Venice Carnival Retrospective. - Part 2

Friday 4th March
After breakfast briefing made me realize how far out of my comfort zone I was going to be. Positioning and directing models coupled with street photography was a long way from landscapes and wildlife which was my usual fare. I was going to need help from Jonathan and other members of the group, although it has to be said that some of them look as unsure as I felt.

We reached San Francesco della Vigna before our models and thankfully it was quiet. Jonathan showed us the the two locations we would be using, the campo alongside the church and the cloisters of the attached monastery.


Our two models. Laura and Arnaldo, arrived and after a brief introduction we were split into two groups with a model each,  time to get our act together.
                                                                   

Laura

Arnaldo

When taking portraits there is a tendency to hold the camera in portrait mode. Jonathan suggested using landscape mode and giving the models more space in the frame.

I have to admit I prefer this approach.

Venice Carnival Retrospective.

Having finally got the images from my Venice trip into some semblance of order it is time to review what happened.

Thursday 3rd March
Arriving by plane into Marco Polo airport and hearing the pilot announce the weather in Venice was rainy with some snow my heart sank. Here was I looking forward to a week of photography in the most photogenic city in the world and the weather was conspiring against me. As it turned out the rain had abated by the time we landed and was never seen again for the rest of the week.
Met Jonathan, our workshop leader, at the airport and got directions to the water bus for the journey into the city. As it happens I didn't need them since at the waterfront I ran into an old friend, not seen for two years, who was organizing a water taxi to the railway station. I joined him and we had a pleasant journey across the lagoon in a lot more comfort than I would have had in the bus. At the station we said our farewells and I continued in the taxi to my hotel.
Met up with the rest of the party later that evening for brief introductions and then off for dinner. Hearing them talk about having to negotiate Venetian bridges on foot encumbered by suitcases and camera gear made me realise how fortunate I had been to arrive the way I had.

Owl chick

Owl chick, originally uploaded by marush1.

When I grow up I'll have you for lunch.

Sign of Spring

Sign of Spring, originally uploaded by marush1.

Snowdrops in bloom and crocus not far behind. It must be spring. :)

Sweet and Sour - High Key

Sweet and Sour - High Key, originally uploaded by marush1.

Experimenting with High Key.
Attempting to capture High Key in camera rather than induce it during post processing. Bracketed shots at +1, +2 & +3 to find the best starting point. Decided +2 was the best option then switched to manual using the +2 speed and aperture and experimented around that point. Minor tweaking in Lightroom to finish off.

A foggy day

A foggy day, originally uploaded by marush1.

The sun never broke through the fog today so I made the most of what i had.
The original was almost monochrome so I put it through Silver Efex Pro and gave it an antique look. I then added a texture of 'old canvas' and what was a mundane image of the track by my house acquired a strange ethereal look.

Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice, originally uploaded by marush1.

Trying to get the two components together was a big challenge. In the end I suspended a match in an ice cube tray and froze it. The next step was to work out the lighting. I decided that any form of side lighting I could produce wouldn't work and the ice cube had to be lit from below. To achieve this took a flashgun and covered it with a Honl blue gel. To this I added a Pringles tube which focussed the light on to the transparent lid of the tube. The lid acted as a support for the ice cube.
A few test shots with the match unlit to get the flash balance correct and then light the match and take the shot. To deepen the colour in post processing I duplicated the original image layer and set the blend mode to multiply. Sharpening took place on the upper layer only and the opacity was reduced to 80%.

Slow Burn

Slow Burn, originally uploaded by marush1.

One advantage of photographing incense sticks is that the room smells wonderful.:)
I wanted to get as close as possible to show the textures so instead of using my macro lens I put the Canon 50mm f/1.8 on a full set of Kenko extension tubes.

Smoke Trails

Smoke Trails, originally uploaded by marush1.

I tried for several years to photograph the 'bomb-burst' finish to the Red Arrows display but something always went wrong. Planes were out of focus, out of frame, or obscured by smoke from the others. Fortunately on this attempt I nailed it.

Tulip

Tulip, originally uploaded by marush1.

This is a reworking of an old image. What surprised me was how far I have come in my post processing since this image was take 5 years ago. A few moves in Photoshop and what would have taken me hours took less than a minute.
The image was taken in 2005 at the Chelsea Flower Show. It was a technically correct, but pretty average, close-up record of a tulip.
I needed an image of this type for a Flickr group I use so I went back to the original Raw image and opened it in Photoshop. A few touches in ACR with my current workflow and I already had a more satisfying image than the original but there was still something missing. I added a touch of vignette but it still needed a lift so I duplicated the image (after saving as a PSD and then flattening the working image in Photoshop) applied a fairly large Gaussian blur to the duplicate and set the blend mode to Multiply. Setting the opaciry of the duplicate layer to about 80% gave me the look I wanted and that you see here.
Believe me when I say It has taken longer to write about than to do.

Split Tone

Canon EOS-1D Mark ll N, EF 24-105 f/4, 1/250, f/11.0, ISO 320

Been getting a lot of good reports about Lightroom 3 so I am giving it a try.
This is an image from the archives taken in Spring last year which i decided to give a new treatment in LR3.
In the Development module I chose a Split Tone preset which I wasnt quite what I wanted so I tweaked the toning saturation and the balance between highlights and shadows to get it to my liking thenI added a vignette. Not earth shattering but a pleasing result.

Imminent Danger

Canon EOS 5dMkll, EF70-200 f/4.0, 1/400 sec, f/9.0, ISO 200

A few seconds after I took this the kite surfer jumped a wave and was blown by the wind into the rock on the right. His rig, lines and kite, were wrapped round the rock. With the heavy sea running he was lucky to survive.
Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight.
Converted to Black and White with SilverEfexPro

Short of cash? or maybe a limb?

Short of cash? or maybe a limb?, originally uploaded by marush1.

Not quite what it seems.
Part of a themed hotel masquerading as an 18th century hamlet.
Behind the glass is the bar area.

Sunset

Sunset, originally uploaded by marush1.

At last the cloud cover rolled away and I was able to get the sunset I had been trying for since the beginning of the week.

Space Saver

Canon EOS 5DMkll, EF 24-70 f/2.8, 1/25sec, f/2,8, ISO 800

Books have always been a significant part of my life ever since I learnt to read. However a lifetime of accumulated reading material finds me running short of space to store any additions to my library, so an alternative solution had to found.
Books, by their physical presence, provide me with more than their text. Their smell, surface texture, weight and the requirement to actually turn the page add much to my reading pleasure.
I have resisted the idea of the ebook for some time, but now space pressures force me into trying one. I have been pleasantly surprised. The Kindle has its own physical presence, provides an acceptable tactile experience and an adequate replacement for the page turn. Above all it allows me to continue accumulating volumes without worrying where I am going to store them. Add to that the instant gratification of downloading a new book in seconds and the availability of thousands of free books via Project Gutenberg and I am more than satisfied.

Napoleons Tomb, Paris

Canon EOS 20D, Tamron 28-300mm, 1/125sec, f/3.5, ISO 400

Napoleon's remains were brought to Les Invalides from St. Helena on 15/12/1840. On 14/4/1861 they were moved to the crypt of Les Invalides, where they were housed in a tomb designed by Visconti.
The tomb, crafted in red porphyry from Russia, placed on a green granite base from the Vosges, is circled by a crown of laurels and inscriptions, reminders of the great victories of the Empire. In the round gallery, a series of low-relief, sculpted by Simart, represent the main actions of his reign. The remains of the emperor, inside the sarcophagus, are protected by six concentric coffins, built from different materials, including mahogany, ebony, and oak, all one inside the other.

Black and White conversion using Lithograph preset in Topaz Detail

'Ware serpent

Canon EOS 550D, Sigma 10-20mm, 1/40sec, f/8.0, ISO 400

Took Griff to Beacon Fell Country Park yesterday During our stroll round the park we came across this giant serpent. This is one of the sculptures scattered through the park, all made from materials within the park.

Kats Image

This was an exercise based on an image from a friend. I suggested turning it B&W which she did and Istill thought it could be stronger so I had a go myself.
Converted to B&W using a Black & White adjustment layer in CS5. (Although you can use other tried and tested methods to turn the image into B&W)
I first set the overall brightness and contrast based on the foreground then selected the sky from the horizon up (with plenty of feather) and used Curves to darken it further.
Duplicated the layer, masked out all but the sky on the dup and set the blend mode to multiply. This darkened the sky even further. The wet sand was then too light to be a reflection of the sky as it now was so a further selection of that area and use of Curves to darken it slightly.

The jaggies on the horizon are artifacts caused by using a small copy of the file as a starting point and not the original.

Orchid

Canon 5DMkll, EF 24-70mm, 1/60sec. f/2.8, ISO 800

I am a very reluctant gardener, preferring to looking at it to looking after it. However, I adore orchids and I am prepared to lavish time and TLC on them. This is a photograph of my latest acquisition. Minimal processing, just Raw conversion and a little sharpening.

Sea Lion

Canon EOS 40D, EF 70-200 f/4, 1/400sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

I dragged this out of the archive for a Flickr 'challenge'.
7 Days of Shooting (7DOS) sets a daily challenge based around a weekly theme, in this case the theme is 'Wet' and the daily challenge is 'dramatic lighting'.
For me dramatic lighting is usually associated with Black and White. Oh, I have seen some very good coloured images you could apply the dramatic lighting tag to, I have even taken one or two :), but I generally fall back to black and white.
In this case the image was a so,so coloured photograph (the colour of the sea lion too close to that of the water to give good separation) so I took it into Silver Efex Pro and played with the presets. By increasing the emphasis on the structure of the image rather than the contrast I got the separation I was looking for. A touch of sepia and a suitable vignette and the image was there.