Junction cafe
A cafe on the edge of the city center shot on a cloudy day. The HDR is on purpose...
A cafe on the edge of the city center shot on a cloudy day. The HDR is on purpose...
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May, 2012Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
![A nice Christmasy photograph. Ideal for a Christmas card [available from http:--www.redbubble.com-people-one-ml]](https://cdnpt01.viewbug.com/media/mediafiles/2013/11/25/5103611_widepreview400.webp)
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Behind The Lens
Location
It was taken in Digbeth in Birmingham, it's a café on the edge of town that I used to pass while walking out of town.Time
It was mid afternoon on a cold spring day. Me and my girlfriend had been to Birmingham City Centre to do some street photography, but the light hadn't been all that great and people were rushing around as it looked like it could pour down any minute. We were walking home using our usual short-cuts but always still on the look out for anything interesting. I turned the corner, and there it was! I kind if knew exactly how I wanted the finished shot to look right then. At the time I'd been experimenting with processing because digital processing had opened up all sorts of possibilities - maybe too many. With that shot I think I took maybe three exposures, and I knew exactly how I wanted it to look, and exactly how to process it. It's actually changed a few times over the years, but I've always tried to keep that brooding feeling that I felt that day.Lighting
Yes! It was overcast! The thing that really made the shot and gave it atmosphere, was that light kept drifting through the clouds, and I just hit the shutter when the light was perfect! I managed to catch it just at the right moment...Equipment
It was actually the first DSLR I owned. A Canon EOS 550D with a EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. It was one of the first images that I took in RAW format.Inspiration
A lot of things inspire me in my photography, cinema and cinematography is definitely one of them, and that shot looked like it had been spliced out of film noir... it's why I wanted it to have a grimy/HDR look.Editing
It was processed in Lightroom. I pushed the clarity right up, and slightly less on the vibrance, I then pulled back the saturation around one third of the vibrance to balance it out. The rest is basically pushing up the highlights and enhancing the darks in the tone curve. Nature and good timing took care of the majority of the work...In my camera bag
Everything I can carry, literally! I never want to need something and not have it! These days I never go anywhere without my main camera - A Canon EOS 5DMK3 with a Manfrotto 560B-1 monopod; lenses including a Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM, a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 DG OS HSM, a Canon EF 100 f/2.8L Macro IS USM, a Canon EF 28-135mm f/35-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Sigma 70-300mm; Canon 430EXII Speedlight; various triggers; also a light meter! It's one of those things far too few photographers invest in, and I think it shows in a lot of people's work.Feedback
Know your camera inside out (like in the dark). Don't try to make things look funky using software - It took me a long time to realise that all those great shots started out as well framed, metered and carefully shot images. The processing is a secondary thing, you should be able to see the shot you want before you press the shutter, and always shoot what you love.
