I'm kind of enjoying making these planet images now. This one is the Edinburgh city-scape from the Ferry Road. I had to illegally park and clamber onto the roof of a portakabin to get the panoramic shot.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Another one
I'm kind of enjoying making these planet images now. This one is the Edinburgh city-scape from the Ferry Road. I had to illegally park and clamber onto the roof of a portakabin to get the panoramic shot.
Another world
This is another of those mini-world things I've been playing around with. I wish I'd taken more panorama shots that day I was in Edinburgh.
A few of my pals on Flickr have commented that they really like these shots so I'm now about 90% sure this is going to be my Graded Unit topic. I just need to go out and find a few more locations to work with. I bet the Forth Road Bridge would look amazing on a mini-world.
I'm not really too fussed about it all at the moment though. I just want to get Hogmanay out of the way then I can concentrate on my work again. Now, pass me another vodka and some nibbly things...
Friday 25 December 2009
Tuesday 22 December 2009
Small world
I've now had a go at creating one of those mini-worlds in Photoshop. I started off by stitching 3 images together, cropping it a little then making it a square shape. I then turned it 180 degrees and applied the polar coordinates tool inside the distort menu. And it was that easy!
It's not bad for my first attempt but I think I can improve with a bit more practice. The next time I go out shooting I'll get a few more panorama shots to play with. I still haven't settled on a topic for this Graded Unit though so I'm still keeping my options open at this point.
It's not bad for my first attempt but I think I can improve with a bit more practice. The next time I go out shooting I'll get a few more panorama shots to play with. I still haven't settled on a topic for this Graded Unit though so I'm still keeping my options open at this point.
Sunday 20 December 2009
Post Edinburgh
Well, that was a fun but freezing day.
I reported to the Network Rail station and the second I walked into the office this lady says "Hi Alan, sign here please". I hadn't even opened my mouth yet!
"What gave it away?", I asked, laying the forbidden tripod on the counter and shrugging off the oversized Lowepro rucksack.
Anyway, after signing tons of forms and watching a 10 minute safety video I was issued with a much coveted "contractor badge". This was pinned to my chest for the entire day and I was thankful for it. Almost as soon as I started shooting overlooking the main concourse I was apprehended by two coppers. "Excuse me", said one of them tapping me roughly on the shoulder, "Just what do you think you're doing". I wheeled around, flashing the yellow badge in his face. He then said to his pal "It's awright, Mick... he's got a badge on". Great to see anti-terrorism policing so hard at work lol...
Joking aside I'm glad they were alert to me with the camera. Quite a few members of the public were staring at me as well, but once they clocked the badge I could almost see their thoughts as they realised I was "somebody official". I have to admit it was a weird experience.
Anyway. When I was issued with the badge the lady asked me where I would be shooting from. I replied that I would only be on overhead walkways as I needed all my shots to be looking down. Unfortunately the walkways weren't really that high so I left the station and made my way to a better vantage point. Here is the first image I took:
Not really that great but I applied a few corrections and made it look like this:
It's not bad but it's still not brilliant. I won't submit anything to the graded unit unless it blows my socks off. I must admit this image does exactly what I set out to do yesterday, namely get a shot of a train and make it look like a miniature but I'm not really convinced I can get an entire set of 10 out of this. I'm still liking the miniature planets I mentioned previously (thankfully I got some shots I'm going to work on later to attempt this effect).
Here are a few other images from yesterday where I've applied the tilt/shift effect in Photoshop.
I reported to the Network Rail station and the second I walked into the office this lady says "Hi Alan, sign here please". I hadn't even opened my mouth yet!
"What gave it away?", I asked, laying the forbidden tripod on the counter and shrugging off the oversized Lowepro rucksack.
Anyway, after signing tons of forms and watching a 10 minute safety video I was issued with a much coveted "contractor badge". This was pinned to my chest for the entire day and I was thankful for it. Almost as soon as I started shooting overlooking the main concourse I was apprehended by two coppers. "Excuse me", said one of them tapping me roughly on the shoulder, "Just what do you think you're doing". I wheeled around, flashing the yellow badge in his face. He then said to his pal "It's awright, Mick... he's got a badge on". Great to see anti-terrorism policing so hard at work lol...
Joking aside I'm glad they were alert to me with the camera. Quite a few members of the public were staring at me as well, but once they clocked the badge I could almost see their thoughts as they realised I was "somebody official". I have to admit it was a weird experience.
Anyway. When I was issued with the badge the lady asked me where I would be shooting from. I replied that I would only be on overhead walkways as I needed all my shots to be looking down. Unfortunately the walkways weren't really that high so I left the station and made my way to a better vantage point. Here is the first image I took:
Not really that great but I applied a few corrections and made it look like this:
It's not bad but it's still not brilliant. I won't submit anything to the graded unit unless it blows my socks off. I must admit this image does exactly what I set out to do yesterday, namely get a shot of a train and make it look like a miniature but I'm not really convinced I can get an entire set of 10 out of this. I'm still liking the miniature planets I mentioned previously (thankfully I got some shots I'm going to work on later to attempt this effect).
Here are a few other images from yesterday where I've applied the tilt/shift effect in Photoshop.
Friday 18 December 2009
Going to Edinburgh
I completed the risk assessment form today and had it signed off, so I'm definitely going into town tomorrow. It's actually quite good that they've banned the tripod as it made the risk assessment easier to complete.
I'm going to have another look at other peoples online images of the station to try and get an idea of where they were shooting from.
I'm still not sure if I'll go ahead with this idea though. I was searching the internet today and discover a photographer on Flickr who creates these amazing planetoid images:
What she's doing is taking a 360 degree shot by swinging the camera round on a tripod then stitching the images to form a panorama. She then does some clever stuff in Photoshop to make it look round. I've already watched a YouTube video on the technique and it looks fairly straight forward.
When I'm in Edinburgh tomorrow I'll take the tripod and grab a few 360 test shots then come home and play with them. I'll also apply the tilt/shift technique to the train station shots.
After that I guess I'll make up my mind and try to stick with it. But it'll all probably change again in January!
I'm going to have another look at other peoples online images of the station to try and get an idea of where they were shooting from.
I'm still not sure if I'll go ahead with this idea though. I was searching the internet today and discover a photographer on Flickr who creates these amazing planetoid images:
What she's doing is taking a 360 degree shot by swinging the camera round on a tripod then stitching the images to form a panorama. She then does some clever stuff in Photoshop to make it look round. I've already watched a YouTube video on the technique and it looks fairly straight forward.
When I'm in Edinburgh tomorrow I'll take the tripod and grab a few 360 test shots then come home and play with them. I'll also apply the tilt/shift technique to the train station shots.
After that I guess I'll make up my mind and try to stick with it. But it'll all probably change again in January!
Thursday 17 December 2009
Second idea
I took this shot of one of my kittens and a miniature model I had lying around a few weeks ago. It was inspired by the artist Slinkachu
I really like his work and I'm starting to wonder if I should be doing this instead of the miniature fakes. I'm still going into Edinburgh on Saturday to get a bunch of shots of the trains before I make up my mind. For practice, earlier today, I downloaded a shot of Waverley train station. I had a go at the miniature fake effect after I'd watched a photoshop tutorial. The final image was okay but it didn't really blow my skirt up to be honest and that's why I'm now thinking about other ideas.
All I really know at this stage is that I don't want to just take a photo and chuck it into my final 10 images. I want to have a lot of post production in Photoshop and Lightroom 'cos I find that to be a lot of fun.
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