How to add an Artistic Frame to your Digital Photos!

You can see from my last blogpost that I have gone in a different direction regarding posting my images online and I'd like to thank everyone here for the comments and responses contributed. Believe me, I do understand and realise that there is no foolproof way of protecting your images, but this is a way of turning the whole thing into a positive. It's about presentation as well, not just about putting my name on it.

So as promised, here are my steps to making a photo frame such as the one used in the photograph above. In fact, this is a step-by-step guide to making that exact photo frame. At this point I will state that of course all colours, fonts, styles, dimensions etc are entirely up to you, but this is how I do it. And as I have no right to call this photo frame my own, feel free to use it! I should also state that as you may know, I am by no means an expert in Photoshop, and am absolutely sure there are quicker ways of doing this. If there is a step you believe I can compact, please let me know!:

Pre-Step: Make sure all your regular photo processing is done. I do not do any further processing after creating the frame around the picture.

Step 1: With your finished photo, select Layer / New Fill Layer / Solid Color. Call the layer what you want and select any colour you want (it's not important here). Also make sure Mode is normal and Opacity 100%. In the Colour Picker box that pops up, take the cursor to the very top left corner until it is bright white and press OK. So now you have a new layer that is completely white.

Step 2: Make sure you swap the layers, so that your new fill layer is at the bottom and your photograph the top layer.

Step 3: Select Image / Canvas Size. Set your width as 4cm and the height as 7cm. Make sure Relative is ticked and then click OK. Your frame appears!

Step 4: Select Edit / Stroke. Set your width as 10px and the colour Grey. Also select Location as Outside, Blending Mode Normal and the Opacity as 100%. Click OK and the inside Grey frame appears.

Step 5: Select Text (the big T in the square box). As you can see, I use a medium/dark grey for the colour of my text. Select the font Trajan Pro at 24pt and write your title in the middle of the frame below the picture. Select Text again and select the font as Savoye LET 24pt. If you fancy 'signing' the frame, write this text below the title.

Your frame is now complete!

Optional Step 6: If you use a white frame like me, you may want to add a thin black border around it, so it stands out on websites that have white backgrounds such as Flickr (and this blog).

Merge your layers together and then select Filter / Nik Software / Color Efex Pro 4 (assuming you have it!). Select the Image borders filter and then use Type 13 / Spread -10% / Size -96%. Make sure Clean slider is fully to the left. Now click OK and this will take you back to Photoshop. Save your image and upload it to your audience online! (Please note, again I state I'm sure there is a way to complete this optional step without going into Nik Software, so am open to tips!)

See you all next time!

Coming Back to What I Know

It's been over a month since I have blogged on this website, and though I knew it had been a while, I didn't realise it had been that long! Quite a lot has happened over the last month, and while I can say there are work and personal reasons that have kept me very busy and are true, I think a lot of the reason I have been kept from blogging on this website, is perhaps a little disillusionment recently with photography.

First of all, I think I have been very confused about where I want to go with it. I had aspirations at the beginning of the year to turn photography into a profitable business, and begin doing wedding photography and other commercial avenues, but I'm not sure I have the heart or desire for it now. The key problem I have with going in that direction is that although it would be doing something for a living I love, it would still be that four letter word 'work'. I love creating artistic images and whilst working in photography would still give me opportunity to do that, I am not sure I could maintain my passion for all things photography, whilst meeting deadlines and processing dozens of commercial shots that perhaps don't inspire me. I don't want to burn my bridges here, it's still something I may go into, but perhaps I am still waiting for a different path to inspire me business wise.

At the same time I have been continuing with my online photography course, and though I do recognise the benefit it has given me as a photographer, I again am feeling a little uninspired by it now. The projects keep coming forward that I am not so interested in, and it has affected my desire to complete it. Now don't get me wrong, I will complete it, I am just saying that it too is starting to feel like work rather than enjoying my photography. I have learnt that perhaps the only photography I will ever love is the type where I am inspired to go out, get the pictures and see if I can turn them into digital work that I am proud of. This is why I think that amongst all my soul-searching, I am going to focus on creating HDR pictures more than ever, because I think this is simply the photography I most enjoy doing.

One of the big reasons I have become disillusioned with photography though, is an event that recently took place that has bothered me way more than it should. Without a doubt my most successful picture I have created is my 'Justice for the 96 picture' below. I was incredibly excited at the time I took this picture, knowing it was a unique event and that I was perhaps 'in the right place, at the right time', and spent a long time crafting it when back on the computer, to get an HDR picture that captured the atmosphere and beauty of the event.

My fellow photography blogger Tim Pursall and a couple of other people on Facebook, alerted me to the fact on April 15th (the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy) there seemed to be a version of my work that was doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook, that was a black and white version of my photograph, that I had not created. This version you can see here below:

My brother quickly found who had created this version and emailed him for a response, but as I understand, has never had a response. I have followed this guy's work and can see that he is a graphic design student that takes other people's photos, puts a graphic over them and then claims them as his own work. I'm not saying I don't like what he did with my picture, but what has got to me, is the idea in my opinion, of doing very little work to it, and then putting his name on the picture as if he created the whole work. It is about lack of credibility that I dislike. I have no intention to profit from this picture, and would have had no problems had he contacted me to use it before creating his version of it. He obviously chose not to do this though, and again then claimed the work as his own. Even a simple 'Photograph by Pete Halewood / Design by such and such' would have been ok with me.

I know it perhaps sounds modest to demand recognition for one's own work, but I would stick up for any photographer whose work is being copied, and not receiving the credit they deserve. The time and inspiration photographers put into their work should be duly recognised, and though this is very often not in terms of a financial amount, they should be recognised as the artist and creator of the work, that is the very least recognition deserved.

What went on to bother me more is the extent to which his version (and which he has bragged about) has been copied onto T-shirts and used as the front cover on a fanzine.

Again, I have no wish to benefit economically from this photograph, but I don't like that none of these items bear any reference to the original work I created, and dare I say it, the fanzine is profiting from it. I know too well that in this internet age, it is impossible to get your work out there and not have people copy it and claim it for their own. I have seen it happen so many times, and it indeed is nothing new even in the midst of history. It is in fact a situation that has been paralleled with the sowing of seeds on a farm, i.e. the birds will get some. But what happens when you go chasing birds? You leave the field. I am surprised to the extent that some well established photographers have chased 'small birds' who may have used their work for some purpose, but at least now I understand the annoyance behind it. I have not gone demanding an answer from this individual myself, I really don't want to spend my energy on it. Yes the lack of credit has bothered me, but I can only think about what should I do about it from now.

I also read an online article recently (Here is the link) that said that the government are planning on bringing legislation in, that means that anybody on the net can use any photograph they find for commercial purposes, if credit for the picture is not made clear with the photograph. The article is called 'Is the UK government trying to kill off photographers?' by Edmond Terakopian. Now I do not know the exact facts or truth behind the story, but I see no reason to disbelieve it. As shown earlier, it is a terrible time for photographers to get recognition for their own work. And saying 'where there is no credit' is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I used to naively think that if I filled out all that meta data detail on my photograph, then it would be built into the picture forever, like someone walking round with a microchip inside them. WRONG! It is easy for others to strip a picture of it's meta data, and again only takes a second for somebody to copy a picture, strip you of all credit and leave the picture with no credit, or a credit to themselves. I try not let this stuff bother me, but as the title of the article suggests, it seems that nobody is on our side these days, and could not care whether you benefit from your work or not.

So yes I have become a bit disillusioned recently with the photography scene, but I am now fighting back! I don't mean in an angry way, I would much rather create pictures then fight the world for the recognition of them, but still it is simply a fact I have come to realise that the whole thing about putting pictures on the net with no watermark or frame, is making it ridiculously easy for someone to take credit for your work. I have spoken about putting watermarks and frames on photographs before, but now I have had a change of heart. Whilst I have experimented with watermarks recently, I still cannot bring myself to cover any part of the photograph with a name or logo. I'm not going to argue why, it just doesn't work for me. However, I have decided that all the pictures I create and display on the web now, will come with a frame, and titled signature by myself (see new photograph below!). I know this will not make it fool-proof to stop determined people copying the work, but it would take the more devious type.

I have been guilty in the past of creating new ways to present my pictures, and quickly going back to old habits with no frames or watermarks, but this new presentation is going to stay. Check my Flickr photostream for some of my older pictures I have created with my new white frame! I don't expect it to be popular with everyone, but like changes to Facebook, everyone gets used to them quickly. I must state now (for balance) that I know watermarks and frames are ill-advised by some well established and inspirational photographers such as Trey Ratcliff. He has built his success on the free movement of his pictures around the internet (though of course more importantly great photography!), albeit with a creative commons licence, to counter anyone who uses his pictures for commercial purposes. Though I do not use Creative Commons copyright, I have used the same philosophy with my own work, but it's time to realise that what works for other other people, may not be the best for me. It doesn't help people find your work and get the recognition you deserve, especially if you are not an established photographer. I have to say as well, I do like the new presentation to my pictures, in fact my Wife said she cannot believe I did not present them this way before.

I absolutely welcome any comments or opinions on presentation of photographs online, and indeed about being recognised for your own work. Today's picture is one I took in Chelsea, West London, whilst visiting my brother a few weeks ago. I intend to be back on this blog in a big way now, and apologise to everyone for the absence. Next time: how to create a photo frame such as the one I have employed!

Building a Newbury Sunset

Now I had to check I hadn't posted this photo on this blog before but it turns out I haven't. You may recognise this picture, I have had it on other websites such as Smugmug and Flickr for nearly 2 years now, but looking different. You see I have given this photo the remastered process recently, as I have done a few other pictures.

I have probably discussed on this site more than any other topic, the idea of re-processing a photograph. I have traditionally been against it, but I think (as I stated on The Swan Hotel, Bibury post) that if you have pictures that were taken on a tripod, no matter at what stage of your development as a photographer, you should be able to go back reprocess and improve it. I say 'that were taken on a tripod' because these pictures will normally be the ones that are sharp, with no blur, whether you were a great photographer then or not. And when I took this picture in May 2011 I was not a great photographer, but I did take pictures like this on a tripod, giving me great opportunity years later to revisit it.

I believe I have improved it over my original (sharper, less 'irrelevant' detail, brighter, straighter!) and reprocessing old photos this way will help you realise how far you have come as a photographer. I always liked my title for this picture, and being as the cranes in the photo were only a temporary feature, it means that the photo is unlikely to be able to be taken as it is again. My favourite kind of photo!

The Winter Church

March is not the time of year I expect to be posting winter pictures full of snow, but then the English weather is not providing me many other opportunities at the moment. I take solace in the fact that I know the rest of Europe is pretty much plunged in winter still as well, at a time when most of us are hoping to see some spring. Such is life though, the weather is certainly something we cannot influence or change, so there is no point focusing on it that much.

Having grovelled a little there, I am secretly a bit thankful as well, as the snow allowed me to go up to the village I grew up in, Woolton Hill in North Hampshire, to take some pictures of the village church, or more specifically St. Thomas' Church. I don't normally have this opportunity during the week, so did not waste the opportunity presented on this Saturday morning.

Churches and Cathedrals I find are some of the hardest buildings to photograph. This is usually due to the fact that they are massive structures in sometimes small grounds, meaning that getting the whole church in the frame is a real challenge. For the angle I chose here, I had to (carefully) walk through the graveyard to set up in the corner of the grounds. The bonus of setting up there as well is that I was under some tress, which kept me and my camera fairly dry as I took pictures (as you can tell from the picture the snow was still coming down fast). This was not possible at other angles I took.

This is an HDR picture taken from 5 different exposures. There was a lot of work and time put into this picture, mainly in photoshop to rid it of ghostly artefacts (no pun intended there), clone out some bins and do general clean up work.

The Miami Sunset You Can't See

Film critics have often said that what you can't see in a scene, is often more important than what you can. Hitchcock was a master of this, though it was also used to great effect in the movie Se7en (I even wrote it like it is on the DVD). You know the 'What's in the box?!' bit at the end. I would write spoiler alert there, but if you haven't seen it now, well you really should have, it's nearly 20 years old. Now I know it's completely unartistic to point out features like this in your own work, but then I don't really think of myself as an artist, just a guy trying to capture the scenes of the world that capture my imagination. This will probably backfire on me one day, when I insist I want to be treated seriously as an artist, man. I think I'm way too grounded and down-to-earth for that though.

Miami in February is certainly a more attractive place to be than the British Isles, though I'm not an anti-winter person. It certainly has it's charm and beauty, though the typical day here is 9 times out of 10 a dreary, wet, overcast, cold one. I'm not a great fan of Big Brother (the TV series) but I could not help but LMAO (!) when Jermaine Jackson came to Britain a few years ago on Celebrity Big Brother, thinking it would be a snowy, fairytale-like land in the winter. Oh, when will the world learn!

So anyway, the beauty of being in Miami in January/February is the summer-like sunsets you can get, that are months away in Europe. I was lucky enough to be treated to a boat trip around the Miami Bay area the evening of this picture. As a photographer, this means you won't be getting the crispest, super sharp shots, but you can certainly get pictures that would not be possible from other vantage points. The sun was going down way over my right shoulder and was reflected beautifully in these 2 buildings. It took a while to grow on me I think, but it is perhaps now my favourite shot from my Miami trip. It is a single image, processed nearly entirely in Lightroom, with some minor clean up work done in Photoshop.

f/6.3 / 92mm/ 1/100sec / ISO 400

Palestine

The Middle East, one of the most tense places you could possibly be on Earth. I have said on a previous blog post that Palestine is perhaps not a place I would visit again. In fact, I was mocked at work the other day because I said it is not a country I would voluntarily go to, which was met with unsuppressed laughter of "but you did!". As dumb as it may sound, I really didn't! I had no idea that the tour we took from Sharm El-Sheikh to Jerusalem (The Holy Land tour) meant going to Palestine as well. I knew we were visiting Israel, and mainly Jerusalem, but I honestly did not know that Palestine was that close to it. I must state though, that it was perfectly safe to visit Palestine, and indeed if you want to visit the birth place of Christ (Bethlehem, for all you who have forgotten your Christmas nativity stories), then you have no choice but to visit Palestine, because that's where it is (likewise Nazareth, which is also associated with Jesus, is also in Palestinian territory, though we were told that it isn't safe to visit there at the moment).

I have also mentioned on a previous blog post that the tour we took was far from ideal for taking photographs, simply because we had so little spare time. So today's picture is rather like like a tourist picture I suppose (albeit one that took me ages to process), but is still a record of my travels there. This is looking away from the Church of Nativity and into the local town area of Bethlehem. It is a 3 shot HDR picture taken with a Nikon D90, processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and Topaz Adjust.

New blog name.....Again??!

Yes, you may have noticed that I have yet again changed the name of this blog. Having only just changed it to Home and Away (not influenced by the Aussie TV show), I have now changed it to the non-cryptic UK HDR Photography. Why? Well, because I have decided that the travel photography blog idea has been done to death, and I don't want to appear in the same vein anymore. Therefore, I want this blog mainly to be about what it mainly contains, which is HDR photography, whether from Britain or abroad. Of course, not every photograph will be an HDR, but this would be stated, and otherwise the blog name would just be Photography, which is unlikely to get me up in the Google rankings.

The Swan Hotel, Bibury

Something a bit closer to home now....Amidst the plenty of pictures I still have to post from Miami and Egypt, I wanted to post this picture of rural Gloucestershire, that I have been working on recently. The picture was taken almost 2 years ago, during the summer of 2011. I was staying at this fantastic hotel in the village of Bibury, and had the evening to walk round with camera and tripod (something I did not use a lot back then), taking pictures of the local area.

I know it's been said many times, but using a tripod I think is perhaps the single most simple advice you can give someone for taking better pictures. Having used a tripod on the evening I took this picture, means I can still get great sharp images from them now, and come back to them with post-processing skills I have developed over time. I did create an HDR of this back then (not published on any website) and though I was already well into my HDR journey, looking back it was still probably over-processed (too saturated) and not at all well cropped!

This is a standard 3 shot HDR picture, processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro. Most adjustments, dodging and burning and stuff was done in Lightroom, with some spot-healing done in Photoshop. When using Photomatix these days, I would recommend turning down the Luminosity slider (I used to always have this fully to the right by default). A lot of HDR pictures these days are presented as more realistic, rather than the over-cooked HDR look there used to be, and I think that has a lot to do with turning down the luminosity slider.

New post coming over the weekend!

Jerusalem

Jerusalem, perhaps the most famous and legendary city to ever exist. Wars have been fought over Jerusalem for thousands of years and continue to do so. It has been completely destroyed and rebuilt twice during it's long history, and of course is a key pilgrimage sight for followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

With my Wife and I's holiday to Egypt recently, came the opportunity for an excursion to The Holy Land, with the main focus being Jerusalem. We sacrificed a trip to Cairo in favour of Jerusalem, which given the instability of the Middle-East region, was perhaps a sensible thing to do. Jerusalem is not always a safe and recommended place to visit. Despite the recent Revolution in Egypt, the Cairo tourist spots such as the Great Pyramid and Sphinx are unaffected by these troubles. Although we were delighted to visit Jerusalem, we were not big fans of the tour we went on. We were prepared for the hard work, as we were picked up in Sharm El-Sheikh at 9pm and returned midnight the next day (meaning a bus trip through the night), but we were disappointed that there were hardly any opportunities for free time to explore the old city of Jerusalem.

Of course, excursions and tourist tours are not the ideal way to get great photographs, but our experience from previous tours in Greece was very good. They gave us various explanations at places we stopped, but at the same time gave us plenty of time to explore and take pictures. Now we did pack quite a lot into our day in the Middle-East (Jerusalem, Palestine, the Dead Sea) but it was still a bit annoying that any photos taken were pretty much standard ones everyone else could get. This should not take away from the fact though that visiting Jerusalem was a very special and fascinating experience, that if times are good, I thoroughly recommend.

The picture you see of Jerusalem here is taken from the Mount of Olives perspective, which gives a wonderful view over the old city of Jerusalem. I do not want to call this an HDR, if I could invent a term for it, I would call it a semi-HDR. This is because my original picture is a standard single RAW image, but I created an HDR out of this single RAW file, to bring out more colour and detail. The final picture is the original image, with the HDR elements masked into the main architectural and old city parts. The picture was completed by eliminating the many cranes and other distracting features in the background.

Quick note: This is my first picture from the continent of Asia. Having visited as well Egypt (in Africa) and Miami (in North America), I now have pictures posted in 2013 from 4 different continents (including Europe of course)! Despite my fairly low output so far (this is going to change rapidly), I'm very chuffed with that fact!

Desert Camp Egypt

Well I have returned from an extraordinary week in Egypt, full of sunshine, snorkelling and plenty of travelling. I'm not the type on holiday to just sit by the pool, though there was a little bit of that. Unfortunately, a week in the sun can go oh so quickly, but we managed to pack quite a lot into that week. The most interesting part was travelling to Israel and Palestine, to visit The Holy Cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem (not sure that is a city?), as well as a stop at the Dead Sea. So as you can imagine I have I hope plenty of photos to share, and rather than give you a whole transcript of the holiday right now, I will take each stage one at a time.

Today's picture was actually taken the day before we returned from holiday. After the exhausting trip to Israel and Palestine, we relaxed for a couple of days, but wanted to do a final excursion before returning to England. So we decided to do Camel Riding and Star Gazing in the desert. We had booked the trip through a vendor based outside the hotel and it began rather nervously, when we were collected from the hotel, by 3 men in what can only be described as a makeshift Derek Trotter minibus (blue not yellow though), complete with no ID and plenty of arabic writing inside. Having arrived at the desert and satisfied that we weren't being kidnapped, we did indeed enjoy a great evening of the previously mentioned activities, and also learned about the Bedouin (Egyptian Tribesman) lifestyle, as well as being entertained with various dances as well. So no this is not a camp in the military sense, but still a place you could easily enjoy the peace and quiet of the desert for the night. We were able to watch the sun going down from a good vantage point, and it was at this time that this photo was taken. It is a 3 shot HDR image, taken handheld with my Nikon D90.

I have been using the D90 a lot recently (for my Miami and Egypt trips), as opposed to the much bigger and better D700, simply because of the ease of travelling with it. I never planned to go back into shooting with the D90, and indeed it can be frustrating having to deal with issues again that are not a problem with the D700, such as low level light handling, and the amount of noise the D90 generates. Still, it is light, portable and has a VR (the anti-shaky thing) lens, as opposed to my 24-70mm lens I have for my D700, which is not. I look forward though now to going back to using the D700 on a regular basis, and with Spring approaching soon hopefully, will certainly be out and about getting some 'Home' pictures.

Dancing in Little Havana

The Cuban centre of Miami, with all due respect, Little Havana is perhaps not a place I would venture to again in a hurry. Having got a taxi ride from South Beach to Little Havana (which seemed worlds apart), the taxi driver dropped me off at a location, which meant I had to walk quite a distance to get to the main point where the tourists visit, such as the cigar-making shops in the centre. It wasn't the most secure walk I've ever had to make, and watching a news programme later on about how many guns were handed in that day as part of a guns armistice scheme, made me somewhat relieved I had not known how many guns were on the 'street' there in the first place.

However, Little Havana has tons of energy to it, and as well as the famous cigar shops where you can see them being rolled and made in front of you (picture of that coming up soon), there is also music always playing outside and people enjoying the atmosphere. These guys were happy for me to take their picture of this wonderful scene I came across in the centre of Little Havana.

It is a single image (not HDR) but I have used Topaz Adjust, as well as Lightroom, to give the scene a bit more energy and tone, than just a standard out-of-the-camera photograph. Tomorrow I am travelling to Egypt, so won't be back on this blog for over a week or so. I shall return with plenty of pictures still to come from Miami, and hopefully some good ones from Egypt!