I have heard from a lot of people that they are struggling with Lightroom of late. Admittedly I was an avid fan of Apple's Aperture when it was available and it did take me some time to get used to Adobe's Lightroom.
I came across this video today which I thought was worth posting as it has some nice tips that aren't usually covered in most Lightroom tips videos :-)
A little something from Friday night. Bonnybridge doesn't have many photographic locations that's worth spending time at, but this is one of them. This is near to the entrance of Chacefield Woods, just off the the Drove Loan, Bonnybridge.
A long exposure of 60 secs, f4.0, 24mm and little tonal changes in Lightroom.
December rolled around just in time for the temperature plummeting. People that know me are aware of how much I like the cold and dark days of winter. It's perfect for light trails, Christmas lights and early golden hours. As demonstrated (hopefully) by the photographs at the bottom of this post. Since the Instameet I have been trying to post a new photograph everyday. It reminds me of the marathon photo days of 2013, which became very stressful towards the end of the year.
The majority of my photos get some post-processing, it is a perennial subject for me talking to other photographers. For some people post-processing detracts from the photo and think that it is 'cheating'. Other people think that it adds to the photo. I am in the latter camp, I like to think I can make the picture look more like I see it in my mind when I am taking it. I think it's good that there is discussion around these topics in photography, as there is no 'right' answer.
The photograph below uses Apple's new Depth Effect on their iPhone 7+. I was wondering if this is regarded as post-processing as the camera takes two shots at different focal lengths and mashes them together. It works quite well, although there it is no substitute for using my 50mm lens. Of course, I added a little more post-processing...
Pre-processing
Post-processing
I thought I would post some of the SOOC (straight out of the camera) photographs, that have been edited and can be found on the Instagram page that I have taken from recent trips to Edinburgh.
Victoria Street has been described by many people as the nicest street in Edinburgh. It is very photographable. Inspired as I am again to start taking more photographs, Edinburgh, where I spend a lot of my time, is the obvious place to take some time out and shoot some photographs.
I was recently inspired by Lisa Bettany's post on taking photographs of light trails, especially as some of those were taken in Edinburgh. I had the chance to replicate a couple of the photographs that were in her post. It was good experience as it taught me few things that I had forgot, didn't think about and re-learned....
I forgot: Early evening there are a lot of parked cars. If I went back at 3am there I would be surprised if there were any cars, but then if you want light trails you might also be waiting a long time.
Didn't think about: Bringing my larger tripod. I couldn't get the shot I really wanted due to the small tripod not being able to keep steady in the position I required.
Re-Learned: Gloves are fricking essential in winter. An emergency stop at Starbucks was required so I could get some feeling in my fingers.
I also took an image on my iPhone (7+) which is on my Instagram page, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the image is from the iPhone at night. Click or tap on the images below to view the large image!
Sometimes I feel like making the wildest of changes to images that I have taken, I very rarely post them, but I feel like mixing things up a little of late. This was Edinburgh on a nice day, until I played around with it. :-)
I like to think that most people that know Edinburgh from the North Bridge would still recognise it.
