New Lightbox

Maybe some of you have already notice, but from now, when you click on a photo, you are no longer redirected to smugmug. Now you directly get a lightbox with a bigger version of the photo, and you can use the arrow keys or click on the big photo to go through all the photos on the page. I think that this is much simpler and more convenient way to the old one. I hope you will like it.

Open-Air Museum of folk architecture

I went with a very old photo today, over two years. It’s from the Open-Air Museum of folk architecture in Bardejovske Kupele in eastern Slovakia. There are many of them in Slovakia and also a huge number of wooden churches scattered around the country. I think it would make for a great photo series.

The original photo was horrible, and I tried to pull as much as possible from it. Check out the comparison, to see what I mean.

From the top to the bottom

It’s stunning how much you can get into one shot by using a wide angle lens. I set up my tripod low and close to the seas, so I could have the seats and also the ceiling in a single shot. And it worked. I used the Canon 16-35mm lens here, at 16mm. It created quite a lot of distortion, when you are so close to your subject, but I don’t mind.

HDR tutorial – first part

For quite a long time I wanted to add my own HDR tutorial to this site. It’s not completely ready yet, but the first part is. It’s about how to take brackets for HDR photos. I will add more part as I finish them.

I hope this will be useful for some of you, and you find something that helps you.

Please let me know if you find any problems or errors in the tutorial, or if you simply don’t understand something. Any questions are welcome.

You can find the HDR tutorial here or as all other parts of this page, there is a link in the menu on the right.

The very colorful sunset in Bratislava

I wasn’t even planing to take any photo during the sunset. The sky was grey, no clouds, nothing really interesting. So I went out to take some blue hour shots. But minutes before sunset the clouds came and with them all the beautiful colors. It was a very stunning view.

I went for 7 brackets here, as the castle is white, and very bright compared to the hill under it. I even had to go up to 9 for some shots, as the difference was really high.

Church of St. Nicolas

As all photographers, I prefer to take my photos around sunset. But sometime, especially during winter months, the sunsets are quite boring. With a clear sky, they look mostly grey. So what I do, is I wait for the blue hour. Even with a clear sky, the blue is really stunning.

This is one of my older photos, still taken with the Canon 450D. You really can see the difference, when you look closely. The 5D mark II with the Canon lens makes much more sharper images.

Returning to old places

I took a very similar photo about two years ago (this one – which one do you think is better?). But with the new camera I like to go back to my favorite places and try to take even better photos. And this is one of my favorite places for blue hour photos.

It’s not that close, as you have to walk across the bridge from the other side, continue a little further and then return back. And standing on the rocks near the water it’s also quite dangerous and cold. But I think it’s worth it.

The sunset was quite colorless, as the sky was very clear. So I knew I had to wait for the blue hour, to take a nice shot. I used 7 brackets here, trying to capture the Bratislava castle without it being blown out. For anyone interested in my Photomatix HDR tonemmaping settings, check out my Facebook Fan page. I posted a screenshot, taken right before clicking on process.