Photography in London

Did you know, London is home to the oldest subway in the world; opened in 1863 for locomotive trains? London also became the world’s first Metro system when electric trains began operating in the capital.

London is also a diverse and multicultural city with a variety of boroughs, neighbourhoods, and people. It blends the historic with modern architecture seamlessly and is a melting pot of cultures and diversity.

So for people like me, London offers some of the best photography opportunities around every corner ranging from cityscape, landscape, urban, nightlife, and much more.

However, like most cities in South England, it is also generally wetter compared to the drier east and southeast. In addition, the city’s weather can be influenced by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, which can bring in rain from the west.

Another factor that may contribute to London’s ‘rainy reputation’ is the city’s often cloudy and overcast weather. While it may not necessarily be raining, the grey skies and lack of sunshine can give the impression that it’s a rainy place. This is especially true during the winter months when the days are shorter and there is less natural light.

It’s also worth noting that London’s weather can be quite unpredictable. While it may be sunny one minute, it could start raining the next. This can make it difficult to plan outdoor activities and may contribute to the perception that it’s a rainy city.

In February the weather was dismal during my month-long stay in London with prolonged rain spells, followed by umpteen overcast days that were made much worse by a lack of natural sunlight.

However, while most photographers tend to stay clear of bad weather and overcast days, I don’t, instead, I take advantage of the bad weather by getting creative with my equipment and processing software; after all, that’s what it’s there for, not just for sunny days or those special once in a lifetime moments.

Below I’ve included three creative ways in which you can take advantage of London’s bleak weather with the use of filters and basic simple-to-use software.

LEE MIST & FOG FILTERS

I purchased my first set of LEE mist and fog filters a few years ago and I must say I’m quite impressed with them, that said, it does take some practice, trial and error to learn how to use them effectively.

LEE mist and fog filters are designed to imitate the effects of fog and mist as seen in the image below that illustrates Tower Bridge, in London.

I visited Tower Bridge several times during my stay in London praying and hoping for natural light to light the bridge up, unfortunately, that day never came, therefore it was time to make use of my LEE mist and fog filters to add mood, clarity and depth to an otherwise dull subject.

This image is a 40-second exposure which may seem a little overkill, that said the overhead clouds were not moving as fast as I wanted them to. Moreover, the River Thames was bustling with tourist boats too, therefore the 40-second exposure time worked well for me and ironed out those slow-moving boats.

I used a 24-105mm Sony G lens on my Sony A7 with wired shutter release shooting in RAW (as always) because it’s so much easier to recover an image in RAW over that of a Jpeg file.

To imitate fog creeping in from the left, right and along the surface of the river I used the LEE 100 mist clear spot filter attached to a 100 LEE filter holder on a 77mm lens ring.

The filter was moved higher up the holder to imitate the effects of mist or fog sweeping in around the bridge. I also used a tripod for this shot due to low light and because I was shooting a long exposure.

Indeed, a passing boat would have added more story to the image in my opinion however, I’m satisfied with how this image turned out.

Please view the video below to learn more about LEE mist and fog filters.

Adobe Sky Replacement

For long-time Photoshop users, replacing skies has been a challenging and time-consuming task.

The process involved numerous steps, extensive fine-tuning, and meticulous attention to detail to achieve a seamless look. Recognising this challenge, Adobe introduced the Sky Replacement tool to streamline and save valuable time in the editing process.

The amount of time that you need to perform sky replacement is surprisingly, A LOT! It’s a tedious process that requires a lot of fine-tuning, clearing up the edges and dealing with complex objects.

With the introduction of the Sky Replacement tool, all these processes are simplified, thus saving a huge amount of time.

The image below illustrates the O2 Arena, formally known as the Millennium Dome located at Peninsula Square, London. Unfortunately, the weather was rather bleak as you can see in the sky.

However, the bleak weather wasn’t going to stop me from shooting the image I wanted because I knew that replacing this sky in Adobe Photoshop was going to be much easier with a few flicks of a button as can be seen in image two.

I found the Sky Replacement tool much easier to use with the implementation of AI and it took no more than 15 minutes to change.

That said, it’s best to practice with this incredible tool before applying it to your chosen images to achieve the desired results you’re looking for.

In my opinion, the Sky Replacement tool is much easier than previous versions I’ve used and any novice or amateur can use it with ease.

Please view the video below to find out more about Adobes Sky Replacement tool.

I used a 24-105mm Sony G lens on my Sony A7 with wired shutter release shooting in RAW. I highly recommend the 24-105mm Sony G lens because it has a wide 24-105mm zoom range with constant F4 that easily handles subjects such as portraits, snapshots, landscapes, architecture, and more.

This one lens will cover most shooting needs, minimising the need to carry extra equipment, which is a bonus if you’re travelling through London on foot.

Adobe Rain Action

Believe it or not, but the rain wasn’t even on my side when shooting in London. There was either too much of it thus making photography almost an impossible task, or, there wasn’t enough of it which brings me to this next photo illustrating Westminster, Big Ben and Westminster Bridge.

In my opinion, this image looks a little dull, there’s not much light, and while I liked the overall image aesthetics, it lacked mood and story.

On this day (as usual) it was raining over the capital, unfortunately, the rain was mere drops here and there.

I could have captured the effects of (fast falling rain – had there been any) in my image by widening my lens aperture to f/2.8 to create a shallow depth of field and increasing my shutter speed to around 1/200 sec to capture the rain falling for a more natural look, unfortunately, the bad weather wasn’t on my side, therefore, it was back to getting creative again in post process.

This brings me to Adobe’s Rain Action Tool which any amateur, novice or professional can apply to their image in under a minute as can be seen in the image below.

There are a few ways in which you can apply a rain effect to your image in Adobe Photoshop, however, I found the Rain Effect Actions filter so much easier, and it provided me with the desired results.

Once the action has been applied, save the image, and revert back to Adobe Lightroom for final editing or you can finish the editing up in Adobe Photoshop.

Please view the video below to find out more about Adobes Actions tool.

Conclusion

Putting it bluntly, bad weather makes for perfect photos, unfortunately, it’s not always that straightforward, especially when the weather is, pretty much, dull, therefore taking advantage of filters, long exposure, and getting creative in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop sets you apart from the rest.

Post-processing creativity is not necessarily about altering the reality captured in your lens, it is also about enhancing your images and helping your true vision come to life.

It enables you to elevate an image to express what it is the photographer is trying to capture. A few enhancements can bring out emotions, subtleties, and the moods that was not fully realised in the original shot.

You can use post-processing to manipulate numerous variables such as exposure, colour, composition, and creative effects to create captivating and visually appealing images.

Post-processing opens up an infinite number of creative possibilities for transforming your images into one-of-a-kind works of art.

There are endless creative approaches such as adding textures, overlays, and gradients to your photographs. These can create a whole new image with visually artistic depth and style.

Therefore, it’s essential to learn about composite photography by combining different pictures to create weird and innovative scenarios and using filters, creative effects, and plugins to give your photos distinct styles and interpretations.

I hope you’ve found this article useful, please stay tuned for my next article: Photography in London Part 3. Furthermore, if you have any questions, or you’d like to order a print or framed print from me, please email me below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m next available.

Thank you for reading.