Let’s get back to Amsterdam with another photo smile emoticon I spend so much time walking around the canals, trying different compositions, panoramas, framings, and a lot of another stuff. The weather was not perfect, especially with very low clouds, that reflected the city lights, but there should be few nice shots anyway. So here is the first one :)

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 4, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 27mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 20s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 52.36671, 4.884720

Here is another photo from the Sony a7R. I’m really impressed with the dynamic range of this camera. It’s just stunning.

Here I used 6 exposures to create this HDR (just the middle part is HDR, the sky and water are from single exposure) but while experimenting with the RAW file, I managed to create almost the same result with using only a single file in Lightroom. That’s really impressive when one takes into account the huge difference between the castle and the hill under it. And so you can see it yourself, I uploaded the middle exposure from this photo, in it’s original RAW file here so you can download it and try it out yourself (please only for personal use :))

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 6, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 9, Middle exposure time: 13s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13704, 17.10491

Let’s continue with another Amsterdam shot :) It’s another early morning one, that’s why there are no people in it. I actually wanted to have the Rijksmuseum centered, but since the tulips were placed quite randomly around the pool of water, I could not get a nice composition that way. So instead, I did this.

This photo is created from two HDRs, each one from 4 exposures. I used a second series focused on the tulips in the foreground to blend them in, so they are also in focus.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2×4, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8, Focal length: 38mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 12s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 52.35841, 4.883135

Yesterday I finally got out to try the new camera out. I chosen one of my more traditional places in Bratislava (of course under a bridge :)) and got few blue hour shots. I have to say, I’m really impressed with the quality of the result. The detail, the sharpnesses and also the colors are really great. And especially the dynamic range is a huge difference compared to the Canon.

I can’t wait to take more photos with it :) It’s maybe time for another trip again.

I’m including a behind the scenes shot and a 100% zoomed in detail today, so you see how good the quality looks :)

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 9, Middle exposure time: 5s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13704, 17.10491

It’s quite visible from my photos, that I quite often take at in the early morning and around sunrise. And you may be wondering why I do it, so today I will go through few points why to, or why to not go out to take photos so early in the morning.

Why yes

The light is different

You will see that right away. Same as with sunsets and evening blue hours, you have two very distinct times to shoo. But especially in the cities, there are not so many lights on in the morning, so there is much less light pollution. Like this, the light is different, and also the sunrise can create much dominant colors than the sunset.

Additionally, quite often due to the lower temperature during night, the weather conditions change. Quite often, especially when it’s too cloudy in the evening, the clouds break during the night, and you get the best sunrise sky.

There are no tourists

This is a huge thing, especially on popular spots. If you don’t want to have people in your photos, going to shoot very early will almost guarantee that you will have none. There are of course few exceptions, like for instance the Charles bridge in Prague, where you will always have someone there, but still, it will be only few instead of hundreds.

You won’t be disturbed

Another great thing is, especially in bigger cities, that early in the morning you wont be stopped from using a tripod. A chance that a security guard will go out and stop you during sunrise, is almost 0.

Very little traffic

Similar to very few people, you will also get very little traffic, if the sunrise is very early. Again, this will help you having more calmer photos, with few or no cars in them.

Why no

It’s very early

The biggest problem of course is, that you will have to get up very early. One gets absolutely no sleep, especially if you did sunset shooting the day before.

The lights may not be on

This can be a good and also a bad thing. There are normally two kinds of lights in cities. One are street illumination, and the second illuminate landmarks. Int he morning, the landmarks lights are usually off. So no lights shining on castles, statues, towers and similar. This may be great, if the lights were in you way in the evening, but may be bad if you wanted them in the photo.

The street lamps are usually great for a photo, but one has to be careful with he timing, as they are also turned off usually moments before sunrise (different in every city).

Places may not be accessible

One quite often problem could be, that some places are just not accessible during morning. There are especially public places, like gardens, parks, viewing platforms and similar, that can be closed during very early morning hours. If you are not sure, better to find out before hand.

It’s creepy

This is something one has to get used to, especially if you plan to go out alone. I do it all the time, and it still feels strange sometime. You just have to imagine the situation, where you are alone in a place, that is normally full of people. It’s empty, it’s very quiet and you notice every single movement around you.

Even taking all this into account, I still feel it’s worth it, especially if you are somewhere only for a short amount of time. Going out taking photos also in the morning, will double you chances to get a nice blue hour/sunrise/sunset shot and that that is worth it :)

Btw. all photos in this post are early morning shots :)