Garffiti

So last night I had an hour or so to spare. I dropped my girlfriend of at her mates and had time to occupy. I found this nice patch of scrub land with a small rolling hill, a tiny lake, quite a nice view into Rayleigh, and the sound of kids playing football. I took a few shots of the lake and view, but wanted to investigate the football, maybe get a few actions shots. Try and improve my sport photography skills.

As I walked towards the sound of the kids this wall appeared out the grass. Fantastic, full of colour. I tried some straight on shots but they didn't work. So I walked around and found this angle.

In truth I was a bit early, the sun was too high in the sky, making the shot really difficult. But I really like the sun in my shots at the moment. I was limited to what i could do to try and get the shot, I had minimal gear, no tripod, filters or flash gun. The sun, as always was too bright, I couldn't get the sky dark enough for me to use fill-in-flash to light the wall. (that's where my tripod, filters and flash gun would have come in handy!)
I decided to take several bracketed shots and combine them later on the computer. I reeled of about 10 shots till I was happy with the results, then took a few more for good measure. You can never have too many good shots.

I was working hand held, so i used Tv Priority with my shutter speed to 1/250, to reduce camera shake, my iso was set to 100 for maximum quality and the camera worked out my aperture for me.

Photoshop is a god send sometimes, You should always try to get the best picture in camera and on location and keep computer editing to a minimum but for this type of shot photoshop is indispensable. A bit of layer masking, clone stamping and colour adjustment and bingo a completed shot.

I think I will go back with al my gear and get the fill flash shot. So keep your eyes peeled, This wall will be back!