Quayside Bridges
Newcastle Photography Group
I love to teach and share my knowledge with other people. I believe that knowledge should not have to cost a fortune and should be easily accessible to everyone. When a job advert from Newcastle Photography Group appeared on Indeed looking for a photography instructor, I took a leap of faith and applied for the job. To my complete astonishment, I was offered the job and have been working on creating interesting beginner friendly sessions ever since.
For the first session I chose to stay a little within my comfort zone and concentrate around the Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside. During my time both working and living in Gateshead, the Newcastle Quayside has been my place to go walking and relax, often taking my camera with me and learning all the best places to take really beautiful photos of the Tyne and the beautiful architecture along it. This is what made it the best place to run the first session.
To say I was a little nervous before the first session would be a massive understatement. It may sound bonkers with me being a photographer, but I have social anxiety with completely new people and when I discovered I’d managed to get 8 bookings onto the session my heart certainly started to race a little. Up until recently, the only teaching I’ve been doing is young kids at church and demonstrating Google technology at electrical stores. Being able to teach photography is a dream and one I didn’t expect to come true.
Abstract Tyne
I arranged to meet the wonderful men and women booked onto the session next to the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle. We started by introducing ourselves and finding out a little about how much knowledge each person had with the hobby.
The Millennium Bridge is a beautiful place to start, and at the time of day we were there, the winter sun was low in the sky. When you set your shutter speed really fast (we used 1/1250s) you are able to expose the details in the sky and put the bridges into silhouette.
In photoshop I was able to enhance the colours in this sunset by adding saturation to the sky and upping to contrast. Unfortunately the water remained grey and boring, so by using a gradient fill layer set to colorize over the water, it was possible to give the illusion of the sky colours being reflected in the water.
Tyne Behind the Sunset
After spending time around the Millennium Bridge taking photos of the Tyne bridge and taking photos of the Millennium Bridge’s architecture and mechanics, we slowly wandered along the Newcastle quayside, ending up on the Swing Bridge in time for capturing these beautiful colours of the sunset.
Often the most beautiful place to photograph a sunset is behind the sunset. At this time of day the sunset reflects these beautiful pastel colours onto the sky behind the Tyne and Millennium Bridge. By putting your camera on a tripod and slowing the shutter speed right down to two or three seconds you are able to soften the water. If you wanted to create a more glass like appearance to the water you could use a neutral density filter to allow you to slow the shutter speed down even further. A shutter speed of around 6 seconds would be perfect for this.
During post production, I ran this photo through photoshop and enhanced the pastel colours in the sky and water, increasing the vibrancy and saturation of the beautiful cyan and magenta colours. I also noticed that Newcastle and Gateshead councils haven’t been very diligent in changing the lightbulbs on the Tyne Bridge, so I’ve also used the clone tool to turn those lights back on, completing the look of what I think is the most beautiful bridge in Newcastle.
Newcastle Quayside at Night
To end the session we made our way up onto the Tyne Bridge, just in time to see the sun start to disappear behind the High Level Bridge and for the lights along the quayside to come on. Night time is easily one of the most beautiful times of day to be on the quayside simply because of all the lights and the way they all reflect onto the water. It was partially beautiful this night because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky at this point, meaning it stayed this beautiful deep blue and didn’t take on the orange tones of the light pollution. By setting the aperture to around 8f and the shutter speed to 6 seconds, you’re also able to get that beautiful glass-like look on the water.
The colours of this in camera were pretty perfect and it ended up being one of those few photos that I did very little to in post production. I’ve pushed the saturation and vibrancy of the colours slightly and increased the contrast slightly. This particular image is a panorama made up using two different photos which have been stitched together in Photoshop. Finally I also decided to use a high pass filter layer on soft light to define the edges a little more which has become slightly soft with the tiny bit of camera shake from the mirror flicking up and down in the camera.
The session truly was amazing and it was such a pleasure to be able to teach photography. Every single person who booked onto the session was lovely. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people for my first ever session and they were able to help me to relax into it and just pass on my knowledge to help them to take some beautiful photos. I have loved seeing photos from others over the weekend and cannot wait to get back out there with them and others.
There is definitely some equipment I would recommend to everyone who is interested in this style of photography to invest one. First is a good sturdy tripod. You don’t have to spend a fortune on one, but something that can withstand a little bit of wind is definitely beneficial when using shutter speeds that are many seconds long. A remote shutter button is also very beneficial. When photographing a scape with a lot of lights, every bit of camera shake can be seen. This can be reduced further by using a remote shutter that is either cable or infrared. Many newer camera models even have Bluetooth and WiFi built into them enabling them to be connected to a phone or tablet and have the shutter released that way. If you would like more information about some great entry level cameras please check out one this previous blog from a few weeks ago.
If you would like to book onto a future session there are currently two available to book onto. We have St Mary’s Lighthouse on November 21st and Street Photography in the Christmas Market on December 5th. There are plans for future sessions coming up at the end of December and the New Year. Keep watching for information on those. Events will be advertised on the Newcastle Photography Group website and cost usually £18 for each person. I look forward to seeing you.
