particular,
you often
have limited
options as to
where you can
shoot from, so being
able to go all the way from
16mm to 200mm gives me all the flexibility
I’ll need. Plus I need to travel light!”THE NIGHT FANTASTIC
The inky blue had given way to the black of
night, but there was still time for one more
shot. Finding themselves back on the South
Bank of the river, Steven set up his tripodnex t to ‘The Scoop’, an outdoor
amphitheatre next to City Hall.
“The great thing about shooting cities is
that they’re full of artificial light, so you
don’ t have to pack up and go home the
moment the sun dips below the horizon,”
reasoned Jordan. “I love the way that you’re
using the neon strip lighting as a leading line
towards the distant floodlit Tower Bridge,
with the bright windows of City Hall
sneaking into the frame.”
With that, a hi-viz jacketed security guard
wandered up muttering something about
permits. “It was bound to happen sooner
or later,” mused Jordan. But time wasLondon’s skyline offers a myriad of
opportunities for urban photographers.EXPERT INSIGHT PROCESSING
Jordan says... I try to get everything as right as possible in camera, but my shots still
need processing to get the very best out of them. Using Adobe Lightroom means that
I can easily process shots together for a consistent look between them, while shooting
in Raw means that I can fine-tune the exposure to carefully balance the lighter and darker
areas of the scene. I’ll use radial selections to emphasize areas I want to direct the
viewer’s attention to; straightening to ensure that verticals and horizons are absolutely
bang-on; and a little subtle cloning – I have no qualms about removing distractions that
would otherwise spoil a perfectly sellable shot!Tower of London in the foreground with
iconic skyscrapers such as the Gherkin
and Walkie-Talkie tells this story perfectly.”
Steven wondered what would be the best
aperture to use. “In truth, you could use any
aperture you like and get a well-focused
shot,” confessed Jordan. “As you’re
shooting with a wide-angle lens across the
water, with nothing in the near foreground,
ever y thing’s going to be in focus. So it ’s
best to simply select the aper ture at which
the lens performs at its sharpest. Many are
at their best around f/8, including the
Nikon 16-35mm f/4.”
Noticing a lack of primes in his kit bag,
Steven asked what lenses Jordan used.
“For travel photography, I’ll take the
16-35mm f/4, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-
200mm f/4. The quality of these zooms is
so good that you’d be hard-pressed to see
any difference from a prime lens, and
they’re just so versatile. With cities, in
Radial Selection Cloning StraighteningCITYSCAPES