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.

One usually only needs to edit a photo, but from time to time it can happen, that one also need to edit the exif data directly. And here I don’t mean stuff like the creator info, or copyright information. I mean the exposure time, aperture, iso and similar. You may be wondering when this is required. The answer is simple. Especially in HDR, there are applications (Oloneo Photoengine, Photomatix Pro, PtGui and more) that need to access this information, so they will be able to blend the images correctly. In some of them, like the Photomatix pro, you can override this information, but in other you are depended on it. And it can easily happen, that you have to use an exposure modified in Lightroom, or you used bad settings on your camera, and you just need to change one of the values in exif.

For me this situation happens mostly, when I create HDR panoramas. If you look through my guide on how to do this, you will see that I use PTgui for this. But if one wants to save the result as blended planes, PTgui had to recognize the set of images as HDR brackets. For this to work, each set has to have the exact same values, especially same exposure time. And for some reason, when I take multiple series with the same settings, sometimes, the time on one or more is off. Like having 15s instead of 16s and similar. Not sure if this is a problem with Magic lantern firmware or Canon firmware, but it happens, and so I need to correct it.

 
The software I use for that is called PhotoMe. It’s a freeware that can be found and dowloaded from http://www.photome.de/. It’s a very handy tool, and it allows to see and to edit all of the information in the exif and then save it back as a raw file. Don’t be scared off that the latest version is from 2009. It still works fine, and from the software itself, you get updated until 2012. It works fine for all the RAW files I tried, but if you have a much newer camera, I would suggest to try  first, if the RAW are supported.

 
Using the software is very easy. You just select the file you want to edit, change the values, either by rewriting them, or choosing from the list of available options, and save as new file. It can’t be easier.

I hope this helps you if you ever need to change the exif, and feel free to suggest other software that can do this, if you know any.

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.

Best vs Worst on Ello?

I’ve been using Ello for a few days now, and there are things I like and things I don’t like, so here is a little list of those:

Best:

• wonderful clean responsive design, it can fill up the screen
• high-quality images.. and big, really big
• gif support is really nice
• no ads, no sponsored posts, no suggested posts, even the Ello account posts are in noise by default

Worst:

• little buggy, my feed stooped updating for few hours today, or better said, its few hours late to show me updates
• easy to miss comments, as there is no notification list
• no dedicated mobile app (but the website is not so bad anyway)
• no way to directly reply to a comment
• invite system
• no preview on links (but this could be also a plus.. as it looks cleaner :))

My overall impression of Ello after few days is very positive, and I’m quite curious if it catches on and keeps growing. Let’s wait and see.

Photographers to follow on Ello

And while on the subject of Ello, yesterday I created a new page on the blog, which is a list of photographers that are already there. So if you are there and would like to have a constant stream of great photos, check the list out, and follow the ones you like.

Also, if you are a photographer, and would like to be included, just message me, or comment on the list with a link to your profile. I’m trying to continually add those who request it :)
The list can be found here:

https://www.hdrshooter.com/photographers-to-follow-on-ello/

Mountain living

The photo for today, is of course another one from Switzerland. I took this one on the road, while leaving Zermatt. Of course we shopped on a nearby parking lot, which was so nicely above the city. It’s quite interesting how people live there, on the hills. I think I seen a cable car in every city and every village :)

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

When I was writing the 11 tips for Lightroom, I also thought to include how one works with 32-bit files in Lightroom. But as this is a little bigger subject, in the end I decided to give it a separate blog post. So here it is.

Lightroom is a great photo editing too, and since few versions ago, it can also edit 32-bit tiff files. If you remember my What is HDR post, 32-bit files can contain a huge dynamic range, so being able to edit them directly can create some very nice results.

Of course, same as with all the different ways of editing, it’s not perfect, and does not work well for every photo. But it’s an interesting technique and I suggest you give it a try.

So how to do it?

1. Merge the files in Photoshop

Yes, you still need Photoshop (or Photomatix Pro or other program that can create 32-bit files), as Lightroom can edit 32-bit files, but can’t create them. So first, once you select the files you want to merge, I would suggest correcting chromatic aberrations and lens distortions. You can do this also alter, but the results are not so good.

Choose merge to HDR Pro

Merge to HDR dialog

After that, select all the brackets, right click on one and choose Merge to HDR in Photoshop. Once you do this, all the files will be exported into Photoshop and the Merge to HDR dialog will open. Here you will probably see the 16-bit version, but that’s not what we need. Change to the 32-bit mode and just confirm (in the case you need to remove ghosting, choose also that option).

32-bit file in Photoshop

Save as 32-bit

The file will be opened in Photoshop in 32-bit mode, and can be saved as a 32-bit tiff file from there.

2. Merge the files in Photomatix Pro

Another option to create a 32-bit tiff file, is to use Photomatix Pro. Just exporet the files you want to merge from Lightroom, or use RAW, and open them in Photomatix. What you need to do, is check the Show 32-bit image and choose merge. In few seconds, you will see the 32-bit file, which you can save as 32-bit tiff.

Merge in Photomatix

Save as 32-bit tiff

You can also find a Lightroom plugin from Photomatix, that does this step directly and you never have to leave Lightroom. You can find it here: Merge to 32-bit Plugin

3. Edit the 32-bit file in Lightroom

Once you have the 32-bit tiff file, you can import it back into Lightroom. You will see that nothing changes in the interface, and you can edit it as any other photo. The only change that is there, is that the Exposure slider goes from -10 to +10 instead of -5 to +5.

Negative exposure

Positive exposure

You will notice, that you can go really to extremes with all the sliders, and still you get a lot of detail and very little noise. That’s because, where Lightroom normally tries to works with information, that is not in a photo. But with the 32-bit file, there is just much more of it there.

32-bit tiff file, with no edits

After few edits (but could be better :))

So from here you can use any of the tools available in Lightroom, to get the result you want. But before you start, I suggest playing a little with the Exposure, and find a good start in that huge dynamic range. For some photos it can happen, that you will start with a completely dark or white photo, so just move the slider up/down until it’s ok.