Steve

Posts by Steve

The Louvre, Paris

I took part in a free Photowalk organised by Trey Ratcliff in Paris last autumn. It was scheduled to take place just as night fell, giving great opportunities for the creation of HDR images, and with one of the masters of the technique on hand to provide advice and guidance.

This is an image I took of the entrance to the Louvre museum.

It’s a three image composite, with post production in Lightroom, Photoshop, Photomatix and Topaz Adjust.

A key importance was the composition, ensuring the alignment of the pyramids with the centre of the building in the background, and also with the centre of the frame. Also key was the other tourists – as anyone who has been to the Louvre will know it’s a busy location, made even more so when there are several hundred photowalkers around the place with tripods everywhere!

I hope you enjoy it. This image is available for purchase as a Limited Edition print.

St John’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh

This church can be found at the western end of Princes Street Gardens, in downtown Edinburgh. Built in the early 19th century, it is a category A listed building. The decorative plaster ceiling takes its inspiration from the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey in London.

This image is a high dynamic range (HDR) composite of three original frames, and shows both the decorative ceiling and the stained glass windows. Check out my gallery for another image from inside the church.

Lightroom 5 beta

Adobe have announced the release of the public beta version of Lightroom 5.

By the looks of the new features, I don’t think I’ll be paying to upgrade from LR4, although some of the features look quite cool, particularly the improved healing brush (no longer restricted to circular spots) and the new radial gradients (think multiple vignettes, wherever on the image you want them. Or multiple light sources, illuminating areas of the image).

Other new features include automating the manual lens correction features that already exist in LR4, smart previews enabling you to edit your images whilst the external drive that holds the image is disconnected, and some enhancements to the Book module (which I don’t use, preferring instead to use BookSmart when I produce my photo books.)

Top of my wishlist would be improved performance, as LR4 runs really slowly on my laptop – I have to close all other users of resources before I can work on my pictures, and even then I have to close LR periodically to release the memory it is taking up.

If you’d like to find out more, the guys at NAPP have put together a series of videos highlighting the new features.

In addition, Adobe evangelist Terry White has put together a video of his top 5 favourite features:

Also, Julieanne Kost, Adobe’s principal Digital Imaging Evangelist, has also put together a summary of her favourite features, including some videos.

Have a look, and let me know your thoughts!

Speed of Light

Between March 21 and 23, the arts charity NVA organised a large scale public art display in Salford Quays, England called “Speed of Light”. Based on the interaction of movement, light and sound over specific terrain, the exhibit featured 120 runners wearing special LED light suits, each individually controlled from a central system to instantaneously change colour, flash-rate and pattern, producing stunning light patterns, particularly when captured on long exposure images or specialist film.

For a watching audience Speed of Light can be seen as a piece of abstract art, operating at the grandest scale, where the physical surroundings become an open canvas carrying a new visual language, expressing mood and movement, comprised of form, colour and line. It is also a monumental public artwork equally at home on a hillside or in the urban heart of a city, but one that is still surprisingly quiet and reflective in its mood.

New Web Site

Welcome to the first blog post on my new web site. I hope you like it.

Please take some time to explore the site, let me have your feedback, and share it with your friends!

I’m going to use this blog to share my work, my inspirations, and other photography related articles that may be of interest. Please feel free to hit the “Follow” button above to be notified each time I share a new post.

Thanks!