Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal and Edstone Aqueduct

[Tim Pindar]

Here in the Midlands we cannot compete with the stunning scenery our American or South African friends can capture, but we can hope to find examples of the picturesque quality of so much of rural England.

Today we went for a stroll along the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal, starting from Edstone Aqueduct, the longest aqueduct in England, which passes over both road and railway. The path along the aqueduct is level with the base of the water trough, so boats pass at eye level.

Unfortunately no boats traversed the aqueduct while I was photographing it, but I still got some nice shots.

Nothing fancy here, no special PP, just enough to try and make these shots look their best.

More photos here:

http://www.timpindar.com/stratfordcanalaqueduct20110611

 

[Pete Askew]

I really, really like number 2 Tim. And the sky etc in the train track shot is super. A summer storm approaching. Great.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Agree - #2 would make a great 'British Waterways' brochure shot - very scenic.

That storm over the train tracks does look impressive - maybe try a Red channel image converted to B&W for an IR look?

 

[Ralph Thornton]

Very interesting aqueduct! I'd like to visit that some day. #2 is indeed very impressive. Good work.

 

[Rudi Venter]

I like them all Tim but agree with the rest that #2 is really special!

They show me a part of the world I do not know but remind me of a great holiday I had cruising the waterways of Europe on a small yacht (36') a few years ago.

Thanks for sharing!
Rudi

 

[Tim Pindar]

Thanks all.

It's always fascinating to me when one photo gets lots of attention and it isn't the one you would have expected!

Photo #2 was a severe crop and TBH when zoomed in, the distant bridge isn't too clear. In LR3 I used the adjustment brush to bring down the sky, and also the water, in fact I then applied a second adjustment brush on top for just the reflection part of the water.

It's taken a while for me to get the hang of using the adjustment brush but I'm getting there.

Chris, regarding the railway shot, can you spell out exactly what B&W workflow (preferably in LR3) you mean by "try a Red channel image converted to B&W for an IR look" please?

 

[Tim Pindar]

PS There is a Lightroom annoyance that got me yesterday: after spending time on the PP for a dozen photos individually, I went back to an earlier one and did a whole load more, only to find that (following a slide show) I had ALL the photos selected and it made all those changes to ALL the photos! Took quite a lot of detective and remedial work to sort out which adjustments I had just done, and remove them from the other photos but not the intended one. It doesn't help that there isn't a timestamp for each adjustment.

Does anyone else get caught by this, and is there a good way to avoid it other than constantly checking what you have selected?

 

[Hamish Gill]

I've not come across that at all Tim!
I dont use the slideshow at all though...

 

[Pete Askew]

I use slide show a bit but have never seen it sync the images before.

 

[Tim Pindar]

Well it is a great feature of LR that if you have multiple images selected you can adjust them all simultaneously - eg lens correction, white balance sharpening...

 

[Pete Askew]

But not normally when you create a slide show. It is normally a sync function in the develop module. Not sure why it synced your develop settings when you created a slideshow though.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I didn't even know you could do that... How is it done Tim?

 

[Pete Askew]

Hamish, do you mean synchronising the develop settings?

Edit one image. Then select that one and any others that you want to perform the same edit on and then press the Sync button at the bottom of the Develop Pane. An option box will pop up asking you which settings you want to sync. Select and press OK.

You can do virtually the same with Camera Raw in PS / Bridge through the ACR module.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Every days a school day ... I wondered what that did!
I just make presets then go through selecting photos and applying presets ... I knew there must be a batch process type feature there somewhere ... I've just never been inclined to use one ... I might do now I know how though

 

[Pete Askew]

It's useful. Also means you can 'automate' spot removal etc.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Ah... Yes I see how that could be useful!
Well there we go, lightroom and it's constant surprises of functionality ...
We must be due version 4 soon arent we ... I get very excited when new versions cone out!

 

[Pete Askew]

I reckon so as Adobe seem to be releasing updates (various CS5.5's etc). They plan annual update cycles to fleece us for more cash apparently. It's going to be an expensive summer as I have 2 PS licenses, 2 PS extended Licenses, 4 copies of LR, a Design Collection (Windows) and a Master Collection for the Mac in the company! As well as 3 Nik full collection licenses!!

 

[Tim Pindar]

Actually guys it's even "easier" than using Sync. And I've just found the answer to my problem!!!

Next to the Sync button is a little selector switch. if you move it to the top setting, "Sync..." changes to "Auto Sync".

Then if you select more than one image via the CTRL or ALT keys, and make an adjustment to the displayed image, the adjustment will automatically be made to all of the images as soon as you make it! Try it - up the exposure hugely. Then use CTRL-Z to undo.

I had inadvertently moved to Auto Sync, and also as I was viewing in Slide Show I had selected all of the photos from our canal trip. When I went back to Develop and clicked to select one of them, the others actually remained selected, and hence why I edited them all by mistake...

Pete, your mentioning of the Sync button helped me sort that out - thanks.

Learning point: Auto Sync can be very handy.... but also very dangerous!