The right time of the day

Here is the wrong time of day; I'm disabled and when I took this walking more than a few hundred yards was extremely painful, I'm not allowed to drive because of my disability. Nevertheless I set off in the dark to walk the two miles here to get a pic of the bridge with its lights on. After frightening myself witless by walking past two large graveyards and through a third an hour later I get to the destination to find it is the main route for people on their way to work and was nearly run over several times until I got out of the cycle way. :D

What's worse is they switched the lights off and the causeway vibrated whenever anybody walked on it. :(
http://i41.tinypic.com/xepuop.jpg

However I think there is some mileage in taking an early morning shot of St Peters, if I'm not mugged and it has to be before the kids go to school. :D

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Originally Posted by arith

Here is the wrong time of day; I'm disabled and when I took this walking more than a few hundred yards was extremely painful, I'm not allowed to drive because of my disability. Nevertheless I set off in the dark to walk the two miles here to get a pic of the bridge with its lights on. After frightening myself witless by walking past two large graveyards and through a third an hour later I get to the destination to find it is the main route for people on their way to work and was nearly run over several times until I got out of the cycle way. :D

What's worse is they switched the lights off and the causeway vibrated whenever anybody walked on it. :(
http://i41.tinypic.com/xepuop.jpg

However I think there is some mileage in taking an early morning shot of St Peters, if I'm not mugged and it has to be before the kids go to school. :D

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Sorry, Steve (if case I might have said anything in the past!), I didn't realize you were disabled. The shots looks in focus OK, just needs more exposure. How did you take it?

I'm not so bad now since I've been in hospital; the surprise was that what I thought was a chest infection turned out to be much more serious and I got the privilege of the undivided attention of surgeons. Now it doesn't hurt to walk but I can't overdo it such as a 100 metre dash in 10 seconds aint gonna happen anymore.

The photo was one of my first when I did HDR for just about everything, but since the lights were out a bit of Gimp trickery was applied. The exposure were 1/8 down to 30 sec at f8 200iso.

I would not do that now but would just take one at say 1/4 sec like this one;

http://i44.tinypic.com/syv2w6.jpg

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Originally Posted by carregwen

...Shot below was done at 14:00 and the sun was a problem - had to crop it and edit quite a bit, and it still doesn't look great http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/...d5e7ed02_o.jpg

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That's very good Rob... :) Very nice. I do like the image.
But the light depends also on where you are in the Globe and your environment.
It depends if you are in the middle of the desert in Africa or in the middle of the forest in a tropical country.
Namibia (old picture when I was not so addicted to photography)

http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/ph...16_WQ7qL-M.jpg

And Malaysia, Borneo Island in the middle of the forest with the 20D some years later.
Thsi last one was also posted here

http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/ph...05_zTiaB-L.jpg

Shots at about the same time of the day but dramatically different lighting situations and positions in the Globe.

But Steve if you shoot RAW you may - yes, you may - have some more detail and you can improve your image...
Have you tried it ? :)

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Originally Posted by Antonio Correia

But Steve if you shoot RAW you may - yes, you may - have some more detail and you can improve your image...
Have you tried it ? :)

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yes I do it all the time, cheers. :)

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Originally Posted by Antonio Correia

And Malaysia, Borneo Island in the middle of the forest with the 20D some years later.
Thsi last one was also posted here

http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/ph...05_zTiaB-L.jpg

Shots at about the same time of the day but dramatically different lighting situations and positions in the Globe.

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I do like that, Antonio. very lush!

Rob, such a beautiful image, the way you've captured the Swans and the wakes and it has a very serene feel to it. I love the colouring too!

2 minutes to mid day. The problem I have with shots taken out of golden hours is that take on that picture postcard feel. You know the ones, on the rack next to the fridge magnets and whoopy cushions

http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Other/...7_kXGRn-XL.jpg

Four in the afternoon (July)
http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Archit...9_gZE8S-XL.jpg

an 20 past twelve (also July). Dull days can work in toned images regardless of the time of day
http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Archit...0_aXJYE-XL.jpg

:eek: Ice cream and chips

I'm rubbish with flowers as example this because seen full size there is a loss of definition and I'm wondering what went wrong. The steps are pretty sharp but it was windy.

http://i48.tinypic.com/azh3di.jpg

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Originally Posted by Wirefox

2 minutes to mid day. The problem I have with shots taken out of golden hours is that take on that picture postcard feel. You know the ones, on the rack next to the fridge magnets and whoopy cushions

Four in the afternoon (July)
http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Archit...9_gZE8S-XL.jpg

an 20 past twelve (also July). Dull days can work in toned images regardless of the time of day
http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Archit...0_aXJYE-XL.jpg

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I'd say the light-house one works, even at that time of the day. It has very little fine detail, just large blocks of colour, and the subject suits the lighting. Good shot.

Good point. BW shots probably work better than colour at brighter parts of the day.

Steve,

Did you use a filter in "Four in the Afternoon"? The sky looks altered.

"2 minutes to midday" have the blown highlights typical of mid morning photographs, acceptable in context to the time of day, could probably be toned down in photoshop. Nice images.

The only thing that can be used to analyze "20 past twelve" are the lack of shadows that is typical of an overhead sun, but it is difficult to tell if this was done on a cloudy day or sunny afternoon because the whites are extremely bright, confusing the eye.

It's an interesting point about the postcard feel of the mid-day shots. Perhaps because in the small space of a postcard it's more important to get harsh, bright colors? They're probably printed with an offset printing process, limited gamut. An image with a 3D feel and soft colors probably won't reproduce wall, and may not view well. So take it at mid-day, when the yellows are yellowest and blues are bluest. That's probably a good thing to remember if you're striving for that style. Take a mid-day shot and maybe posterize it. In fact, that sort of describes posters, as well, no?

Cheers,
Rick

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Originally Posted by carregwen

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/...d1921e53_o.jpg

Close. It was 13:30. Why didn't you think it was early morning?

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Early morning the exposure would be long -> the water would be soft -> you wouldn't see individual waves, just one flat, smooth surface of water.

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Originally Posted by rick55

It's an interesting point about the postcard feel of the mid-day shots. Perhaps because in the small space of a postcard it's more important to get harsh, bright colors? They're probably printed with an offset printing process, limited gamut. An image with a 3D feel and soft colors probably won't reproduce wall, and may not view well. So take it at mid-day, when the yellows are yellowest and blues are bluest. That's probably a good thing to remember if you're striving for that style. Take a mid-day shot and maybe posterize it. In fact, that sort of describes posters, as well, no?

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Personally, when I buy postcards, I always choose the 'artistic' ones - silhouettes, sunsets, blue hours, interesting perspectives etc. But I think most postcards simply reproduce the reality and this is a more important functionality than being 'artistic'. Like a picture of a hotel room, when you book accomodation via web - do you prefer a 'real' picture, or some unusual artistic composition/effects? I prefer the boring, real one - I like to know what I'm paying for. Postcards are 'ads' for the tourist places, so they try to sell you the place as worth spending your money, not the artist's mood.

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Originally Posted by Wirefox

an 20 past twelve (also July). Dull days can work in toned images regardless of the time of day
http://soloimages.smugmug.com/Archit...0_aXJYE-XL.jpg

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Lovin' this one. Looks like from the 1920s! Only the buildings in the background reveal the truth ;)

Thanks Agata, I love British seaside towns. Full of tat and contradictions. Just the smells evoke the whole childhood holiday thing. Two stroke engines, fish and chips, candy floss and seaweed. A heady and evocative mix for a lot of us Brits.

Steve

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Originally Posted by Wirefox

Full of tat and contradictions. .... A heady and evocative mix for a lot of us Brits.

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Aahh yes, we know how to do culture and sophistication (if I used smillies, I'd have put one in here)

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Originally Posted by Donald

Aahh yes, we know how to do culture and sophistication (if I used smillies, I'd have put one in here)

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I pleased to see you have joined the revolution. Viva la revolution! May the anti-smilie force be with you.

And surely

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Full of tat and contradictions.

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... should be "Full of fat and conceptions"?

Sometimes you REALLY have no choice as to when you can shoot, and forget about a tripod when you're on a boat! :) Recently I like experimenting with shooting directly into the sun.. The composition sucks, but this is a proof of concept. Shot today around 1pm:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4511131_n.jpg