Dundee Promenade - Photo Editing Practice

For these two images I edited some photos I took a while back and turned them into an advertising campaign for Dundee's waterfront. One as a day version and one as a night version with aesthetic simple compositions.

Night Version

Though the night version has quite cool colours, it still has a friendly atmosphere due to controlled shapes and space, like the repetitive street lights pattern on the right and the large plain surfaces on the left to thirds. The colour scheme is very monochrome and helps unify the picture. To prevent the image from being to calm I chose a tilted camera angle to capture the horizon slightly diagonal, which helps create a more interesting and dynamic image.

 Day Version

For the day version I edited two photographs together to avoid something too generic. The right third being lighter than the two left thirds. This was both as compositional choice as well as a lighting choice, as I wanted to tone down the light source (the sun).

By previously flipping one of the images horizontally (as both photos were taken in the same direction) the seaside walking path surrounds the scene and creates a 360 degree panoramic effect.

Colour wise the sun and its orange light dominates the image creating warm colours and a welcoming mood. 

Aesthetic Scenery

Ocean View

 Mountain Panorama

Original Photo

 Frigid View & a Hint of Warmth

Original Photo

 At the Top

Original Photo

Landscape & Scenery - Ben Vrackie near Pitlochry

Composition

Rule of Thirds

Beneath one can see how both photos were taken with consideration of composition and space distribution. 

 Foreground, Mid-ground, Background 

 Spotlight

The sunlight (on the mid-ground) works as a spotlight and guides the viewers eye to sunlit area. The colours are more saturated, contrasty and brighter in this area.   

Colour and Value Contrast - A Day Trip to the Red Cliffs near Arbroath

Where better than Arbroath to capture some high colour contrasts between the red/orange cliffs and blue sky on a sunny day along the coastline. These complementary colours came out nicely in some of the photographs and accomplish some strong images. Along with the colour  I also paid close attention to the compositional elements by following the rule of thirds and other aspects in many of the pictures. This also helped create aesthetically pleasing images by proportioning the colours to each other.

Colour Contrast

The left image has a very high colour contrast due to the sunlight shining on the abbey. The orange bricks jump out from the bright blue sky in the background. The right picture on the other hand has a much lower saturation and comes across much more balanced and united. A further difference is that the left image is dominated by warm colours whereas the right image is dominated by cold colours. 

The white snow in the right photograph creates a fairly strong value contrast though and keeps the image from turning too calm/harmonious.

Composition

In the two images below core features were composed on the thought lines of the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds helps organize compositions and guide the eye. In the left picture the lines form a border on the horizon and vertically it separates the land from sea.

The right picture especially uses the horizontal line to divide the upper third from the lower third. As the lower is very dynamic and the top third in contrary very balanced and calm.  

The dynamic impression of the photograph beneath is created through diagonal lines, patches and varying spaces between shapes and creates a sense of activity.

High Value Contrast

The two images beneath have both a high value contrast as well as colour contrast due to the complementary colours orange and blue.

Capturing Lighting in Photography

In the following photographs my main goal was to observe and capture the lighting and atmosphere of the scene. The slightly orange light at dusk adds a nice colour contrast to the blue water as they are complementary colours. The glowing light effect of the main light source, the sun, creates a very soft transition of both value and colour in the sky. Pointing the camera towards the light source will result in very dark foregrounds though. These aspects taken into consideration, very dynamic and contrasty images can be created (e.g. see first image below). 

One must also watch out for the lens flare that occurs when taking photos directly at the light source. If one wants to avoid said lens flare, as it is often too bright and destroys the balance of the picture, one can choose a position from which the desired scene can be captured without the light source being in the image view. This will also enable more detail for the image as the levels (darkest colour to lightest colour) are now closer together and the camera will capture these more accurately.

Below are some compositional variations between the dark foreground and soft background to create different effects. As a rule the less contrasty, the calmer and more harmonious the photograph will turn out. 

The pictures were taken during some of the first proper spring days in Dundee this year and show how nice the "Dundee Promenade" is during good weather conditions (sadly a bit rare due to the typical rainy Scottish weather). 

Capturing Dynamics in Soft Lighting

A montage of a seagull taking off to begin its flight

 Central Message
Surround by steps leading up to the positive way of thinking.

The Tay Bridge

The two top left photographs have a high colour contrast (between the strong oranges and blues). The top right on the other hand has a strong value contrast, as does the image below.

 Infinity

Colour Contrast

between the orange and blue

Dundee Promenade - Dusk Lighting

Artificial Interior Lighting - Photography

Experimenting with artificial lighting

Some Impressions of Prague - Expanding the Visual Library

Prague was an important trade city in the medieval ages. Temporarily it even used to be the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire and lots of the city's culture, architecture and character is still present today and serves as great inspiration and has high aesthetic value to visitors. Beneath are a few examples that I photographed.

The Charles Bridge

The Charles Bridge is a famous historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river (Moldau) in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century.

This "solid-land" connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe.

St. Vitus Cathedral

Saint Vitus' Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague.

The Red Roofs of Prague

 The City of Prague along the Moldau River at Dusk

Christmas Composition

The main subject and focus (Santa in the top and the snowman in the bottom photograph) are placed in the golden ratio or golden section to draw the viewers eye. To achieve this specific lighting and preserve the main light source of the candles I dimmed the living room lights. The additional light was needed to keep the shutter speed and with it the exposure time short to avoid camera shack and blur. The goal was to preserve the atmosphere and keep its reddish tint of the scene in the photographs. In able to highlight Santa and the snowman further and create depth the background is blurred slightly in these still life's. Merry Christmas!

Sky Panorama - Capturing the Moment

Like the impressionist painter I am fascinated by specific moments and feel the need to capture them. Even if they might be common subjects. After paying attention to details of our surrounding and special moments of the day I have begun to capture sunsets. The special lighting they throw off deserves to be captured more often. Here are some of the photos I have managed to take over the past weeks.

The pictures are ordered by colour from blue to orange/red. The photographs were mainly taken in Dundee, with some exceptions from the Highlands.