Brettus
22-07-14, 11:15 AM
This may turn into a bit of a ramble (do any of my posts not?)
I post process extensively, my own personal line that I draw is merging two different pictures to create a composition. I will merge two or more shots of the same thing to create a merged exposure (HDR, Star trails or even my recent rainbow arches was two different pictures, one for the rainbow light and another for the front lighting of the wall)
But what I wanted to point out is the pre-processing if you will, the planning and thoughts that go in to some of these images. I was explaining to a friend recently and it occurred to me that there is quite a few bits of information go into some of them.
My main resources are
Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk), this is amazing for finding places, you can find interesting places by turning on the "photos" layer in the classic maps view (I don't think they've made it available in the "new maps" interface yet) it used to be even better allowing keyword search which was superbly powerful for finding locations that have say "trains" or "church" in their keywords.
Not only do I use it to find locations I then extensively research my intended location, use streetview to check for parking, access and other useful site info.
Last night's shot being a good example, I'd been in the day and walked along the most obvious route from the car park, the Pennine Way, this was steep, stepped and followed the wall. I spotted while planning the night time trip that the Hadrian's wall path counter-intuitively was further away from the wall and an easier path.
http://i.imgur.com/FXBCcxL.png
It shows here as being further south of the big stone rises that the wall follows. So although I'd not done this path in the light it made more sense to use this one rather than steep stone steps in the dark.
Next up is Suncalc.net (http://suncalc.net/) this is an excellent site which lets you plan what time of day would be best suited to the shot you are trying to achieve. If you want an Abbey lit up by nice golden light or just normal daylight but from a particular angle then this is the site to find out when that will happen.
http://i.imgur.com/j11jnJh.jpg
I'd deduced that I could get a sunset shot of Sycamore gap at this time year too but not a sunrise one, at least not through the gap.
Another feature of suncalc.net is that it gives you sunrise, sunset and importantly twilight times (there are 3 types of twilight BTW) currently the days are so long we don't even get to what is properly termed "Night" This means that there isn't a point in the night where it is sufficiently dark for everything that is possible to perceive, is visible.
Twilight is great for getting night shots of cities and such as you get streetlights but the sky isn't completely devoid of colour so it looks more interesting.
For a lot of my natural night photography I also use Blue Marble.De (http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2012) They take the nightlights images that NASA shoot and add them as an overlay to google maps, letting you browse and find where "dark skies" are in your area. (basically spots to avoid light pollution)
http://i.imgur.com/g40TghO.png
Sycamore Gap is just to the North East of Haltwhistle which shows as a bright spot but I knew there was a decent enough distance (and a hill) between it and my spot, plus I'd be facing North which only held dark places.
I use a bit of freeware called Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/) this is a planetarium for your PC, you can tell it what your approximate location is and then browse through times and dates to find when might be best. Moon phases come into play here, I had to get my trails done before the moon rose at 01:40ish and Stellarium showed that nicely as I scrolled through the minutes watching how the sky would darken and then lighten even before dawn started to appear.
When I'd got on location I use an iOS app called Skyview Free (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/skyview-free-explore-universe/id413936865?mt=8) to point my phone at the sky and help identify key objects (in this instance Polaris was what I needed to find) It looks like the app is available for Android too.
OK so I'd got my location, knew about access, knew which times of day would be best, what I needed to know now was what was the weather likely to be like? Was the night suitable or was I going to get out there only to be covered by cloud that was rolling in (had that happen and it's unbelievably frustrating if you've driven a decent distance)
So, here is my favourite weather site of all time Weather Spark (http://weatherspark.com/) I "discovered" it a few years ago thanks to a tweet from our very own Admin and it is my absolute preferred method of viewing and interpreting weather forecast. It gives you graphs and you can choose to show/hide particular details, the graphs vary for each weather station on the map to the left.
http://i.imgur.com/NMZvOgA.jpg
Once you know which station you want to use you browse the graph and check the icons for cloud cover, temperature, precipitation, wind speed/direction etc (particularly useful for Quadcopter flying ;)). The accuracy is pretty good, I'd put it around 80% based on my experience thus far. It updates closer to the time too so it is worth keeping an eye on as the time approaches.
Not only do you need to plan if the weather is conducive to the kind of picture you want but also for your planning what to take along. Despite a balmy day yesterday I stashed a woolen sweater in the car to sit in my chair in last night while I waited for the time to pass.
Other useful resources:
Google image search (http://images.google.co.uk), if you know a place or subject and want to see examples for inspiration then this is great for a quick overview of what has been done.
Flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com) has some map keyword searching, it is WAY more clunky than Google used to be but clunky is better than non-existent. Also the selection of pictures will likely be of a higher standard. I sometimes find this to be counter-productive though as I feel defeated easily if there are already pictures I don't think I could match (or emulate well enough to do them justice)
OK I'm sorry this turned into what could be read as a self indulgent post but I suspect/hope it might be useful to others wanting to have a play with some of the techniques or maybe just someone wanting to learn of a better way to read weather, browse for interesting images etc.
Please share any sites you use for photography though as I love discovering new things and expanding my repertoire of things I can try.
I post process extensively, my own personal line that I draw is merging two different pictures to create a composition. I will merge two or more shots of the same thing to create a merged exposure (HDR, Star trails or even my recent rainbow arches was two different pictures, one for the rainbow light and another for the front lighting of the wall)
But what I wanted to point out is the pre-processing if you will, the planning and thoughts that go in to some of these images. I was explaining to a friend recently and it occurred to me that there is quite a few bits of information go into some of them.
My main resources are
Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk), this is amazing for finding places, you can find interesting places by turning on the "photos" layer in the classic maps view (I don't think they've made it available in the "new maps" interface yet) it used to be even better allowing keyword search which was superbly powerful for finding locations that have say "trains" or "church" in their keywords.
Not only do I use it to find locations I then extensively research my intended location, use streetview to check for parking, access and other useful site info.
Last night's shot being a good example, I'd been in the day and walked along the most obvious route from the car park, the Pennine Way, this was steep, stepped and followed the wall. I spotted while planning the night time trip that the Hadrian's wall path counter-intuitively was further away from the wall and an easier path.
http://i.imgur.com/FXBCcxL.png
It shows here as being further south of the big stone rises that the wall follows. So although I'd not done this path in the light it made more sense to use this one rather than steep stone steps in the dark.
Next up is Suncalc.net (http://suncalc.net/) this is an excellent site which lets you plan what time of day would be best suited to the shot you are trying to achieve. If you want an Abbey lit up by nice golden light or just normal daylight but from a particular angle then this is the site to find out when that will happen.
http://i.imgur.com/j11jnJh.jpg
I'd deduced that I could get a sunset shot of Sycamore gap at this time year too but not a sunrise one, at least not through the gap.
Another feature of suncalc.net is that it gives you sunrise, sunset and importantly twilight times (there are 3 types of twilight BTW) currently the days are so long we don't even get to what is properly termed "Night" This means that there isn't a point in the night where it is sufficiently dark for everything that is possible to perceive, is visible.
Twilight is great for getting night shots of cities and such as you get streetlights but the sky isn't completely devoid of colour so it looks more interesting.
For a lot of my natural night photography I also use Blue Marble.De (http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2012) They take the nightlights images that NASA shoot and add them as an overlay to google maps, letting you browse and find where "dark skies" are in your area. (basically spots to avoid light pollution)
http://i.imgur.com/g40TghO.png
Sycamore Gap is just to the North East of Haltwhistle which shows as a bright spot but I knew there was a decent enough distance (and a hill) between it and my spot, plus I'd be facing North which only held dark places.
I use a bit of freeware called Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/) this is a planetarium for your PC, you can tell it what your approximate location is and then browse through times and dates to find when might be best. Moon phases come into play here, I had to get my trails done before the moon rose at 01:40ish and Stellarium showed that nicely as I scrolled through the minutes watching how the sky would darken and then lighten even before dawn started to appear.
When I'd got on location I use an iOS app called Skyview Free (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/skyview-free-explore-universe/id413936865?mt=8) to point my phone at the sky and help identify key objects (in this instance Polaris was what I needed to find) It looks like the app is available for Android too.
OK so I'd got my location, knew about access, knew which times of day would be best, what I needed to know now was what was the weather likely to be like? Was the night suitable or was I going to get out there only to be covered by cloud that was rolling in (had that happen and it's unbelievably frustrating if you've driven a decent distance)
So, here is my favourite weather site of all time Weather Spark (http://weatherspark.com/) I "discovered" it a few years ago thanks to a tweet from our very own Admin and it is my absolute preferred method of viewing and interpreting weather forecast. It gives you graphs and you can choose to show/hide particular details, the graphs vary for each weather station on the map to the left.
http://i.imgur.com/NMZvOgA.jpg
Once you know which station you want to use you browse the graph and check the icons for cloud cover, temperature, precipitation, wind speed/direction etc (particularly useful for Quadcopter flying ;)). The accuracy is pretty good, I'd put it around 80% based on my experience thus far. It updates closer to the time too so it is worth keeping an eye on as the time approaches.
Not only do you need to plan if the weather is conducive to the kind of picture you want but also for your planning what to take along. Despite a balmy day yesterday I stashed a woolen sweater in the car to sit in my chair in last night while I waited for the time to pass.
Other useful resources:
Google image search (http://images.google.co.uk), if you know a place or subject and want to see examples for inspiration then this is great for a quick overview of what has been done.
Flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com) has some map keyword searching, it is WAY more clunky than Google used to be but clunky is better than non-existent. Also the selection of pictures will likely be of a higher standard. I sometimes find this to be counter-productive though as I feel defeated easily if there are already pictures I don't think I could match (or emulate well enough to do them justice)
OK I'm sorry this turned into what could be read as a self indulgent post but I suspect/hope it might be useful to others wanting to have a play with some of the techniques or maybe just someone wanting to learn of a better way to read weather, browse for interesting images etc.
Please share any sites you use for photography though as I love discovering new things and expanding my repertoire of things I can try.