The Great Glasshouse – Contrast in iPhonography

More photos from my iPhone using both the phone’s Camera app and PureShot.

Controlling exposure and white balance can be difficult in certain situations, most especially when there is significant contrast in light within the frame. One way to adjust this with the Camera app is to try out different angles and points of focus until you find a reasonable compromise and then make further adjustment to shadows and highlights in post processing with an app like Adobe Photoshop (the phone version) or Lightroom on your computer.

PureShot allows easy adjustment on screen of the area within the frame that is sensitive to the light when taking your shot. This means that it is much easier to use the angle and composition that you want with little compromise to white balance and contrast. And of course further tweaking is possible in post production. I like the mobile Photoshop app for post production on the phone but another good app I use is SnapSeed.

The first photo (of The Great Glasshouse at NBGW) was taken with the Camera app. Although there was significant contrast between the light coming through the glass roof and the “landscape” inside, it was easy to adjust the angle satisfactorily to allow a good distribution of light or white balance.

The second and third shots were both taken with PureShot as TIFFs, with its exposure control making it possible to handle the contrast between sky and land and inside the glasshouse, “table” and darker plants surrounding it. For detailed info on using either app, I refer people to Emil Pakarklis’ iPhone Photography School.

Botanic Gardens

NBGW

NBGW

Memorial to the project architect of the Great Glasshouse

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Winter Lakeside Walk” which features Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmartheshire. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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Plants in the Glasshouse – Absorbed in iPhonography

I was absorbed in taking the photos and absorbed by the look of the plants but I made a mistake, one I make too often! I forgot to get all the information I would want about the things I was photographing – information I would want when writing this post.

I would like to be able to tell you what these fascinating and exotic plants are but all I can say is that they are in the Great Glasshouse in the National Botanic Garden of Wales. I can also tell you that the first photograph was taken in JPEG format (see yesterdays post for info on formats), and the second in TIFF.

Unfortunately that probably doesn’t give you information that you really want whether you are interested in photography or not, so I must apologise for the omission of this information and ask if anyone knows what they are, to post it in the comments. Thank you.

NBGW

NBGW

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Winter Lakeside Walk” which features Llyn Llech Owain Country Park in Carmartheshire. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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Woodland Walk

Watch the “Woodland Walk” video below, if you haven’t already done so, and enjoy Pont Felin Gât at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. It is in the Summer collection of StillWalks but the video title says Spring . . . it was late Spring and felt like Summer!

Below are the last available photos from the video. These are available for sale at the StillWalks PhotoShelter site.

Buttercup Meadow National Botanic Garden of Wales

If you go down to the woods today

This would be what you would find. This is from a little later in the year in fact but can be found at the Botanic Gardens in Wales.

It’s a little off the beaten track but makes for a slightly lengthier walk around Pont Felin Gât at the northern end of the gardens.

The photos are from my StillWalk video “Woodland Walk” in Summer and are available for sale at the StillWalks PhotoShelter site. The title on the video says it is Spring – it was late spring and felt like Summer on Production day.

Clover Pont Felin Gât Pont Felin Gât Woods Pont Felin Gât Woods

StillWalks – Lakeside Walk

Here is the video then, if you have not already watched it – Lakeside Walk.

Switch off your phone, put everything else aside and relax for 6.5 minutes to the sights and sounds of a walk alongside the lake at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

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Lakeside Flowers

Walks can be any length in a StillWalks video – the videos are each approximately 6 – 7 minutes long. Whether long or short, there is so much to see and hear out there that, wherever the location, it is always an exercise in discipline and decision making to select those that should be used.

The images in a StillWalks have different roles to play within the sequence but a part of the job is simply to stand still, look and listen to the beautiful or fascinating things around me. This is always most pleasant when on the pre-production recce walk when I am not carting around all the kit.

These are the penultimate images from the Lakeside Walk at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Click on them to enlarge and they are available for sale through the StillWalks PhotoShelter site.

Lakeside Cow Parsley Lakeside Lakeside Irises

Lillies on the Pond

Moving further along on the Lakeside Walk at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

This walk was a sunny one but we have been there in all weathers and enjoyed the gardens and the biggest single span glasshouse in the world.

It is very attractive to photographers, amateur and professional alike, and whilst there must have been thousands of photographs taken of the plants and other aspects of the gardens, when you take your own they are yours; and if you are anything like me, you will take photos of the same things again and again and never get tired of it 🙂

Click the images to enlarge. They are available for sale here Photo Sales.

Lillies Hostas Lillies