Panoramic Images

Finally having gotten around to editing some of my various panoramic shots from around the world. Some of the places include Scotland, Ireland, Devon, Chicago, France and Austria. I have always had a thing for the long thin image.




Prints of these can be ordered at http://www.photoboxgallery.com/nolanphotography/collection?album_id=436192991

The Land that Looks Like a Boot, Italy.

Recently I was out working in Italy, during my time not only did I get to visit some of the more rural areas like Cortona and Castiglione del Lago. I also managed to get into Firenze (Florence) and its surrounding area.

I love how rural and old world Cortona looked and the amazing things that I came across. Trying to find the time to edit the picture is hard so they will be posted in parts.

Rachael and Steve 720p web.mpg

This is the wedding of Rachael and Steve which took place in March 2010. The venue was 17th century refurbished barn called Blake Hall in Essex. The barn was used for all the elements for the wedding and the couple had the use of the grounds for photographs, which almost didn't happen due to the weather. Luckily the rain did stop longer enough for to shoot some lovely images of them in the garden. To see more goto www.nolanphotography.co.uk

Jump Park in Avoriaz, France

Cameras in the cold are normally a nightmare, but the Nikon D3 proved its worth. The updated batteries were excellent, not like the old D1x, where a slight chill would cause the battery to only take 4 shots before having to be warmed.

These shots were done in the jump park in Avoraiz resort in France, which a mix of large and small jumps and a array of different slide rails. Once I'd arrived at the park I tried to find myself a spot that wasn't already occupied by the other photographers and film makers, to cut down on the challenge of not getting in there shots. 

I tend to shoot most of my sporting events on Av (aperture priority) as the light can change quickly when on the mountain. You may have to use the exposure compensator to under expose a little to stop the camera burning out the snow, I tend to find -0.3 to -0.7 works well. You may wish to use Tv (shutter priority) so you can set you speeds to either freeze the action or a slow one for movement.

I had picked out a few different positions to shoot from the first was from right by one of the jumps using a 24-70mm.

 

I then moved to some off side positions and with a long lens (70-200) took some more shots to get that really compressed look.

Things to remember when doing shooting like this, be aware of your surroundings, you can get very tunnelled vision when taking pictures. Bear in mind that you may be stood on jumps so be careful when walking backwards. Keep an eye on any routes the skiers and boarders may be using. Watch your camera kit I had a boarder turn right on the end of the jump and he sprayed me and my camera with snow as he took off.

For more information on Nolan Photography events click here for for tips on photography click here.

The Wedding of Toni and Craig

This is the wedding of Toni and Craig which took place in August 2009. The location was a Nation Trust house in Salisbury, Wiltshire. It is called Philipps House and Dinton Park and is a Neo-Grecian house with fine Regency furniture, designed by Jeffry Wyatville for William Wyndham, 1820. The usage the couple had was an en-suite room for the bride's preparations and for the reception they had the use of the front of the house and the rear courtyard. The church the couple used for the ceremony was located at the bottom of the park, once it was complete the bride and groom accompanied by their guests walked the 800 meters through the park up to the house for the reception. The couple had permission to use any part of the house for the photographs. To see more goto www.nolanphotography.co.uk

Welcome and Hello

Hi, this is the blog for Nolan Photography, for here we aim to tell you about what we are and have been up to. We will be posting some of our latest pictures from events we have covered and we look forward to your comments.

Please feel free to get in contact with us either through here or the website at www.nolanphotography.co.uk

Thanks

Multi Image Pictures

The image above was created using 17 different pictures, shooting on a Nikon D3 the continuous high speed shooting mode was cranked right up to it's maximum of 11 frames per second.and the focus was also set to continuous servo mode.

Once the images were taken and downloaded onto the computer, they were renamed and file info applied. Then all 18 were opened into Photoshop, the last landing picture was used as the template image. Then using the Marquee tool to select the skier and a bit of surrounding area and copied it onto the background template. This was done for all additional 16 skiers that were added. The template was then cropped to the images size above.

The opacity of the additional layers were dropped to around 75% briefly so each layer could be individually aligned into it's correct position on the template layer. Each layer then had a layer mask applied to it, then using the the brush tool on the layer mask to  paint out the surrounding landscape so each skier blends into the template layer.

A few of the layer required a mid tones adjustment in levels before the layer mask was painted out. Once all the layer had been done a psd copy was saved with all the layers and masks for any adjustments you may wish to make later. A section of background was also used from one layer to remove the shadow of a ski lift chair(this was also done using the layer mask method as used on the skiers).Once all the layers had been flatten, any spots on the background were cleaned up. The levels were adjusted and the contrast boosted, a slight vignette was applied using the Dodge tool on the mid tones with a soft edge brush.

Finally if you wanted to you could turn the whole thing black and white using the Black and white tool or hit Alt+Shift+Ctrl+B.

Also try it from some different angles.