Contest ends

Today was the last day you could submit your entries for my HDR editing contest. From tomorrow the voting will start on my Facebook page.

What I have learned from editing older photos

As recently I have been editing mostly my older photos, I found out, that every-time I was lazy, or in a hurry, and I haven’t done something, it leads to photo I discard in the end.  So what I learned is:

• take your time to compose the shot, one nicely composed photo is better than 10 horrible shots.
• use a tripod, always when you can, use a tripod
• use a bubble level to check for and even horizon, sometimes it is easy to correct, but most of the time it really isn’t
• use a remote, even if you are using a self timer, it is not enough. A remote will give you much sharper photos, try not to touch the camera at all.
• use mirror lockup or live view mode, the difference is subtle, but your photos will be sharper
• use manual focus, especially in dark environments. Auto-focus can give you good results, but most often it’s a little off
• set your white balance in the camera, don’t rely on post-processing. When you are on the site, you can see how the scene looks, you don’t have that luxury while sitting at your PC.

This is of course mostly for landscape shots. For other kinds of photography this does not fit that well :)

Town hall in Valtice

Still one more month until my first bigger trip this year, and still the weather in Bratislava is really against any reasonable landscape photography. But at least I have time to learn more new photography techniques and be ready when I shoot again :) So for today I chosen another photo from last year, from the small city Valtice in Czech republic.

Manual blend from 6 exposures (I took 7, but haven’t used the darkest one), mostly to darken the middle part and brighten the trees.

Contest reminder

Just a little reminder for all who would still like to join my little HDR editing contest. You still have 24 hours to submit your entry. All details can be found in this post.

The blue reflection

I hope the colors on this one look for you as nice as they look on my monitor :) I left this one darker, to have this night dark blue sky in it.

Photo taken at the Kuchajda lake in Bratislava, manual blend from 5 shots, mostly to darken light and brighten the middle part.

The Charles bridge lights

The view from the Charles bridge tower is really nice, it’s just a little harder to place a tripod there, as the railings are quite massive. Haven’t yet tried the opposite view, from the other tower, but at least I have a place where I have to go next time :)

Manual blend from 5 shots, edited only in Photoshop

Midday shooting

It’s really not the best time to shoot, when the sun is high up and there are no clouds in the sky. But if that is the only time you are in a particular city, one tries to get the best shot possible.

Same when I was in Regensburg, Germany. I only had around 2-3 hours and it was just around 3-4pm. So really not the best time. Would loved to be there for sunset, but no such luck that time. If I did the same shot today, I would probably try to use the ND400 to blur the water completely and so create a nice reflection. Maybe next time :)

This photo is a manual blend of 6 shots. Edited only in Photoshop. I try to blend the images so, where the darkest parts are still the darkest, and the lightest are still the lightest in the final result. I think it gives the final photo a more natural look.

A busy scene in Budapest

This is taken from one of those places, where I just return and return, but usually can’t get a nice photo from. The reason is simple. Right below what you see, are very strong lights, which lighten up a front part of a tunnel. And those light create just horrible flares and colors in photos. But still I decided to try and edit this one, an I think the result is not that bad :) Just looks a little to busy :)

In this shot, the Chain Bridge in Budapest. Manual blend from 6 shots, edited only in Photoshop.