Boats at the Lago di Braies

I’m back. We decided to end the trip to Italy a bit earlier than planned. The reason was partially bad weather, but mostly the huge amount of snow still in the mountains. We planned to hike, but that was not possible with the paths still closed or under a big pile of snow.

But I still got a few nice photos from this week, so let’s get to one. This one was taken yesterday at Lago di Braies in the Dolomites. I had a bit of luck here. People were going up to this pontoons to take photos but right as I got there with my camera, it was empty for at least 5 minutes. So I really quickly could take a few photos of the view. I really like how the boats made for a perfect foreground element for a photo.

This is a two shot panorama, taken with the help of a tilt-shift lens. Each shot blended from 4 exposures, blended and merged in Photoshop.

Peak Design Travel Tripod

So as I said, Peak Design expanded into another category. They started with clamps, then moved into leashes, backpacks, bags and now to tripods. Their portfolio is really getting big.

The new tripod, named Travel tripod seems to fit it quite well. It looks nice, very compact and the specifications are decent. There are actually two variants, an alloy one (MSRP: 349.95 USD) and a carbon one (MSRP: 599.95 USD). So what are the specs?

• Weight limit: 9.1kg
• Colapsed lenght: 38.7cm
• Max height with center column up: 148.6cm
• Max height with center column down: 126.4cm
• Min height: 11.4cm
• Weight: alloy one at 1.56kg, carbon at 1.27kg
• Leg sections: 5

It’s a bit short for my taste, but as a travel tripod, it’s still quite reasonable. And comparing that to the weight limit and how compact it is, it’s a good enough compromise.

They also changed the shape of the legs, to make the collapse together better. I think that it’s a good idea, and also that they try to move away from all other available tripods. The ball head that its build in also looks interesting, but it’s hard to say from the photos how good it is in use.

All and all, this looks like a very interesting approach to a tripod. I definitively want to try it out to see how it is, and how it compares to classic ones. But for that, I will have to wait.

I’m not sure if I will back this at Kickstarter, as I got a new tripod only recently, but will think about it. If you are interested, check it out on Kickstarter here. It’s a good way to get a discount on it, as usual, the prices on Kickstarter are lower than they will be once it’s fully launched.

Bridge crossing in the Dubai Marina

Let’s go with a Dubai photo for today. To be exact, one from the Dubai Marina. This was taken at one of the multiple bridges that span across the Dubai Marina. You have to use them every time you want to get to the other side and don’t want to go all the way around. I did this photo on the way back to the apartment we have rented there. It was right behind the construction on the right.

This is a three exposure blend done in Photoshop. Mostly I only needed to darken the mosque in the middle, as that was very bright compared to other buildings. This is not a panorama, but a photo taken with a 12mm lens, that I cropped in post-processing. I did so, as there was just too much of the walkway in it, and it took away from the look I wanted here.

Luminosity masking articles

Here they all are, in the order you should read them and what is every single one about:

1. Understanding masks in Photoshop – what are layer masks, how they work and how they are used in Photoshop
2. Understanding luminosity selections and masks – what are luminosity selections and mask, what do they select and how they can be created in Photoshop
3. Editing photos using luminosity selections – how can you use luminosity selection when editing photos
4. Blending photos using luminosity selections – how can you blend multiple exposures together using luminosity selections

Will update here if I add more articles on this topic.

And to make this post nicer, here are few images I blended using this techniques.

32:9 super ultra-wide wallpapers

As mentioned, these are all in 5120x1440px resolution. It Will work best on a 32:9 monitor, but if you have an ultra-wide 21:9 monitor, you can use that too, just the sides will be cut off.

Additionally, if you have a dual monitor setup at 2x 16:9 at 2560x1440px, you can use all these also as dual-screen wallpapers.

All the files are around 7-9Mb in size, so download only on a fast connection.