Salisbury Cathedral - detail of cleric statue

I didn't want to leave a techy post at the top of my blog—far too frightening for my average visitor, hehe! So here's me back on safer territory—but just a quickie.

Forever Watching

Forever Watching, Salisbury Cathedral

On a visit to Salisbury Cathedral with a wonderful girlfriend, Marina (mustn't digress, but how did I let her slip through my fingers?!), I was really taken by this particular statue. It 'spoke' to me in a way none of the other statues adorning this great cathedral did.

What I got from it initially was a rather benign feeling of someone watching over us in a caring sort of way. At the same time I got undertones of something else, not quite sinister but maybe something more of the secular power of the church.

Anyway, I tried to bring out those feelings by my treatment of the shot, in composition and viewpoint, as well as by dodging the whole statue in the digital darkroom to give it the presence I felt when there.

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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A brief summary of Dodging and Burning

Here's a reply I gave to someone on Flickr asking what dodging and burning was all about

@ r0ckstarlette D&B is all about "adjusting the tonal interrelationships" in an area by simulating an increase or decrease of exposure, just for that area.

dodging

If a sign in shadow is a little too dark to read, and you want it to be read, dodge just the sign, and you will lighten it in comparison to the areas you didn't dodge.

burning

Has someone's face in a group shot got caught in bright sunlight (but the rest are normally exposed)? Burn the bright face to darken it.

Of course, with tools like Photoshop and others, you get a lot of control in applying those tools. Like being able just to burn the highlights, or just to dodge the shadows.

So in brief, that's it.

Of course, like anything, it can be used very creatively, if you know that using it in specific ways gives specific, predictable results.

making texture tactile

For example, I use it a lot in shots where I'm concentrating on texture as part of the overall feel. Remember, I'm really just simulating what the eye is capable of if it were there (which mine is and was!).

the eyes have it

We don't notice it, but as we look around, our eyes are continually adjusting exposure. Even in bright daylight, if we focus on a small patch of shadow, our irises open up a bit to let in more light - and we see the contrast between light and shade within the shadowy area - look away and the irises close down again in reaction to the brightness they're now looking into.

Still cameras can't do that, so we resort to d&b.

example

Have a look at this shot where I've used creative dodging and burning extensively in the grass - especially in the f/g. I concentrated on dodging just the highlights and when the mid-tones got too close to the highlights, I burned just the mid-tones back down again.

I did all this on a new overlay layer, filled with overlay-neutral grey. I dodged and burned on that layer and then adjusted the opacity to fine tune things. (and deleted the layer and tried again a few times till I was happy - you gotta 'speriment!)

The key to it as mentioned by others, is a small soft brush, a low strength and long sweeping movements. Never burn the highlights, and never dodge the shadows (and remember that the purpose of having rules, in the words of author Terry Pratchett, is so that you think before you break them).

Also, I'm not an expert (learning, learning, every day a schoolday!) but the above summarises what I've learned so far.

Everyone else, please free to correct me or comment. If you're interested in bw, use your flickr id to join my website via google friend connect - www.highton-ridley.co.uk

Hope that helps,
Mark

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Experimenting with my new Sigma 10-20mm lens

I got an unexpected gift of a new lens for my camera when I stayed with my brother and his family over Christmas. The lens was a Sigma AF MF Zoom 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC. For the uninitiated this means it has both auto and manual focus (AF MF) with a focal length of 10mm at one end of the zoom to 20mm at the other. The aperture varies from f5.6 at the long end of the zoom to f4 at the 10mm end.

The first shot was 10mm focal length, 1/15th second at f4, ISO 100. I added the vignette and applied a bit of dodging and burning to bring out the texture of the wood.
Oh, and in case you didn't recognise it, it's a lap-panel fence, looking down.

This second image was taken looking down another section of fence, angled using the lens to fill the frame. Technical shot details as above, but 1/50th of a second shutter speed. Again, the (heavy) vignette is mine with a final touch of d&b, contrast adjustment and a tweak on the levels. As an aside, don't you find the portrait version has much more impact? A good example of how a little thought in the framing and composition can add much more oomph to an image.

The third shot shows the rear of the house. I've chosen something with familiar geometric shapes so you can see the distortion. You can make out a little bowing on the leftmost arch but other than the normal wide-angle distortion, the lens does a good job. Once again this is the 10mm end of the zoom, at f4 and 1/160th second.

Finally, shot on Boxing Day in a low evening sun. Again this shot was taken at the wide angle end of the zoom (f4, 1/640).

Overall conclusion as judged by this short outing? It's a solidly performing, ultra wide angle lens that I'm happy to have in my camera bag. It won't see as much use as my Canon EFS 17-85mm IS USM but gives me that added flexibility (beware, it's really 27mm-136mm on the same scale as the Sigma - Canon don't apply the crop factor in their lens designations).

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Another for Urban Ugliness vol II

This is one I took a few weeks back that I finally managed to push through the DDR. I've called it Rubble To Be. The general decay of the building appealed to me - roof tiles gone with just the skeletal frame remaining but there was something missing...

After a wander around, I found the complementary element to the shot that I was looking for - the pile of stones and beams up against the building.

It seemed to me that it was "winding up" the decaying building - almost taunting it by implying that very soon, it too would just be rubble.

I often do that, paint a little story inside my head, imagining the conversation that might be taking place if the objects were animate. Ok, so maybe I'm a little nuts ;)

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An itty-bitty day

Today was a bit of this and a bit of that sort of day... I finished off Ageing Together, toning down the over-zealous dodging, so that one and a few others are ready for upload.

One of them that I'm really pleased with is Pallets, Tyre And Junk (opp) - I originally took the shot having a mind to get in some more practice with dodging and burning, and it turned out to be a good subject.

With this one, I did everything as per normal but pulled the levels mid-tone slider down a fair bit to darken all the mid tones. That was the starting point for the d&b - I burned the ground, leaving the two patches of light and did the same on the pallets, tyre and junk. Then I lifted the highlights by a fair bit of gentle dodging in the patches of light that were left.

In between times, I worked on publicising my blog via feedburner and did some other odds and sods.

I was pleased to be contacted by the museum and to be told in principle that they're happy to put on an exhibition of my Urban Ugliness photo essay. So that's good news :)

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