First outing this year with the 5D Mk2. Took a trip to Abu Dhabi with some fellow photographers from EPyC.
This shot was taken right at the end of my shoot -originally colour but I tweaked it In Picasa and tried out the Filtered B/W
Here’s the original for comparison..
So here are a couple of shots from that same recent Al Ain shoot.
Actually, and probably obviously one is cropped version of the other the intent being to create a more pleasing composition.
But in a flurry of Photoshop workflow I didn’t stop there.
Spot the difference?
So perhaps you noticed that the cropped version has also had its levels tweaked to up the brightness and contrast a little -you can see the sparkly things on the back of the lady nearest the camera as a result. (click on the image to enlarge)
Maybe you can see that the line of the building verticals have been straightened with a little bit Edit>Transform >Rotate. so that they no longer appear to be toppling over.
Perchance you noticed the hint of Azure that has been added to the sky?
But most likely you certainly noticed that the flood-lights on top of the building to the left have been removed.
The maxim that the camera never lies, may still be true. but you can certainly stretch the truth a good deal in Photshop.
I hardly ever take my retouching in post this far. Im not even that keen on cropping. I prefer to show the ‘reality’ of the scene as shot. But on this occasion I felt that those lights were not only distracting elements in terms of composition but that they took something away from the scene -somehow making it less ‘exotic’ .
But in my attempt to ‘prettify’ the picture I am aware that I am no longer telling the truth.Ok its a small fib and maybe no big deal but next time where will it stop??
And does it matter?
Retouching or Reconfiguring?
Everyone’s at it. Even Annie Liebowitz employs a team of retouchers.
Answers on a postcard please -alt you could just leave a comment below 
I took a trip to Al Ain last weekend with a few fellow photographers. Its an old city in the middle of the UAE about an hour and half drive from Dubai.
We managed to visit a few of the popular tourist sites including the fort and the museum. Here’s a few my favourite images from the shoot. You can few my entire shoot here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100330476664616731537/AlAin?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmv_YfIzNahFA&feat=email
Been experimenting with a really cool App I downloaded over the summer.
Its called I-motion HD and it makes its very simple to do timelapse photography on ones iPhone. (yes I know this blog is turning into a bit of a iPhone advertisement but what can you do..
Heres the link for one I titled ‘Mall Fever’ which I stuck some music too on Youtube.
Anyhow as I say these little timelapse films are just really of easy and fun to do now.
Back in the day, I used to this sort of thing on my super 8 film camera. It had no auto -interval delay trigger on the shuttter realease so everything had to be done manually eg, by pressing the trigger every few seconds. After a while I began to suffer a sort of RSI (repetetive strain injury) on my right index finger. Each film cartridge allowed a max of around 3 mins footage duration, and had to be sent off to Kodak for processing and wait a week or so.
That said there was something to be said for the excitement of the processsed film dropping through the letterbox, opening the envelope, threading the spool onto the projector, closing the curtains and firing it up to see the results for the 1st time.
If they were any good I’d splice a few spools together and maybe show them to a few friends.
Now I can do the same process, but review the results instantly, and share them with a potential audience of millions instantly! (that said at the time of writing I think Ive had about 7 hits on these clips Lets see if this post can push that into double figures!
So I didn’t entirely abandon my ‘proper’ photography over the summer. One morning I rose at dawn and clambered up to the top of my roof with my Canon 5D Mk2 to shoot the breaking day across the rooftops of Canet D’Aude aka as ‘my’ village.
The light in that part of the world at that time of the day holds a very special quality but in previous attempts to capture this scene I failed to do it justice so this time I tried a couple of filters out. The warm up grad seemed to work best.
To create the panoramic I shot about 12 shots through from left to right through approx 180 degrees. ( I broke all the rules and shot without a tripod just resting the camera on top of a ledge). )I stitched them together using Photoshops automatic stitching facilty (File>Automate> Photomerge) and in a few seconds had what used to take me a few hours to produce manually eg. a seamlessly blended panoramic.
Just to get really techhy for a minute about this I tried a few different modes out in the Layout Option and found that ‘Reposition Only’ gave the best outcome but only after I had flattened the resultant image. (Photomerge puts each image used in the panoramic into a seperate layer.)
Whatever your thoughts about the rights/n wrongs of letting the computer make artistic decisions Im happy with the outcome and happy to give some of the credit to Photoshop algorithms
Been away in France for a couple of months working on house refurbishment rather than my photography! Started the task of editing the hundreds of snaps I took on my iphone and here’s one my favourites!
I know Im biased and it would be easy to write it off as a holiday snapshot, (but then again whats wrong with snapshots!)
I like to think I chose it Not just because he’s my son but because its really captured the light and warmth of a beautiful sunny day and more importantly the energy and joy of the jump for Che! I like too the way the girl in the pool with the bright orange arm bands is looking on suitably impressed…as am I once again with the iPhone camera capability!
Here are a few images from a shoot I did recently at the home studio of yoga teacher and life coach Adriana Me Barr.
Im really pleased with the way this turned out. Especially the backlit shots of Adriana in yoga pose against the white curtains. I kept things very simple and used only natural light apart from using speedlite on camera fill flash for the portrait shots.
It helped to have such an easy going friendly model. Adriana exudes warmth & positivity.
I hope I have captured some of that energy!
You can see more at.
I am running a series of Photography workshops here in Dubai at The Cartoon Art Gallery- more details following soon:
