Plenty of trees lately… I don’t know why .

Well enjoy and let me know what you think.

Hey everyone,

Here’s another image with trees and motion blur. I can’t help it but I love images like this. As photographers we know this is a photograph of trees but I don’t think it’s clear for the average viewer.

The main purpose of my fine art images is to show the world we live in in a different way and to show that in a relaxing and graphic matter. I think this image full fills those goals.

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know what you think.

Hey folks,

Here’s an image of some trees. It was a very foggy and rainy day. I was on my way home (in a hurry) from a photo seminar but I had to stop at this location.

The combination of the trees and the fog made this scene very moody and nice. Since it was raining I had to be quick. I don’t know how much rain my D90 can handle but I don’t intend to test to see…

Anyway, I’m very pleased with the result. Thanks for stopping by and please let me know what you think.

Hi everyone,

Here is an image from a few days ago. We have had an unusually snowy winter. I can’t remember the last time we had this much snow.

This image is taken quite close to my home. I went out with my car and turned left onto a dirt road that I hadn’t been on before. It turned out to be a great place for photography. I will get back.

On a separate note. I will try and publish part 2 of episode 3 in the making of “?”.

Thanks for stopping by.

When you are out shooting with a DSLR you can quite, no sorry, very easily determine the correct exposure. Just look at the back of the camera. Look at the preview and at the RGB histograms and they will tell you all you need to know.
Let’s say you shoot at 1/30 @ f/11 and the image turns out a little dark. Simply use the exposure compensation dial and booom you’re done. It basically takes 1 second or maybe 2 if you’re a little slow and you can move on to the next subject.

However, when shooting really long exposures you need to be certain you have the correct exposure directly. You can not rely on using the exposure compensation feature.
Why is there a difference? Simply because it will take too long. If you are shooting a 3 min exposure the camera is going to need about the same time (3 min) to save the file to your memory card. So, for a 3 min shot you will need to wait about 6 minutes before you know if your exposure is correct. Plenty of things can change in 6 minutes. The whole scene can be different. Also, it’s boring to shoot the same image twice when every exposure takes 6 min…

Ok, but how about doing a test shot with a faster shutter speed and/or higher ISO and use that to get the correct long exposure. Well, unfortunately this is not as easy as it may seem.
Let’s say you are using a 10 stop neutral density filter. In theory if you are doing a test shot that gives you a correct exposure at 1/30 @ f/11 and ISO 200 you should, after screwing on the filter, use 30 sec @ f/11 and ISO 200. You simply slowed the shutter by 10 stops. Well, this is going to give you an underexposed image even if the test shot was ok.
The reason is that for long exposures you need to compensate by adding 1/2 stop or 1 stop. So, in the example above you need to go to 60 sec to get a proper exposure.

To make it easier for you to do this in the field I’ve created a simple conversion table. Just refer to it when you are out shooting and you don’t need to calculate this in your head.
If your camera has ISO 100 use page 1. If your camera goes down to ISO 200 use page 2.

Download Shutter speed conversion table.

Here’s how it works.

1. Pick your working aperture
2. Compose and focus
3. Switch over to manual focus
4. Adjust ISO if needed and make a test exposure
5. Adjust exposure if the image is over/under exposed
6. Find your ISO/shutter speed combination in the table
7. Move to the right in the table to find your new shutter speed
8. Switch over to manual and set the shutter, aperture and ISO
9. Screw on the filter (if you are using one)
10. Make the exposure

Hope this helps. Please note that I haven’t verified all the shutter speeds so I don’t guarantee all of them are 100% correct.

Btw, please don’t forget to view my The making of videos.

Thanks for stopping by and as always your comments are very welcome.

Hi all,

This is the 3rd version of the The End of the World. I thought I’d share it get to know your opinion. I may record a video of how I created this image since I think the technique is well worth showing.

Need to go to bed now. Thanks a thousand for stopping by.

Hey everyone. Here’s another version of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark. It’s a over-photographed subject so I was a bit reluctant to post it. However, since I tried a new style I decided to do so anyway…

I’m not usually going for the dark super graphic b&w’s. I think they can be pretty cool at first but they quickly loose their excitement for some reason.

Anyway, hope you like it. I still haven’t made up my mind

Thanks for stopping by. Btw, I’m getting closer and closer to releasing my web portfolio. It’s still under development and the most difficult part is left —– deciding on which images to show.

Hey everyone. Yet again I’m posting the same image before and after any editing.

This is the out-of-the-camera image.

The things I saw needed to be changed were:

1. Horizon not straight
2. Boring sky
3. Too many stones lying around in the foreground giving the image a cluttered look
4. Under exposed

What I did like was the stone in the middle. I thought that one could serve as the main subject. I came up with the following solution.

Feel free to give me your thoughts on the final (and the org.) images. Thanks for stopping by.

I thought I should share with you a before and after image. This is taken in place called Ön in Malmö. A long time a go this was an industrial area but has now turned into a place for nice apartment buildings etc.

This is how the shot came out directly from the camera. No changes to it. I’ve just converted it to jpg in Lightroom.

There are a couple of things that I think can be improved. I can see it has potential but it needs a bit of work.

1. The horizon and the bottom part of the structure is bent because of the wide lens.
2. The right side of the concrete bend has some kind of fence which unbalances the image.
3. I put the horizon a little too high. I’d like more sky.
4. The bottom part of the image creates depth but the sky stops you or at least doesn’t convey the same feeling.
5. Contrast, color and exposure need to be corrected.

Here is the final image. The issues above have been fixed.

I think the sky could go darker still. However I don’t want the all of the sky to be darker than the sea so I need to be careful.

I’m amazed by how much can be accomplished in LR and PS. The out-of-the-camera images are very flat and desaturated and this for a good reason –> to give us photographers the possibility to make sure the images look like you pre-visualized.

So, to all of you still shooting in jpg. Let go! Start exploring the raw way of doing things.