Texture Time

Extreme weather seems to be the norm almost all over the world this year. Here in the South of England our problem is constant rain and gales, causing flooding both on the coast and inland. Many people have been flooded out for weeks, and major rail and road networks have been disrupted. I am lucky in that I have not been seriously affected by the flooding, but I am oh so sick of the constant wind and rain.

One of the effects of the weather is that it has been very difficult to get out and take photographs, so I have fallen back to playing with the ones I've already got, in photoshop.

With the help of some textures from 2-lil-Owls this box of flowers was transferred into this

And by adding textures and a filter the national gallery takes on a painterly look

Which do you like best? before or after?

Because of the weather I've spent more time painting and less time taking photos, but I am really enjoying taking photos of my art work and digitally enhancing them by adding texture, effects, or combining them with other pictures.

This version just has the usual Lightroom enhancements

This has had textures added and been combined with another photos

and this one has had a severe crop! which is your favourite?

This is one I finished painting today and have been playing with ever since!

The original with Lightroom adjustments

with a combination of bought and home made textures

Using different blending modes and a filter - this is my favourite, which is yours?

Finally one of the few pictures I managed to take this week!

The original and one with added texture and a Valentine's message from me to you!

Autumn Colours - Town and Country

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower”

— Albert Camus

I have been busy photographing the autumn colours over the last week or so, they are just about at their peak now and really rather wonderful this year. It's not the same every year, some times the leaves just seem to dry up and fall off the trees with out really turning properly, others they get whipped off the trees by a gale before they reach their full potential.

I am going to share some pictures I took in our garden, in the local woods and finally in Winchester. The home and woods photos have had textures added to them; these are from 2 Lil Owls and I downloaded them on a great deal from Design Cuts

These pictures were taken on a dull, drizzly day, but I have to say tha although I really love the beauty of the muted autumn colours, they are much harder to capture successfully . The top photo here has been popped through Lightroom so is not just as shot; the bottom one has had textures added which have really lifted it.

The contrast is much less marked with these next two and I really like both versions very much.

Off for a walk in the woods now and this time its a bright sunny day, with mid afternoon light and the sun blazing through the leaves.

I really like both versions of the sun on these ferns, the bottom one is the original, which do you like best?

The final photo was taken on the way home as the sun twinkled at us through the taller trees.

This next set of pictures were taken in Winchester last Friday when I popped out for a quick lunchtime photo walk (a rare treat). These have just had my usual Lightroom adjustments - no textures this time. I headed down to the cathedral thinking the trees on the approach would look gorgeous - not so, they had't really changed in colour and had lost many of their leaves. I headed round to the back of the cathedral to see what I could find there. What I found was a hive of activity in preparation for the Christmas Market.

Further on though I noticed something I hadn't spotted before, a Barbara Hepworh sculpture apparently done as an homage to Joan Miro, I thought it look rather fine against the backdrop of autumn leaves.

I also loved the bright blue of this door

Heading back to the office I was struck by this memorial to one of the Riffle brigades emblazoned against the blue sky with the poppy wreaths still at its foot

Nearly back at the office, my final photo opportunity of the day was the Elizabeth Frink Horse and Rider which was in the embrace of a waterfall of brightly coloured leaves.

Hope you have a great week - see you next time X

Digital Enhancement - The Root of All Evil?

Yesterday we visited a small local craft fayre. There was a variety of goods on offer, including some very attractive pottery, some wonderful coastal paintings and some photography.

I was drawn to a stall selling cards of flower and wildlife images, with close ups of flowers very similar to ones I have taken. On the stall there was a notice saying that none of the pictures had been digitally enhanced, no Photoshop had been used in the making of these pictures. I checked with the photographer if this included Lightroom and it did, the photos were, he said, straight out of the camera. There was an implied inference of moral high ground here.

I suppose it all comes down to why you are taking pictures in the first place. To capture the moment? To preserve the beauty of the scene? To record the facts as they are? Or to make art? I'm not suggesting any of these are mutually exclusive, rather that they are a variety of lenses through which we can view our photographic images.

This is a photograph I took of a deckchair at Shanklin earlier in the week. I took it because it epitomised the seaside of my childhood - I haven't seen a deckchair with a canopy in years - yet unenhanced it doesn't quite capture what I felt to be the vibrancy of the scene.

I feel this second version is a far truer capture of what I was experiencing when I took the photograph. I was experiencing a vibrant seaside resort in full swing on a sunny day in August not a faded out of season vibe. So I cropped the photo a little, bumped up the contrast, clarity and vibrance and enhanced the blue in the picture. I have chosen this example as it is easy to spot the difference between the two pictures. Often the digital enhancements I make are much more subtle, barely visible at all.

For me there is something about honesty here. If I am viewing a photograph in a guidebook or botanical guide, I want to be able to identify the plant or see the view as pictured. I don't want the removal of unsightly pylons to make the scene seem other than it really is. If, however, I am looking to hang a picture on my wall or buy it on a card I want it to look as good as it can, whilst preserving the essence of the subject. I don't for example see anything very wrong in bumping up the vibrancy of the blue on a sea scape, especially if you have seen the sea just that colour blue on a previous occasion. Nor do it see enhancing the colour of a flower to highlight its vibrancy an unforgivable sin, merely exaggerating its jewel-like appearance to give increased pleasure.

This is a photograph of a waterlily straight from the camera. Below is the digitally enhanced version. In addition to the usual adjustments to clarity and contrast etc I have taken down the exposure a little, cropped the image to give greater focus on the lily, and removed a small insect from a petal and a distracting blemish from a leaf - is this version less 'essence of lily' than the other? Not to my mind.

The old adage 'the camera doesn't lie' is of course the biggest lie of all. As a photographer you select the angle and perspective from which you take the photographs, you chose what to include and exclude. In post-processing you enter your digital darkroom to develop your photograph in the way which most resonates with your experience of the view or object that you have taken. It has always been thus.

The advent of Photoshop has however allowed the possibility of new dimensions to our photograpy by adding textures and blending photographs together. I have recently started a new Photoshop course called Fine-Art Grunge which takes photography to a whole new level. This is not about capturing the reality of what we see but rather using individual photographs as tools or matter to create art. I am still very much at the beginning of this journey but am loving it!

I took these photos in the silversmith's in Newport on Friday, they make the most amazing silver spoons. I used the photos I took to play with some of my techniques from the new course - here are the results.

This is a fairly minor adjustment with only a couple of layers - I got braver!

And the final one where I went a bit OTT with the number of layers and textures

Lots to learn on this course so watch this space!

In conclusion I believe that all forms of photography are valid and that none has moral superiority over another. We all have our individual realities and if several of us were asked to write a description of the same photograph we would all write something slightly different, highlighting the different features that spoke to us as individuals. The truth is perhaps that we all see life, pictures, and anything else you care to mention, through the lens of our own interests and experiences so that the viewing of the picture is a dynamic experience. Long live diversity!

I would love to hear your views on this topic so do leave a comment and get the debate going.