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davidlascelles

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Deansgate in Manchester

Deansgate in Manchester
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Canon EOS 50D

settings

Aperture 56/10 ISO 200 Shutter 1/800 Focal Length 40/1

upload_date

Jan, 2017

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Behind The Lens

Location

This shot was taken during a photowalk in the Deansgate area of Manchester city centre. The tall building in the background is the Manchester Deansgate Hilton hotel, a very distinctive building that dominates the skyline of the city.

Time

I honestly cannot remember. I think it was mid-afternoon and the position of the sun seems to back that up. I'd been wandering the streets since after lunch, just looking out for interesting things to shoot, and had very much lost track of time as I often do when focusing on photography.

Lighting

Obviously this is all natural light and this is one of those occasions where you get lucky with the position of the sun and the cloud cover. This was winter (building up to Christmas, hence the decorations in the foreground) so the sun was setting quite early and caused that rather dramatic effect behind the clouds. I was not intending to shoot anything in this street, it is otherwise a rather mundane urban scene, and I was on my way somewhere else when I caught this light effect and literally just reacted and clicked off a few shots. Pure serendipity. It was just lucky that I had not yet put my camera away from the previous location and so had it to hand (and more or less set to the right exposure) to take this as it happened.

Equipment

This was taken with my old Canon 50D with a basic 18-55mm kit lens. Nothing particularly special. Obviously no flash and while I had the tripod with me I didn't use it for this shot. As I said above, it was very much a spontaneous reaction shot - shooting literally 'from the hip'.

Inspiration

Just the sight of the urban landscape made a little bit fantastical by the sunlight as well as the architecture of the hotel. It was a while after I took this photo, but I was involved in a panel discussion on Manchester in Spec Fic at a writer's conference that took place in that hotel and there were comments made about the SF appearance of it (and one person commented that it looked someone had stuck a giant USB stick into the city). That discussion did remind me of this photo and how a landscape can so easily be transformed by a particular building or the effect of light on it.

Editing

At that point I was relatively new to photography and was not great a post processing. If I am being honest I am still not great at it but I am better than I was then. For this I had fiddled with shadows and darkness to emphasise the light more. If I was playing with this now I would do more. For example I might try to remove some of the clutter in the foreground.

In my camera bag

It depends on what I am doing. If I am going on a trip with family (for example to a National Trust or English Heritage site) I pack basic. My Canon 7D (my current best body), the kit lens (18 - 55mm) because it has the most useful range for that sort of trip and maybe my 50mm prime and sometimes the 50mm - 200mm zoom lens if I think I may need it. This all fits into a small camera bag that is easy to carry. This bag also holds a couple of spare batteries and often a packet of sweets, a drink and other basics. It often gets filled with leaflets and guidebooks from sites too. I may also take a tripod if it is an arranged photowalk but not for family trips. For a planned shoot with a model, I pack a lot more. Usually I use the larger of my two camera bags (a backpack) and I take all my lenses. I also have a Younguo speedlite, the remote triggers for activating it off camera, two tripods (a small, more portable one and one that is more normal sized), a lightstand, a softbox, a honeycomb grid modifier and a reflector. With these I have found you can do a basic studio set up on location pretty much anywhere. Not as good as a light set up in a studio but portable and not dependent on mains power (as many studio lights are). I am hoping to expand my light set up with another speedlite and some more modifiers. For some shoots I have also packed props, costume, make up and special effects. In fact, I still have some left over candles and smoke bombs from past shoots in my camera bag and will probably use those in another shoot in the future. A torch is also an absolute must if you plan to shoot when it is dark. Not only can you use it to see your camera settings but you can also use it to focus when it is too dark for focus to work. Simply ask the model to shine it on their face while you fix the focus then turn it off before you shoot.

Feedback

Just be aware of your surroundings and having a camera ready for those lucky shots when they appear. The more you do photography, the more you tend to notice opportunities and the better you get at being ready to capture them. Another piece of advice I have always followed, which was given to me by a much better photographer, was the best camera is the one you have with you. The quality of the equipment is irrelevant if your best stuff is at home and all you have on you is a mobile phone. Use the mobile phone and get the shot anyway. Work with what you do have rather than worry about what you should have.

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davidlascelles

davidlascelles

IMG_8746-3

Deansgate in Manchester

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow davidlascelles

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