City by Night

I really only have nice night shots from my last visit to Prague. Maybe next time I have more luck also for nice weather during the day.

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.

Minaret in the distance

I already uploaded few shots, from the park by the Chateau in Lednice. And now here is another one :).

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.

Take more than a single shot

Something more about the swan photo. The creation of this HDR was not as straightforward as it should be. I had no problems with the swan, which was standing perfectly still, but with the wind, which moved the foliage quite heavily. So when I combined the three shots, there was so much ghosting, that I abandoned any attempts to repair them right away. So what I ended up doing was:

• split a single raw (0EV) into three separate files in Lightroom (at 0EV, -2EV, +2EV)
• create a HDR from these files
• loaded the created file, together with the original three shot (not the created ones) into layers in Photoshop
• repaired all overexposed areas (and other problems) from the original shots

Doing it this way, I had my HDR details, had no overexposed areas (the swan was totally white :) ) and no ghosting in my final photo.

So my advice is, even when you don’t think that the shots will ever align, take more than one, it can help you with the final HDR.

Check out the original 0EV shot on the right :)

Posing Swan

You wouldn’t believe that this was taken with a wide angle lens, from a tripod :). I was standing so close, but the swan didn’t moved at all for a minute, and when I took the shot it went into the water. It really looked, like it was just posing for the shot :)

I went a little stronger on the HDR processing than usually, but as I was editing the photo I saw a certain painterly look to it, so I went with it.

HDR from a single RAW (few parts from a second) taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.

Floating above Prague

Every time I look at this photo I think about Jules Verne. It really looks to me like a cover to one of his book :). I’m thinking of trying to create an aged version of it, to make a more vintage look :)

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 18-200mm lens, handheld.

Sun in Prague

Of course when I was in Prague I had to take few sunset shots :) The sunset wasn’t exactly how I wanted. It somehow lacked those beautiful sunset colors, but I still tried my best :)

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 18-200 mm lens, from a tripod.