Cokin neutral density filters ... not so neutral?

There is a saying that every photographer lives by. No matter what they major in, whether it be sports, landscape, wildlife or even paparazzi ... they all say "if I can get one good photo out of this shoot, I'm happy". After all, it only takes one great photo to make people say wow.

Today's shoot was pretty much based on one subject, and I worked mainly on one angle. Not something I normally do, I normally like to explore my options when I arrive on site ... but today I went there with one photo in mind and I wasn't going to go home without it.

This photo is actually not as photoshopped as it may seem. It is a 5 photo HDR (all photos approx 30secs in shutter speed). After merging the 5 photos, it was simply minor colour and levels adjustments to different parts of the photo.

One thing I should say though, that blue/purplish tinge in the sky and water are straight out of the camera. When I do landscape photos, I almost always use a Cokin graduated ND8 filter. Whenever I use this filter along with a long exposure, this colour cast always crops up. Some photographers hate this cast, but I quite like it, especially during the twilight hours.

p.s. This shipwreck is at Homebush Bay, Sydney. Yep, bet you didn't know that did you?

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Close to the end

less than 24hrs until freedom. Free from uni, lab reports, assignments, exams, pracs for a month. Doesn't sound like much, but I've been looking forward to this for a LONG time. Hopefully I'll find the time to do more shooting, work some extra shifts, scan some of my old photos as digital media etc. There's plenty to do, and very little time, but I'll make the most of it.

While I was thinking about the things I'll be doing in these upcoming holidays, I rummaged through the external HD where I keep all my photos and found an old favourite.

This is a photo taken from UTS Tower level 27 (most people will know UTS tower as one of the ugliest yet iconic buildings in Sydney) facing towards Central station. It was also back when I was still using my EOS 400D. I had to reprocess the colours/tones/crop/HDR as I've developed a new style of editing since. Overall, it's not the greatest photo, its not the sharpest, and doesn't show a whole lot of detail either ... but I just really like this photo, and I don't know why.

As I write this I should really be studying for my CSI exam tomorrow morning, so I'll keep it short.

Handy photo hint: Right when you think you can't get a new perspective of the city (or anything landscape), get up high (really high), and you'll get some unexpected results.

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City Nights

This post is slightly later than usual, and there's good reason for that.

The day began with early arrival at uni to study for the Phys Chem 1 exam that night. Tackling Physical Chemistry is like ... trying to break through the great wall of china with your head. Im serious ... haha nah it wasn't that bad.

The walk from uni to the station brought out a new perspective of the city on a friday night. Friday night at the city, you don't really think about photography, but here it is ...

This photo was taken from George St, Sydney with a fairly long shutter speed and converted to B&W using photoshop CS3. Times like this I do wish that I had the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L, the photo would look considerably better in terms of composition.

On a side note, the Lakers took a 3-1 series lead against Orlando in the NBA finals ... you can get the recap here. Also, don't forget to have a look at these images full size and feel free to comment on the blogs ... you don't need to be registered to comment (I think) :)

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The First One

Hmm, the very first post of this blog had exactly the same title. Finally I had the chance to have a play around with the LX-3, and here's the first real shot taken with the camera.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix LX-3

Settings: 13sec, f/6.3, ISO 100

The sunset was showing some decent colours, and I really couldn't help but take a photo. I used the roof of my car as a make shift tripod for such a long exposure setting, and ended up cropping the bottom in LR2. Prize goes out to the person that can guess this street ... Hint: It's in Cabramatta.

On the side, to show some of the other photos taken with the camera ... I've merged together a couple of the other photos (mainly to save space)

These are the kind of photos that you would take when you're bored. A quick survey of your surroundings and a quick flick through the local paper will provide a reasonable amount of subject matter that can be manipulated. The 24mm wide angle of this camera allows you to have slightly more interesting angles and geometric distortions. Also, the macro on this camera is quite good ... and what better way to demonstrate it than to take a photo of text.

One other thing that stands out is the rendering of blues and greens by the sensor. It's definitely not the kind of blue I've been getting from the Canon 50D, and there's something about it that I really like. NB: These 6 photos are all straight out of the camera, the only processing is codec conversion from RAW to JPEG.

Looking forward to posting more from this camera, maybe it'll surprise me even more than it already has.

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