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Compact Camera Photography Tips: skylines and polarisation

My friend Iona has been one very lucky duck and has been travelling throughout Canada and parts of America over these past few weeks. She has been sending back some amazing photos that have made those of us sitting here in rural Australia freezing our butts off very jealous (but also very happy for her). She mentioned a little while ago that she wished she had invested in a better camera for her architectual shots. So I began wondering what tips I could give Iona to perhaps improve her photos for this trip. Then one day it occurred to me- polarisation.

I looked up Wiki to try and get a good explanation of a polarisation filter and what it does, but got a whole heap of stuff about light waves and reflective bounce (YAWN), so I will simplify. A polarisation filter makes the sky a darker blue. However, there is a way to get a similar effect, that will not be as pronounced, but still will give you a nice shade of blue on your compact. If nothing else, it will give you a good shade of blue to tweak in Photoshop.

Before composing your shot, you need to find the best angle for polarising light. To find this simply point your fore finger at the sun and your thumb at the sky. Rotate it left to right. The arc that your thumb points out will be the best area to shoot towards to make the sky blue.

Hopefully that helps. I also have some examples to show how effective this simple technique can be. Both of these photos were taken by me in Bruges last year.

This first image is shooting to the west at sunset. You can see the sky is very washed out, with no blue at all. The camera struggles with the light elsewhere in the shot.

By turning 90 degress- not even taking a step- the lighting is completely different. The sky has a nice vivid blue to it. At the same time, this angle gives nice shadows and texture to the buildings and provides reflections on the water. The colours in the brick are much richer.

And as a special thank you to Iona for giving me the idea for this post and for allowing me to use her as an example, I have boosted the colours (and done some other stuff) to one of her photos that unfortunately my advice came too late for, but I know she loves this image.

Credits: Iona, 'A Double Helping of Pei'

Thank you Iona!

Travel photos- Sunset in Brugges

I have been working for some time now on an album for my Mum about a holiday we took last year. Holiday is probably not the quite word- it was something of an epic journey. Myself, my Mum and my daughter travelled through Belgium, then to the UK to spend time in London, Edinburgh and York. It was an absolutely amazing journey.

To begin with, we have the photo taken by my Mum on her compact digital camera. In Brugges, the walkways are probably just wide enough for a car to drive down slowly, as long as no one is coming the other way! Which is why everyone rides bikes in Brugges. This, coupled with the tall buildings and the setting afternoon sun meant that the light was quite low in the lane we were walking through. Behind, the clock tower is set against a rather over exposed sky. Its features are not clear. The entire light balance of the image is wrong, and although the composition is good, the image is not great. I don't think there is alot that my Mum could have done to improve the lighting. Turning the flash to manual and turning it on may have helped to light me a little, but we are standing so far back, I don't think it would have made alot of difference. The photos that I took using my SLR had similar light problems. So in my mind, this one was a job for Photoshop.

Lighting adjusted, tone improved, cropped, and then framed in gorgeous colours and elements. The colours are better and the eye is drawn to the figure in the middle, and then along to laneway to the buildings and the clock tower, before out of the frame. *Sigh* I love Photoshop!

Credits: Laura Burger, Days Get Shorter

Evolution of a page part 2

And here is the finished page- I have worked on shadows, altered the background and well, spent a very long time working on this image! But I think it was all worth the effort!

We allow for one of these fantasy style pages in every package.

Graphics Credits: Randi Oh: Me Myself and I, Marche aux Fleurs, Bella Joy, Bella Noel; Sussie M secret Garden, Little Piece of Love, Here Comes Spring; New Life Dreams: The Tender Moments. Photo by Melissa Wood from Melissa Wood Photography