Thoughts & Tips

As I keep adding more articles to the blog, the list under Thoughts & Tips keeps on growing nicely. It’s more tips than thoughts right now, but I will try to get it more balanced over time :) Feel free to check out all the articles, either in the menu to the right, or at the Thoughts & Tips page.

Shaded sunset

A sunset in between mountains is quite interesting. You can see the sun on one side, while already being completely in the shade. It’s same for Zermatt, as it is placed right in between two mountain ranges.

For this photo, I actually took 6 exposures, as the sun was very bright compared to the foreground. That’s what I almost always do when shooting into or close to the sun. Take the -3Ev just to be sure I have it :) This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

10 of my favorite photographers on Ello

If you are following my Photographers to follow on Ello list, you seen that there are already few hundred different photographers. Here are just a few of my personal favorites, who are also all active on Ello (they post regularly) and are actually all landscape photographers, as that’s my favorite type. Also these are all new for me, as I haven’t been following their work before Ello, and only there I found them for the first time. So I suggest you check them out :)

Of course there are many more great photographers there (again, check out the list to find many more of them) and currently I’m only waiting for Ello to enable re-share, so I can start doing a daily featured photographer (from the list) on my account there. But for that I will still have to wait :)

Schwarzsee

Can you see the lake? It’s so small compared to the Matterhorn behind it. Almost invisible :) The whole area around Matterhorn is just wonderful. It’s going on my list of places to revisit.

This is a single exposure edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. I darkened the sky by using a polarizing filter (as the sun was to my left) and I had no need to do a HDR blending here. There is just no point in using HDR, when it’s not needed.

Photographers to follow on Ello

My photographers on Ello list just exploded in size and now already consists of over 400 entries. I keep updating it every day, as I get new requests, and I hope there will be even more photographers there. Photos just look great on Ello.

You can find the list as always on its page Photographers to follow on Ello.

Through the trees

While in Zermat, I was running around, trying to find an interesting view of Matterhorn. There are quiet a few areas with a nice view, but I wanted something with a little more interesting composition. And since framing can be that, I chosen two trees to frame it. It worked out very nicely, don’t you think?

This is a HDR from 6 exposures. It look almost nothing like the photo I got directly from the camera, and I’m including a screenshot from Photoshop to prove it. This one is exactly a situation, where HDR excels. HDR was crated in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Best way to enjoy Ello

I’ve been spending too much time on Ello recently. I just like the site, even in that unfinished state it is currently in. And while browsing it today, I took this photo. It really seem like all the web now looks better with a vertical screen (even my blog is no exception :)). And no, I don’t have my screen like this all the time, it was like this just for the photo :)

Also, the Photographers to follow on Ello list, is just growing like crazy, now already including over 250 different photographers. Feel free to check it out :)

With a view of Matterhorn

Zermatt is just full of small hotels like this. It is a really nice place for a visit. Very quite, since there are no cars, but still quite busy. And of course you can see the Matterhorn almost from everywhere. The only not so nice thing, is the amount of constructions everywhere. Actually in this photo, I had to remove two cranes and a huge number of cables. They just didn’t fit the style I wanted.

This is a HDR from 2 series of 5 exposures, one for the sun, one for the scenery. HDRs created in Oloneo Photoengine and combined in Photoshop.

Playing around with Windows 10

One of the more interesting technical news recently, was the announcement of the next Windows version, the Windows 10. And I just love playing around with new software, even in beta form. So of course I immediately downloaded the test version and installed it. But since I still have to use Photoshop regularly, I only put it on a virtual machine, just to be sure.

And right now, I have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised. The system looks cleaner, the installation was simple and quick, and for such an early build, it works really fine. My biggest fear was, that they would move away from the Windows 8 interface too much, returning to the one from Windows 7, but luckily, they included both.

What do you think? Have you tried the system? Or plan to?

Alpine peaks

Most of the photos I took in the Alps, I took with the wide-angle lens. The views are just so wide, and you see so much, that it’s hard to zoom in. You just always feel you are loosing something. But I forced myself to put on also the 70-200mm lens, but only for a moment. And this is one of the photos I took :)

This are the peaks of Alps, as seen on the opposing side of Zermatt, when looking from the Schwarzsee. This is a single exposure (I used a polarizing filter to darken the sky), edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.