Developing images for final portfolio

On one of my skate park images there are some trees in the background, one of which has a birds nest in. After deciding that this was too much of a distraction within the photo, i edited out the nest using photoshop. 

Using the clone tool i replaced the nest with some of the surrounding trees, making it stand out less for the viewer. I then used the mask tool to select the area with the trees, and desaturate them so that they are not as noticeable. 

Above there are is the images before and after i edited them. Also there is a screen grab of the mask tool around the trees.

London Photos

I went to London yesterday and got a few good shots of the city. Hopefully i will be able to include some of these in my final portfolio at the end of this course.
Heres a link to some of the ones i took http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/118081212741511551550/London2010#

Tilt Shift Photography

After talking to Steve this evening, he suggested looking into tilt shift photography, and possibly tying to take suitable photos down in London, which could then be altered in photoshop later on.

Tilt-Shift miniature faking is a creative technique whereby a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated to give an optical illusion of a photograph of a miniature scale model. Altering the focus of the photography in photoshop (or a similar program) simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.

I do like the effect it creates in the image, making the subject appear miniature, altho i do feel that it doesn't work with everything. Having looked around the web iv seen a lot of photos which have been post produced to be a tilt shift photo, most of these work well given the subject, where as a few look silly, i don't think editing the image has done much to improve the photo. The photo above of Big Ben at night has had the clock face blurred out along with the background, and the bridge left in focus underneath. The bridge looks really good, the people appear miniature. I feel that had the clock face been in focus more, but still leaving the back ground out of focus it would look better. A lot like the other photo of Big Ben i have posted above (the day time photo), it has the clock face still in focus leaving the background out of focus. I must prefer this to the other photo, leaving the clock face out of focus spoils it a bit. The second photo was taken from a high point, maybe this helps to keep that miniature feeling.

I love the photo at the very top of this post, the one of the Eiffel Tower. It makes the people below it seem like ants. I also love the strong colour of the green in the background. 

I will try to compose a few images that will be suitable for this kind of post production while i am down in London. However i don't feel like id do a lot of them for my portfolio. Id prefer to keep a more realistic feel to my images. Thats not to say i don't like Tilt Shift photos, i do like the way they can transform certain images, making the viewer think twice about what they are seeing. Its just id rather my photos give a more real impression of the scene.

I will still be able to use my Nikon D3000, along with the 18- 55 mm kit lens to take these types of photos, as they can be edited later on in Photoshop.