I got the Nisi filter holder for the Laowa 12mm f2.8 lens today, and I though I would write about that for this blog post. But I went out to take some photos with it, and I just did not felt inspired. So I will leave that for tomorrow, and for today, a shot of the Bratislava city center, taken from the Apollo bridge.
This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.
If you visited my portfolio page under www.hdrshooter.net, you may have noticed that all photos there are in one huge gallery. But as I was cleaning my photos recently, I had to split them base on countries on my PC locally. And once it was done, it was easy to do so also in the portfolio. So now you can head here www.hdrshooter.net/Albums and see galleries that only include my photos taken in a specific country.
It’s not that easy to take night photo on the SNP bridge. Actually it’s not easy from any busy bridge. The passing cars create quite a lot of shaking and vibrations. So one need a bit of luck or patience, to wait for a moment where there are fewer cars. Not always happens :)
For this shot, I wanted the top and bottom to frame the castle. I partially succeeded. I did not have a panoramic head with me, so I could not use a wider lens to do this panorama. Still, I really like how the walkway pulls your view across the image from left to right, so making you look across the whole photos.
This is a two shot panorama, with a third shot used to darken the light of the walkway a bit. Combined in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.
As you probably already know from my photos, I love shooting ultra wide. And just now, I ordered a new lens. A 12mm one :) The Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D from Venus Optics. This will be quite a jump from teh 16mm widest lens I have right now. It’s a fully manual lens, but since I take all photos in manual mode and focus manually every time anyway, this will not be any different for me.
I already can’t wait util I can try it out, but it still few days until it gets delivered. Of course I will take and post some shots from it right away :)
For today’s photo, here is another panorama from the city center of Bratislava. I’m trying to do the shots a bit differently, but I start to feel I take the same shot here over and over. Don’t have many ideas for these big cityscape shots in Bratislava anymore. There are few views I still want, but can get to the places right now, so that will have to wait.
So instead I’m trying stuff like long exposure, panoramas, vertoramas and similar. So here is one of those. This is a two shot panorama, combined in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.
And here are few details:
So right now I have time to make plans. Before my works schedule starts in around two months, I want to do few trips, and maybe even buy a new lens. Something different to play around with in the new year. So let’s be surprised what the year brings :)
This became probably my favorite view of Bratislava over the years. You get the SNP brige, the castle and also the St. Martins cathedral, so you have all the dominants of the city in one shot. Of course you have to do a panorama and have a bit of luck for a calmer Danube (it’s taken from a pontoon), but the view is just great.
This is a two shot panorama, combined in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.
And here are few details:
Normally around this time of the year I like to update the blog with a new look. But not this time. I still like how the blog looks overall, so I will keep it. But that does not mean there will be no smaller or bigger changes here and there. Like new photos for the homepage slide-show, rearranged menus, repositioned elements and similar. All to make your visit to the page better :)
For today I have for you another plotagraph, made from one of my recent photos. While editing it, I thought that I could record the process and share that as a video with you. So don’t be surprised if you see something like that soon on the blog :)
This time I went with quite a subtle animation, just a bit in the sky, and some in the water. I did not want to overdo it. You can also see in the screenshot to the side how it looked. I had a few problem with the clouds pulling on the church tower, but I managed to remove that.
You can check out my Plotagraph Pro review here, and a guide how to create them here.
(if you use an older web browser, you may only see a static image, if you are on a mobile, please hit the play button to see the Plotagraph in motion)
