Kris Bentham Photography

FMP- Creating a composite

During the night dig I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the dig, working under halogen lighting in the middle of the woods gave a absence and showed the commitment of the progressive liens crew.
I collected a variety of shots altering the exposures to allow me to capture the workers and their halogen lights as well the natural light of the stars.

With a little understanding of how far I can push the exposures in post I chose my exposure to try and keep the quality up. I intentionally selected fast shutter speeds for the the darker shots of the activity to get sharp detailed images. I found the halogen lighting was causing a lens flair that appeared in the sky so in the 4 exposure I block the light with my hand making sure not to cover any of the sky.

I used four of these exposures to make my composite;

The trees around the track
The stars and distant trees, I included these trees are the gave the image distance and added interest away form the build
Is the action shot, While this wasn't the best of all the action shots I had pushed my ISO to 5000 in the other shots so went with this as its at a saver 40000
I used a small patch of this shot the brighten the gap between the lights in 3 and the trees in.

I had produced a quick test composite after the shoot to see if the images would blend together seamlessly, while this achieve the look I wanted the quality needed to be sorted. The noise in the sky is very strong and the blending of the trees and sky is very noticeable.

As I now knew these pictures would blend together I went back to Lightroom and edited them with the mindset of matching exposures, colours and tones. I reduced the exposure of the stars and applied some noise reduction to give a cleaner image. after opening them in Photoshop I aligned the images Starting with the sky I applied a layer mask brushing in the areas I wanted to keep in the image. I paid close attention to the stars as they moved between exposures I made sure I masked duplicate stars off where 2 images were blending together.

I used adjustment layers to tweak individual layers helping the image appear as a whole.

I achieved a much cleaner image paying attention to the stacking and blending on the image. I decided to lighten the bottom left to lead you in to the image, and kept the colours bold intentionally to aid in the printing as its a fairly dark image.

FMP test- SDA Innerleithen

This was the first stage of the Scottish downhill series as its a 2 day event it was a good chance for me to practice my biking photography.

With this being at a event I was restricted to using natural lighting as i didn't want to distract the racers. To get the best results I looked for areas that had a strong natural light and would have the riders in a strong natural position.

I decided to try and frame the riders around there surroundings I used my long 70-200 ƒ2.8 to get closer and take advantage of its compression and wide aperture in the lowlight. This has given me a very soft atmosphere yet sharp rider somewhat emulating what they will be seeing as they ride.

As a two day event this was the perfect opportunity to warm up for my FMP the riding images, giving challenging lighting yet a constant stream of riders gave me freedom to try different techniques out.

Oslo

With Ryan air offering cheap fairs across Europe it can be cheaper to travel abroad than across the UK. At just £28 for a return flight to Oslo its a very tempting prospect for those with a taste for culture and adventure. Booking our tickets on a whim with little knowledge of what to expect we set off looking for something new.

Our first taste of Norway was the transfer bus, The krone's exchange rate was at 1DKK to 10p making the prices seam overly large to begin with. The airport Transfer came to 100 or £10

The City had a welcoming fell with a lively centre with entertainment and a relaxed friendly feel. The crisp winter air seamed to reflect the clearly visible concern over the environment with small city cars and electric charging stations in use throughout the city

Eating was when we noticed the cost of living with fast food costing close to £10 per meal we re-framed from venturing in to any restaurants due to the cost.

With Norway not being in Europe we took advantage of the duty free, with the extra cost of living out here it was a good paid off.

Beer was the biggest cost of the trip with the price of a pint ranging between £7-£10 any money saved on the travelling costs was lost in the bars. but it didn't effect the atmosphere with a friendly, lively feel. While the bars and pubs where lively and busy, the Sunday night had a deserted quietness to it we strolled had word about a venue called BLAH and it didn't disappoint, a large warehouse venue hosted to a variety of acts with a very lively crowed and no cover charge

The next day we where treated to a taste of the Norwegian weather, a snow storm while it was mild it didn't stop life with the streets busy life didn't stop. we spent the morning looking at the more tourist locations such as the Opera house which was a playful design encouraging you to climb to its roof and take in the view.

While the draw of the trip was the low cost travel this wasn't a sign of things to come, the high cost of living may have put us off from experiencing everything Oslo had to offer but it didn't stop us for seeing the culture.

Howdy Folks.

FMP- Creating a composite

FMP test- SDA Innerleithen

Oslo

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