The plan for 2010 is to record a lot more live action photography tutorials and that will include more 15 minute photo challenges as well. I hope to run these along side the Photoshop tutorials that I'm known for. At the moment I'm on the hunt for more great photo locations, so if you have any suggestions, contacts or advice I'm all ears.
Last week my family battled our way through the snowy weather for a short break in the roman city of Bath. I've been there before and knew it would make a great spot for a 15 minute Photo challenge. The weather was freezing cold, so I needed the challenge to make me go out and take some photos and I'm really pleased that I did.
15 minutes it's long when your brain is focused on finding photos, so I stuck to the tourist area around Bath Abbey. That worked out well and provided loads of great photos. I was really hoping to record a second 15 minute photo challenge inside the Abbey, but sadly the Abbey was closed. Next time I'll plan ahead...
If you want to visit Bath Abbey have a look at their website which also has the opening times.
Whilst I'm busy editing the video footage I thought you might like a sneak preview of some of the photos that resulted from the challenge. As always, these are the actual images taken during the filming and no more the 60 minutes was spent in Photoshop making any adjustments.
In total there are around 20 good pictures, here are my favourite 6.
Click the images to enlarge.
17 comments:
very NICE
Thanks Joperson. Part of the fun is to go somewhere that's been photographed a million times and come away with something different.
Gavin as ever exciting and inspirational, thanks for sharing. Out of interest how did you do the colour on that last shot? Was that with ACR? Or did you desaturate and add a colour filter back etc? Love the shots in anycase.
Have a great Christmas...
Sj
Hi SJ
Yes, all done in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW), but the same effect can eaily be done in Photoshop using Hue/Saturation and the colorize option
Well I've never been to England so can't recommend any points of interest there.....If you ever come here to Australia though ..... ;)
Hope you had a happy and safe Christmas.
Bart
Lovely shots as always. I got your Totally RAW for christmas and I'm going back through my old photos seeing what can be done to them. On FlickR if you have time for a look (link in my name ^^). Also just done some of your smoke-ography :-) I really like your editing style.
I really like the second and last one. That's quite some door! Looking forward to the video.
All the best
Gary.
These 15-minute photo challenges of yours are both enjoyable and highly practical. They are extremely helpful in the sense that you teach how to look at things from a different viewpoint.
I love travelling but many things you're telling never occurred to me. Now I'm eager to experiment once I get to the world again. Thank you for that! :)
as for interesting spots, I guess any place with some heritage would do. But you might consider:
-Santorini island (Greece)
-Alberobello (Italy)
-Gallipoli (Italy)
-Crete (Greece)
-Naples (Italy)
-Prague (Czech Rep.), Krakow (Poland), Riga (Latvia), Brussels (Belgium)...all this and many more.
-what about a photo-challenge at Stonehenge? Are there enough stones to make a number of good photos? ;)
Looking forward for more interesting videos from you!
Jelena
P.S. Happy New Year!
Superb photos, Gavin! I recently 'found' you on YouTube and I'm already a fan!
Hey Gavin, like everyone else, I love these 15-minute photo challenges. Rather than searching for more interesting locations though, I'd love to see a video taken in a more bland or normal environment; the kind of places we find ourselves in more frequently than Bath or Pompeii, like walking through a modern city or something (though I do also like seeing what you do in touristy places).
I really like the idea of the 15mn challenge, I even tried to do something like that during christmas, but I really have a problem with your HEAVY post-processing, and the fact that's nearly always the same kind of processing. I know, it's easy to save a profile in your photo processing software and apply it to every photos but I don't think that's the good way to work. It makes all the photos look the same but yes, it fits to a common and actual taste. Looks unreal, sometimes like a fake HDR. I'm sure that the photo with the couple in front of the church's door could be nice if it was not looking like an emboss filter.
Fabrice: It's OK you don't have to like my pictures. The only person I'm trying to please with my work, is me.
If it helps put things in perspective for you, I had a look at some of the photos on your blog. I didn't like several of the images which looked a bit... boring. Does that make them bad images? Of course not.
Gavin, I was going to mention that these pictures look HDR too (which is something I'm jut learning about) but I think they look great! In fact, it seems that you do the appropriate post processing every time.
Speaking of, it'd be nice to learn more about HDR if you're ever thinking of something to do. The only problem is that I have a Nikon D40 which, from what I read, makes it harder to do.
Kaiser Sosay: Thanks for the comments. In fact none of the images were true HDR but I did give a couple a HDR feel in Camera RAW.
There's no reason at all why the D40 can't do HDR. A full tutorial is in the planning stage.
hi gavin,this is the first time i send you a message...my name is ginger! i was your fans after i saw your video on youtube,you are my new hero,because you teach me a lot on photoshop. well,i am a beginner on camera and photo taking,i've got 2 question for you:-
1.i am using nikon D3000 now,as a beginner,what kit do you think i need most now?i am still using the basic things on the camera even the flash,i am still using the built in,do i need that?or i need any other thing?
2.i wonder how can i take pictures like you,you have a picture that shows the sky,the sky is so blue,it is not something i can captured,so what is the problem?my camera or me?
can you please help me answer my question with your proffesional opinion?
ps:i would like to go for your talk,but i can't,i am staying far from you.that you!
Hi Gavin, I'm a big fan of your work and tutorials. I think I've watched all posted tutorials!
I'm interested to know what editing have you used on image number 3? It's looks very HDR, and I'm guessing from a single image? I really like the effect.
Thanks you
Hi Scott.
It's not HDR as such. As you'll see in the video http://gavtrain.blogspot.com/2009/12/bath-abbey-15-minute-photo-challenge.html Only one exposure was taken as I walked past this couple.
Edited in Adobe Camera RAW I pushed the Recovery & Fill Light slider to the max to create the HDR look. I'm also a clarity junkie, so I whacked that slider up too.
Thanks Gav thats very helpful. Because of you I'm a calrity fan myself.
Is there anyway to only apply Fill Light to part of your image? I don't think there is in ACR but is there a CS3 or CS4 equivalent?
Thanks again
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