Mike Barrett Photography

Photography Beyond The Moment

Creativity

While Developing Lightroom Presets

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Peak District Grit v’s ISO/ASA Grain, and a splash of Grunge.

I have been working on some Lightroom Presets which will be on sale soon. Look out for them in the coming weeks. I created one called ‘Here Comes The Grain Again’. A monochrome preset that mimics a high ASA (American Standards Association) film. You might be more familiar with the abbreviation ISO (International Organization of Standardization), more commonly used in Digital Cameras. A high ISO/ASA offers a higher level of light sensitivity when the camera makes the image. This essentially allows photographers to shoot at higher f-stops or indeed with faster shutter speeds, especially in low light conditions. In fact it’s a great way of getting better results from your camera in low-light situations. The trade off though is that images will often turn out grainy and have a more high contrast finish to them. In the digital world this has been a bit of a taboo in the production of photography. Photographers have demanded better and better quality sensors in cameras in order to make less grainy images while shooting in low light. However, grainy images can also be viewed as a style, something that adds character or textural interest to an image. This brings me neatly back to the Lightroom Presets that I have been developing.

This is the first monochrome preset I have made. It’s called ‘Here Comes The Grain Again’ and will be part of a set called Monopods. I liked it so much I had to try it out across a range of images. I came across a folder of RAW files, images that I took earlier this year while out in the Peak District. I got an assortment of moody shots of my brother Jake, and a couple of my daughter too, standing up on the rocks on the escarpment at Froggatt Edge in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park. This preset worked very well with these images and made for some really gritty results which I liked very much. To add a little more drama to the finished images, I ran them all through Photoshop and overlaid some spatter textures from a bank of resource imagery that I have been developing, using and adding to over the years. Here are the results below.

Watch out for my Lightroom Preset Package coming soon.

© Mike Barrett Photography 2019 – All Rights Reserved

Zoe Margo – Vampire

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During a  ‘Film Noir’ studio shoot last night photographing the lovely Zoe Margo, we were having a bit of a laugh during the first portrait shots and I joked about turning her into a vampire for Halloween. So, that’s what I did. Just for fun.

Happy Halloween everyone, and remember, don’t stray from the path!

© Mike Barrett Photography 2017 – All Rights Reserved

Arts Council Collection and Gomersal Primary School’s own Arts Council

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Gomersal Primary School’s own Arts Council recently visited the Arts Council Collection at the Longside Gallery at the fabulous Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The visit was devised in order for the young artists of Gomersal Primary School to get an insight into how major artworks are looked after and cared for when in transit, in storage and indeed when on loan in selected galleries or buildings when out on display to the public.

The school council members also got a taste of what it is like to devise sets of questions, lead interviews and to also film the process in order for use in certain media environments.

The day was full of questions from inquisitive minds and everybody got a fascinating insight into what goes on behind the scenes concerning the work of many of our famous artists, both the past and present.

The day was a lot of fun and it was great to spend time with and photograph Arts Council England and Gomersal Primary School’s very own Arts Council.

© Mike Barrett Photography 2017 – All Rights Reserved

ALL.4.ONE 

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I recently started a photography project using just my iPhone. The idea was simple: to have something creative to do in those in between moments, you know the ones I mean. Waiting for an appointment, killing time before a train, watching the clock while the veg roasts, standing in a supermarket queue or even just taking a quiet moment in the WC.

This project was all about the edit. I used my vast archive of photos, digging out a selection of portrait shots, mostly of friends and acquaintances that I’ve photographed over the past few years, along with a few more random images thrown in for good measure. Some were taken with my Canon DSLRs, others with my Canon G12 and plenty on my iPhone. Once I had a solid batch picked out, I transferred them all to my phone. That’s when the real fun began.

Using a mix of editing apps, my goal was to gradually erode and transform each image, allowing it to evolve slightly with each stage of the process. I aimed to create four distinct versions of every photo, subtle shifts, tweaks and degradations that together told a visual story. I displayed the final results in a four-box layout to highlight the transformation and bring a sense of rhythm and consistency across the series.

There are 100 images in total. The apps I used include Snapseed, Instagram, PhotoToaster, Pixlr-o-matic, Photogene2 and Retouch. Every single edit was made on the iPhone.

It’s been a playful, absorbing little project, proof that creativity really can fit into the smallest pockets of time.

All Images are copyright:

© Mike Barrett Photography – All Rights Reserved

clicksnapomatic (two)

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My wife and I recently spent a day on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway with her father and his partner. It was my father-in-law’s birthday so we had treated him to a day out on the steam locomotives, as he has a great love for such things.

We travelled from Pickering to Whitby and back again, stopping at many of the quaint little village stations on the way and taking in the scenery, which was breathtaking. There was also a Swinging Sixties event taking place on this particular day. This event consisted of period locomotives and motor vehicles (some beautiful classics), along with live 60’s music at various stations along the railway.

As ever I took my SLR but I also took my iPhone as I had decided that I wanted to document the day with some iPhoneography and use the apps that I mentioned in clicksnapomatic (one) to do the edits. Since then I have acquired the ‘Snapseed’ app which is a great little app and really easy to use.

Between us both, my wife and I managed to take a mammoth amount of photos over the course of the day, which is nothing unusual for us to be honest. I also took a fair bit of film footage on my phone which I plan to edit and make into a small movie of the day. When it’s done I will post it here. The old engines were truly something to behold and it was fabulous to have seen so many of them in working order bringing delight and wonder to the many people, old and young, who were travelling on them. It was a brilliant day out and I would recommend to anyone who has a love of old steam trains or the countryside for that matter.  Go and spend a day on the NYMR.

See the iPhoneography from the day out below…

All Images are copyright:

© Mike Barrett Photography – All Rights Reserved

clicksnapomatic (one)

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I really enjoy the technology that is currently available at our fingertips, especially in terms of fun photography. As a photographer my kit and quality of image are things that are extremely important to me. It kind of goes without saying really. Having said that and all seriousness aside I have to admit that I am enjoying taking fun snaps with my phone and using the hands on apps that are available to do the quick and quirky edits like colour correction and texture overlays etc.

Of course with a phone camera you don’t have the same control that you have with an SLR and the quality of image is still vastly different but never the less, it is still a captured moment, a little snapshot of life, a memory frozen in time and I’m finding it rather a lot of fun to be honest!

So, here is a selection of images that were recently taken on my iPhone. All the editing was done on simple editing software apps that are available in the app store. The apps that I have been enjoying so far are, Instagram, PhotoToaster, Pixlr-o-matic, Photogene2 and Retouch.

This post is called ‘clicksnapomatic (one)’. I shall be posting more phone snapping fun soon. So look out for ‘clicksnapomatic (two)’ etc…

If you’ve been having similar photographic fun with your phone, let me know what apps you’re using and enjoying. Happy Snapping! (“,)

All Images are copyright:

© Mike Barrett Photography – All Rights Reserved

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