2013 Review and looking to the New Year

All in all 2013 has been a interesting year. Photographically it didn't get off to the best start, with my main project making the newly purchased house into a home. Although i did get out once and get this cool shot. It wasn't until march, when we moved in it really started for me.

New Style

Hay i know i have been away for a while but other commitments have taken over. 

Im trying to develop a new style of photo that is unique and fresh, here's an example of where im going with it.

The Slaughters

St Oswald's Priory Ruins

Purchase you print here

Lightroom side panels

Do you ever get that annoying little thing, that just bugs you so much that you just have to find the answer. The side panels in Lightroom gave me just that. I was clicking the hide arrow obviously to hide it, but it just kept popping back up. Well I found the fix! In this blog I'm going to share the fix and how I customise Lightroom. 

Keep it real HDR

Last year I was asked to take photos of a house a construction company built. I went there with the aim to bracket my shots to give a good choice to play with when I got home. Looking through the shots I decided to edit them in a HDR to give a massive tonal range, as this was not the place for a arty HDR it would have to be a real appearance.

Starting a new year in Lightroom

Happy new year everyone, hope 2012 was a good year for you and 2013 is even better. I have a lot planned this year and I hope you are all around so I can share my photography with you.

In this blog I have made a video on how I set up lightroom ready for importing all my new photos. This is how I structure my workflow and sort my folders.

DIY White Balance Filter

If any of you are a reader of my blog, follow me on twitter or just generally know me, you will know that I am big on DIY photography. I do like the feeling of satisfaction you get when you make a photo using something you have made, the sense of achievement if nothing else.The most recent of my DIY products is a white balance filter.

Fireworks part 2

If you haven't read my first firework blog I would suggest you read that HERE. At the weekend when I do 90%of my shooting I went to the churchdown fireworks which was the grand opening of the ponds which I have not yet gone to see in the day time. Anyway back on subject, on the whole it was a good display there were a lot of white fireworks which as a photographer isn't the best, they don't photograph well.

YouTube

You know when your writing and you read it back and nothing makes sense,  you know what you are trying to say but it just doesnt come across in your words. The other week I had this feeling so I decided to make a video on YouTube.

Fireworks

Many years ago (1605 in fact) the people of England stared to celebrate Gunpowder Treason Day and the fact that King James I of England and VI of Scotland had served a assassination plot. Robert Catesby had a plan to blow up the House of Lords to take a Protestant King off the thrown and replace him with a Catholic head of state, with his 12 accomplices would try to execute this by sneaking 36 barrels of gunpowder in to a undercroft under the House of lords. Nowadays we call it Firework Night, we have bonfires and set off rockets that explode with a huge bang and a mass of colour that fills the sky this as a photographer is grate to get out and get some grate shots. In this post. I am going to run through what i do when shooting fireworks.

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Here in England we had a couple of weeks of very nice weather, which can only be described as our summer. As a result of this Em decided she wanted to go to Cotswold Wildlife Park, I thought grate it will be a good test for a backpack I just bought and a chance to get some nice shots of the animals. Some nice shots I did get along with some very blurry ones more to come about this later. All in all it was a very nice day it was very hot which is a luxury for us and I'm glad we decided to go out and do something.

Bracketing

With HDR being such a huge part of photography I find my self bracketing everything. Whether its because I want to tone map the image later in post, or just to get the best exposure possible, and bracketing is a very good way to achieve this. There are a few ways you can do this and in this blog I'm going to run through the settings I use and why I use them.

blogsy test

Hey guys and girls I was looking for a app to blog on my Ipad so i can write on the go. I stumbed upon a app called blogsy, in the near future i will be blogging on this app and testing it out. As i am looking to update the blog fortnightly this willl hopfuly be a realy productive app that i can use on the go.

I am looking to uploading a fue vidieos too so hopfuly i can work how to edit and upload not shore my ipad will do that but if i can it will be grate so i dont have to spend so much time in front of the computer.

As a bit of a end note i have new website to run along side my blog to display my best work resent trips and client proofing. AAttwoodPhotosLink

Just to end here are a fue of images well it is a photo blog after all.

Shot from a mates garage the old things are usually the most interesting.

This one is from a walk along the river

This was playing with my gels and light temperature

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fill flash

FILL FLASH!!!!!!! What is it? Fill flash is using added light to lighten the shadows on your subject, or to illuminate your subject because the dynamic rage in your image is to great for your camera to capture.

Beach Tips

We all love going to the beach and me personally love to remember the moments by photographing my great days. However as much as we like the beach if were not careful our gear can rely hate it.

Update

Hay guys and girls i no i have been away for a while so its just a short one to say my plans. I've had a lot on and it has been crazy. I am hopefully back with semi regular photo blogs I've done a lot learnt loads in the art of photography, i now no the basics of light and touching on so advanced lighting. There are a lot of things i have to blog about some diy things,reviews on the gear I'm really impressed with and tips i have learnt along the way and haven't read or seen what will hopefully make my blogs a bit different and interesting to read. Ade_1

Leckhamton Hill

After we finally got snow where we live i thought it was only right to go and take some photos. So me and Em walked up the hill and got a couple of shots.

More photos at Flicker

Thanks for reading Ade_1

Grid Spot Portrait

Grid Spot Portrait 

Ever since I made my grid spots I have been dying to test them out, so I convinced my girlfriend to model for me and got searching on the internet for inspiration. Overall I’m happy with how they came out they didn’t take too long to edit which is always a bonus

Pringles grid spot and snoot

Pringles grid spot and snoot 

This is the Pringles light kit i made it has 3 grid spots and a snoot.

I was on the internet looking for a grid spot for a speedlight and came across a brilliant product that ticks all the boxes bar one the price, RPP £40 a little over my budget. After this i done some research and found a DIY alternative and added my own twist to make it more like the product i was going to purchase.

My grid spot is made out of two bits of a Pringles tube filled with two different size straws made interchangeable to give me three different size spots, i also got a separate Pringles tube to make the snoot 

The things you need 

2 Pringles tubes

Approximately 90 straws 40 big and 50 small this changes depending on the size of the straws

Glue 

A cereal box

Tape

1 Cut all the straws to one inch peaces.

2 From the one Pringles tube cut two 30mm strips.

3 Glue all the straws inside the strips.

Once you have finished you will have the two different size grids.

4 Cut a 10mm strip of the Pringles tube.

5 Cut two 50mm strips of card out of the cereal box ( I know i have three i changed the design after i took the photo)

6 Rap the card around the small strip of Pringles tube and secure with tape then remove the Pringles strip.

7 Repeat the process and leave the Pringles strip approximately in the middle. 

8 Now all you need to do is put it together. The card sleeve with the strip inside goes on the speedlight with one grid inside. The second card sleeve goes on top, you can fit the other grid on top stacking them to give you the three combinations. 

To make the snoot simply cut the end off of the second Pringles tube and put in to the sleeve over the speedlight. 

I made this for a Nikon sb900 and a yongnuo yn560, you could adapt this to whatever speedligth you have, you can adapt the diameter of the straws and the length to change the size of the spot. I must worn you cutting the straws is very tedious i was lucky the masters snooker final was on to help me though it.

Thanks for reading @Ade_1