Here are another set of locations, photo inspirations and camera setting lessons for you to get your teeth into and use for your own creations. These are the other half of the pictures that were taken during the same couple of days as those featured in the first blog sharing my photography locations in London.
This blog is here to give you the exact locations of the places where I took the photographs you see, give you inspiration for the kind of shots you can get there to allow you get something similar or new. The other thing that I offer from this blog is giving you some help on the camera settings, even if learning from my mistakes, so that you get the pictures you want first time.
And leaving yourself regretting not getting what you want and feeling like you need to go back…
Camera settings: Exposure 1/8s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 2500
Location: Victoria Embankment (Google Maps)
Westminster is always a hot spot for taking pictures with the various spectacular pieces of architecture. Just across the river you have a perfect view of the London Eye (or whatever name it is under these days), alongside the impressive County Hall. At night, how could you resist the colours on show and how they reflect off the River Thames?
Same story as seen in the first blog as these from the same evening: the ISO was too high. And again, what would I do next time? Drop it down to 100-200 and bring my tripod to allow a longer exposure time in the region of at least 1/2s. This would leave you not having to rescue things in post production like I was.
This could have been so good! Don’t make the same mistakes as me and leave yourself wishing you’d got it right at the time!
Camera settings: Exposure 1/6s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 6400
Location: Under Grosvenor Railway Bridge, Grosvenor Road (Google Maps)
I came across this view as I started out my journey through London with my camera. There was a little clearing next to a section of the pavement under the bridge that you can stand in comfortable and give you a very different angle. Of course, this is only a viable shot in the spring-autumn time due to the leafy trees but gives you great scope to get pictures of varying dynamics as the seasons change.
As you can tell by the camera settings and comparing them to the other pictures, as well as what I’ve said, it’s obvious that this picture was the first of the venture out. Post production could only save me so much with this one. The idea was good but the execution… not so much. A lot of noise and the camera settings were far, far too sensitive.
What would I do next time? ISO to 400 or less for a start! If shooting from hand, 1/6s or 1/8s for exposure time, aperture around the same, if not slightly smaller. If shooting from a tripod, ISO down to 100, exposure time up to 1/2s at least and watch the noise disappear and the detail reappear.
Camera settings: Exposure 1/50s, f/4.5, 18mm, ISO 400
Location: Horsleydown Steps (Google Maps)
Is there an angle that Tower Bridge doesn’t look brilliant and utterly photogenic? I couldn’t resist this angle, showing it’s imposing nature early evening London nightlife. After getting a great sunset shot further east along the river, as I walked along the south side of the River Thames, this came into view with that blue hour hue and spotlights just lighting up.
The taking of this photography had a little more to consider. The main attraction of course is Tower Bridge and making sure that I got the detail but had to counter that against not blurring those in the foreground too much. The latter point is what inspired the quicker shutter speed. To compromise this, I’d opened up the aperture to get the extra light from the shadowed bridge and allow me to keep the ISO low.
Camera settings: Exposure 1/8s, f/3.5, 20mm, ISO 1600
Location: Taken from Millennium Bridge (Google Maps)
With so many attractions and landmarks viewable all along the Thames, the bridges in London are always an ideal location for you to get a picture two. There’s always something that draws you in. It’s even better at night when everything is lit up and you have the reflections coming off the water, bringing new layers to your shots.
A great idea for the location and the framing, with the Shard and the City of London skyline book ending the view of Southwark Bridge. The same old story though with this one though: tripod, longer exposure, ISO down to 100, aperture to focus on the midgroudn of the picture.
Camera settings: Exposure 1/10s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 2000
Location: Outside The Anchor, Bankside (Google Maps)
This is still probably one of my favourite compositions that I have taken in London to date! For me, it’s the old in the foreground, the new in the background and a mixture of the two in the midground. There’s just something about this picture that I love.
The way that I discovered this location was simply by walking around with the camera in hand, seeing what I came across. I talk about this method, and several other ways to discover picture taking spots in a previous blog I wrote.
As good as it came out, I think this could be even better. The first thing would be taking a tripod as this was shot by hand. This would allow a longer exposure time and lower ISO thus lower noise and better detail across the whole picture. The aperture I think could stay the same, if not slightly increased to try and keep everything in focus.
Camera settings: Exposure 1/25s, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 1600
Location: The Queen’s Walk (Google Maps)
A common theme with this blog is a lot of the locations are around Tower Bridge but the bridge itself and the paths down the side of the River Thames give you a great vantage point for a shot or two. I particularly loved this picture due to the lights nicely framing the skyline, with the contrast of the old with the new; the City of London against the Tower of London.
Needless to say by now. ISO was too high and this left me with having to fight noise vs detail of the London skyline. Something that could have easily been solved by dropping that ISO and upping either the aperture or shutter speed. One thing that I am happy about though is the capturing of the blue hue from the sky during blue hour as a nice contrast to the both the warm colours of the Tower of London and the darker skyscapers.
Camera settings: Exposure 1.6s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 100
Location: The Queen’s Walk (Google Maps)
Tower Bridge is one of the most iconic and probably photographed locations in London and honestly, I can see why. It looks great in the day time no matter where you look at it from but when it turns to night and is lit up to look this majestic, it’s hard to not want to get a picture at any and all angles. One of the benefits of The Queen’s Walk is that you can get longer range and more square on pictures like this or get up, close and personal, getting a shot down the bridge, like featured above from Horsleydown Steps.
This time I had my tripod with me and you can completely see the benefits that it brought. I was able to put it on a longer exposure and bring the ISO right down. This conquered the noise issues plaguing my other pictures whilst allowing me to capture the rays of light emanating from the various spotlights. The longer exposure also smoothed over the River Thames, showing the reflections from the lights featured in this picture.
This for me is what it’s like to get things right and learning from my mistakes of before allowed me to reap the rewards of capturing pictures like this. It’s writing pieces like this that I hope others can learn from these mistakes and can closer to the pictures they want to capture sooner.
Like one or two of the photographs featured in this blog post? Well, you can own a digital copy for your own use, whether it be for a laptop background or to create a canvas print for your wall. You have two options: you can email me at quiltycoversblog@gmail.com with which one interests you and I’ll send one over for £5 per print, or you can head over to my Alamy page, where you’ll find all these pictures plus many more. Make sure you bookmark this page as I’m constantly adding new work to it.
Whilst you’re here, be sure to check out my other photography blogs or something a little bit different by clicking one of the many articles featured on this page or navigate yourself around and find yourself something to inspire your next location to travel to, improve your fitness or level up your lifestyle. Of course, to hear about when I publish new blogs, check out my social media links and be sure to follow me so you don’t miss out on new posts, whether this be on the blog or the next collection of photographs.
