSets for Light room and let them know what I think. Long story short it’s a quick way for you to edit photos on Lightroom, without having to adjust the exposure or contrast. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, is it a way for me to save time editing photos, will it help to improve my blog?

SleekLens asked me to try the Presets on Landscape photography, so the best thing for me to do was head over to Hampstead Heath early on Saturday morning and see what I could capture and see how good these Presets are.

Sleek Lens sent me the Through The Woods Presets, which are aimed at Landscape Photography. I wont go on any more, Ill let my photos do the talking.

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– before the Preset is Applied –
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– using the TtW|2-Exposure- Darken Shadows-1 – I’m pretty happy with the colours of this photo, but my favourite part of this photo is the shape of that tree, it looks like a proper tree. if you get what I mean and the colour helps to define that –
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– before a filter is applied –
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– using the TtW|1 – Base – High Dynamic Range – my main focus was shooting in photo with a high aperture, to help bring out the cloud in the back ground, then because im shooting RAW, i will be able to bring the the tree up i n Lightroom, and was basically me testing to see if the Presets could do that and I can tell you that they can –
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– Before a Preset is applied –
TtW|1-Base - Monochrome Fantasy-1
– using the preset – TtW|1-Base – Monochrome Fantasy – I wanted to see how good the black and white presets were and what better thing to test this preset on than a white focal point, with dark shades in the background. Im happy with this, but I think black and white presets are a difficult thing, because B&W always looks good to me , but when I shoot stuff like this I want to bring out the grass in the middle of the photo a bit more, make it more defined, I think it looks a bit blurry and could be a bit more sharp, maybe I was using the wrong preset, if you know a better sleeklens preset, holla at your boy! –
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– Before a Preset is applied –
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– Preset used: TtW|0_All In ONe – Warm Shadows – this was a bit of a wild card photo, I wanted to snap something that had a busy foreground and also movement in the back of the shot. I wanted a  Preset that used the clarity tool on the leaves to help define them a bit more, while at the same time not distorting the people in the back, I want it to be quite a shallow depth of field and not do anything to crazy, just highlight a few colour, I would say this has done this pretty well –

I’m pretty happy with the outcome of these photos and think these presets are going to be a really handy tool for when I’m doing these posts. Will I use it everyday? No. probably not, I enjoy editing photos and the process that I go through to get these posts online, but when its 1 in the morning, I’ve been working all day, and just want to get to sleep, these presets are going to be a life saver.

They could also be a valuable tool in learning how Lightroom works, choose a preset you like and then work backwards from there, how did the preset use the clarity or White balance to get your desired effect? To finish off and not to sound like some rambling on blog, look into these presets and figure out how or when you would use them, I think they are something every photographer should have in their inventory, but not a necessity.

Overall I would say Sleeklens is an 8/10 and definitely has a professional feel to them, Heres a link to their website go check it out and see if they are any good for you, if you have any more questions about this, let me know and ill be happy to answer any questions, or if you think i’m completely wrong let me know too.

Check out these links to SleekLens and also some of the stuff they get up to, its a great idea and is a game changer for when you need photos edited quickly and without losing that professional feel.

https://sleeklens.com/product/landscape-lightroom-presets

https://sleeklens.com/product/professional-photo-editing-service

https://sleeklens.com/product-category/lightroom-presets