Ramsgate Boating Pool

3min 20sec Exposure with Lee Big Stopper and Hoya Pro1-D CPL Filters

 Today seemed like summer had finally arrived and that gave me a chance to try put the Lee Big stopper and Hoya Pro 1 -D CPL filter combination.

I had taken this shot last year but then I had a Canon 7D and a Sigma 8-16mm lens, have to say really am starting to miss that Sigma lens, fantastic for tight spaces just not easy to fit filters straight out the box!

Think Ramsgate boating pool are currently working on a website but well worth a trip down for a relaxing cup of tea or coffee and a range of snacks. Also has been holding the mini V festival here for the last few years with some great local support.

Taken with Fuji X100

Took the above shot with a Fuji X100 I have borrowed from a friend to see how it performs before I decide to part with my hard earned cash. Looking for something that is fairly compact yet doesn't compromise on image quality and with a APS-C sensor in this the IQ is fantastic, shoots RAW, its a real photographers camera, so far very impressed

Ramsgate Boating Pool

The above image is the colour version of the mono which I used Nik soft Silver Efex Pro 2 for the conversion although I am trying out OnOne Photo Suite 7 Perfect Black and White with equally good results.

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Coastal Dreams

Took the camera down to Ramsgate Seafront and found my way down towards the harbour. I wanted a long exposure with some real cloud movement but as you can see even after a 2 min exposure the clouds were not playing ball.

So at home I was processing this image and playing with the colour temperature, I increased the blues and the magenta. I thought this looked like a fantasy type effect so thought what could I do to give it a soft dreamy feel.

Copied the edited image to its own layer (ctrl+shift+Alt+E), in Photoshop. I then duplicated the layer (Ctrl+J) I then applied a Gaussian blur to the layer, just enough to through it slightly out of focus. I added a layer mask set the blend mode to soft light and painted the effect back out of the groyne area.

I quiet like the dreamy feel to the image, not exactly what I was after but sometimes you just got to roll with it!!

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