ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Wednesday 19 November 2014

TIMEING. (19/11/14)

I timed this mornings’ walk to perfection. I was out about an hour and wandered through town, down past the abbey and along the Tweed to the weir. I hadn’t been back ten minutes when the heavens opened and down came the Archangel Gabriel……No he didn't….not unless he was cleverly disguised as rain; wouldn't put it past him. When will it stop?

Here are a few pictures of the Tweed taken from Melrose Weir._MG_0909

_MG_0908

_MG_0907

_MG_0906   There were lots of small and some larger fish jumping. I think it is too late for Salmon. I’ll have to find out when they are here and try and come back as this would be a good place to see them.

_MG_0905   This is an identical view to the preceding one but the exposure time was one minute or near enough.

_MG_0877          This one is for Keith at Hiawatha House. These are light swirls or whatever they are called. I had to do some yesterday for a pernickety chap I know. This was me just sorting the work flow and brush out. I ended up with a brush with fewer, longer and less stiff bristles. These aren’t hand drawn but it is a Path or two created with the Pen tool then stroked with white. Then layer styles like inner and outer glow are added. Blend modes are critical and need to be applied to different bits of the swirls. As you can see I didn’t bother on this. I start with linear light and hard light. The longest part of the job is getting a brush that looks right.

I don’t use the Pen tool as often as I should. It takes me an hours practise to get comfortable with it and it’s controls. It can be difficult to see the path as mine is black. There must be a way of altering the colour of it but I haven’t found one. I haven’t looked very hard though. It’s a good job the weather is miserable to get twenty or thirty fine swirls can take eight hours and they are image specific. Hence I charge ten pounds a swirl. Does my head in it does. Does swirling.

A pirates grave? I’m sorry it has two borders but I set my pictures off by using a recorded action and selected the wrong one to start with. I wish that Adobe didn’t include a big list of Actions. I do generate my own but don’t like going through a mile of them to find my own. I’ll delete Adobes’. The action I use for my images is canvas 0.3cm white. Same again 0.2cm black and then canvas 2cm white. Works a treat as long as you hit the right button.

That’s all for today.

29 comments:

  1. Pretty pretty pretty old river Adrian.

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    1. Bob, it is. I was there a while watching the fish.

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  2. The long exposure shot turned out very good. Nice angle on it as well.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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    1. Mersad, it's a good job I took a wide lens. It was worth carrying the gear for.

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    2. PS. it needs a bit of cloning bottom left. I may elevate it to my desk top. It's a simple picture.

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  3. Replies
    1. R. Mac it wants some blur on the swirly layer. I'll do a proper one soon. I did a grand one for work but that is copywrite. It took about six hours in two hour bursts. This took half an hour and was done on one layer.

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  4. Hi Adrian yes I also love the long exposure shot. it rained here yesterday morning so my bird group would not get out but we enjoyed a video of Canadian birds

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    1. Margaret, it was spitting when I took these. I have a roll of kitchen towel and a bin bag in my bag. This lens is perfect but costs a fortune. I'm still using old camera bodies. Good enough is near enough. Next time I upgrade it will be for a Canon C100 video camera but that won't be for a while. I could just get a BlackMagic body. No. I have enough toys.

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  5. That last image has an interesting effect. I didn't read what you wrote about it, at first. And I wondered what in the heck was flying around the gravestone at slow exposure. Then I read it. ;) Cool beans.

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  6. Hilary. Swirls are the flavour of the month. I find them hard to do. This compatriot of yours is brilliant at them.
    RENEE
    So good that I can't always tell she has used them.
    When I am asked to piss about with an image I always search for inspiration. I am blessed with imagination but tend to be heavy handed. This lass is brilliant for swirls.

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  7. Awesome photos of the tweed. Now the swirls and colors make more sense. It looks like you could have a lot of fun with this by using it in different places like a bicycle?

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    1. Red. Paths are a brilliant tool. Pierre Étienne Bézier was a Renault engineer but I doubt he is responsible for the mathematics behind the wonderful Bézier algorithms that we have to play with. It's hard enough using them without going too far into the folk that thought they were worth inventing or could dream of a use for them. It is just a brilliant bit of kit. Whether he did or not. I like Msr Bézier.
      I think Adobe Elements now has Pen or Path to mess with. It's worth a look. It doesn't do anything with pixels but it does provide a path for pixels to follow.

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  8. As I looked at the first image I was conjuring up mental images of trout and salmon leading. Then I read on. Could be trout or salmon heading to sea but I'm not sure whether it's to late or not. I reckon a local might now..could be a perch :-)
    The long exposure is a nice image

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    1. Douglas, it is a grand bit of river. They say one of the best for salmon. I think they arrive early September. I've not seen any fishermen. Not perch these were thinner more like large brown trout. If it isn't too rainy I'll take a long lens out tomorrow. Try for a snap or two. There were lots of them.

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  9. That last image is just weird. I know I'm not very imaginative but I really can't see the point. To each his own. The water, though, I like. A lot.

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    1. Pauline I'll do a better one soon. I like long exposures of water.

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  10. very beautiful Adrian! I like especially the one with the two side of the river

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    1. It's a big river. We have had plenty of rain.

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    1. Maria, it was worth carrying the gear for this time.

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  12. Felicia, I like them for a change.

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  13. Que llueva amigo así habrá agua para el verano:)) buena exposición en esa foto.
    Un abrazo

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  14. Laura, llueve en verano aquí. Quiero nieve y más nieve.

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  15. As you know I love water. I also like water to look like water. You are just too arty farty for my poor brain to cope.

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    1. Graham, three ought of four were normal. The long exposures are easy to do as time isn't critical. with a tenstop filter anything from 30s to 160s exposure is reclaimable so one can pick and choose the amount of blur. I like in camera arty farty. I like it when it's easy.

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  16. Artistic shot. I think real or artistic both have a place in the photography world. Pretty special visits you make to all of these places. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Chris, more boredom than artistry I suspect.

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