Having suffered the disappointment of the cancellation of the RIAT 2008 Airshow, I decided to drive down to Portsmouth to see what I could find. The main reason for choosing Portsmouth was that my wife & daughter had been there earlier in the wee to check out Portsmouth University. They recommended Gunwharf Quay where the Spinnaker Tower is situated.

I had borrowed a Lowepro Camera Rucksack for the weekend, intending to use it at Fairford, & took it with me to Portsmouth. I usually just use a normal rucksack & pile all the gear inside, so the Lowepro was a welcome chance, I actually found it quite comfortable.

I spent most of the day around Gunwharf Quay, taking shots of & around the Spinnaker Tower. Most of the shots are HDR (High Dynamic Range) & were made in Photomatix from 3 shots taken at different exposures. The best way to do this is to taek different exposures on a tripod so the shots can be later matched identically together in Photomatix. I didn’t have a tripod so I used the AEB (Auto Exposure Balance) setting in my Canon 20D Menu Setup.

Basically, you select the AEB setting and then dial in your exposure setting, in the case of these shots I dialled in settings of 1 & 1/3 f-stops difference. This sets up the camera to take a shot at the correct exposure, 1 shot underexposed by 1 1/3 f-stops & the third shot overexposed by 1 1/3 f-stops. If you have the camera on single shot mode then the next three shots you take will be at these 3 different exposures. The best solution, to minimise camera movement between shots is to have the camera on continuous shooting. This way the when you hold the shutter down it will take exactly 3 shots at the 3 different exposures. You won’t eradicate movement between exposures but you will minimise it by taking (in the 20D’s case) the 3 shots in 3/5 of a second.

I think you either love HDR or hate it. I like it. It’s especially good with overcast skies & turns them into really moody shots.

I wandered around the dockyards for a while & took a few shots of HMS Victory.

After finishing up at Portsmouth, I went up onto a hill outside the town for some landscape shots overlooking the town & the bay & then went across to Gosport to take some shots of the Spinnaker Tower from the other side of the bay.