Time blending
I discovered this spot not too long ago and I imminently thought it would perfect to try time blending technique that I had so much fun using recently. It’s a special exposure blending technique, which is usually used to combine several photos of the same scene that have been taken over an extended period of time. Typical examples are the combination of a blue hour photo with a another taken at night – usually used by landscape photographer with the stars or the Milky Way in the frame. However I like to blend city lights instead to make unique looking, high quality image that I would not be afraid to print even at very large size.
I’m not going to explain step by step how I’ve done it as there is plenty of videos online explaining entire process. Just look up “time blending technique” and follow one of many available tutorials to create stunning images!
Media City UK last minute trip
It was very spontaneous last minute trip. Unfortunately weather turn out to be quite disappointing since I was counting on more colour on the sky. However I manage to get 1 main image + 2 extra along the way.
Corporation street Victoria view
This week I had visit another great location in Manchester city center for night and long exposure photography. This time was M.A.N arena car park what offers nice view on Victoria station and corporation street. Idea was to capture light streaks from ring road along with trains coming in and out from the station. I’ve show up early blue hour to get my base image keeping camera on tripod and shooting all the way until late blue hour to get rest of components.
Area on left side of the frame is currently under heavy development with several buildings been added to ever growing Manchester skyline. Once work is complete spot will offer excellent composition with all new N.O.M.A scrapers and bridge in the foreground.
This time I also brought second camera that I placed on other side to capture north bound of the station. It’s not a great image but I decide to share it anyway.
Also before and after of main photo can be seen below:
First street view
Most of 2018 I’ve been photographically inactivity. One of my new years resolutions however was to get back to it so I took a challenge: one, good picture a week. This weekend I decide to revisit one of my favourite location…
Car park on First street in Manchester have a great view on Deansgate train station so the idea was to capture city lights at dusk with light streaks from passing trains. This time I used technique called time blending. I’ve watched few tutorials from one of my favourite photographer, Elia Locardi who teamed up with crew from Fstoppers to create great series called “Photographing the World”.
Idea is to blend multiple images taken within few hours of shooting into one seamless picture by choosing most interesting parts of each and blending it in photoshop. I didn’t get weather conditions I really want as I was hoping for some dramatic clouds but instead sky went absolutely clear.
Some may call it cheating reality but I feel it’s a creative choice since I’m not adding any pixels that aren’t already there. This way I’m be able get best dynamic range possible.
Here is before and after. I used base image taken at early blue hour and added lights using “lighten blending mode” in photoshop.
