Manes Bridge in Prague

Let’s continue with another big panorama today. This one is of the Manes Bridge in Prague, during quite a nice blue hour. It has been a while since I was in Prague so it’s really time again to go back there this year. Maybe once it’s warm again :)

This is a two shot panorama, each shot from three exposures. Blended and combined in Photoshop. You may have noticed by my latest photos, that I have been using only Photoshop. It’s start of the year and as usually I like to evolve my editing skills. And my goal is to have better, cleaner results with less work. That’s why I’m trying to limit the edits on the photos.

And here are few details:

Blended panoramas in Photoshop

When using Photoshop to create blended panoramas, the order of doing it is apposite to the other ones. While before, we would fist create the panorama and then blend the exposures, here we first blend, then create the panorama. This is because if you try to create separate panoramas they will all be different. You can try, that even combining the same images over and over into panoramas, will result in slightly different panoramas. So while programs that support HDR panoramas can work around it, Photoshop can’t.

So as I said, we have to go the other way. First blend images, then combine into panorama. So what do you do?

First load all the images you want to blend into Photoshop. These have to be rasterized, not smart objects. Photoshop can’t use smart objects when creating panoramas. If you did some edits on them before this, make sure that photos with the same exposures have the same edits. So for instance if you darkened the highlights on the darkest exposure in a RAW editor, be sure to do it in every darkest exposure.

Then combine the images into layers, that should be together (grab the layer with the mouse and drag it onto a name of the other opened image, once that shows, hold Shift and let go of the mouse button). You should end up with the number of files open, how many different photos you have for the panorama. In this example, I only used two exposures for every photo, and two photos for the panorama.

Once these are in layers, you have to blend them. You can use different techniques here, but the important thing is you do the same in all the parts. So you blend the first one, and using the same technique you blend the second, and so on. Don’t do any other edits on the photos, no color corrections or anything else. Just the blend. Everything else can be done once you created the panorama.

Now, save all the files. Does not matter where, just save them as PSDs and don’t close them. Once that’s done, choose File/Automate/Photomerge. In the popup window, leave the layout at Auto and then click on Add Open files. This will add all the open files into the Source files list. Click OK afterwards.

Now Photoshop will merge the files into one big panorama. You will loose the layers you had, but since you already done the blend, that should not be a problem.

Now just merge the layers if all looks good, and continue with your edits of the final photo. You don’t need the original files you merged into the panorama anymore.

Morning in Hallstatt

Let’s stay in Hallstatt with one more photo. I mentioned this spot in yesterday’s Top Photography spots in Hallstatt. It gives a great view, when there is no boat there. It’s a bit worse with the boat, as that blocks most of the it. Still I took a photo anyway. You can see a winter photo from the same spots here.

This is a two shot vertorama, each shot from three exposures. Blended and combined in Photoshop. I took this photo in 2017, right after a sunrise shoot not far from here.

On the street

If you ever seen a photo from Hallstat, it was probably from this spot. It gives the best view of the town. You will always see other photographers here and quite a lot of tourists taking snapshots. But it never to me, that there would not be a spot where I could put a tripod. Most tourist are there just for minutes, so it always changes. Just be careful of traffic, even if there are only few cars passing during the day, the street is quite narrow.

The bus stop

Right as you get into the tow, before you enter the walking zone, there is a buss top on the right. This spot gives a very nice view of the town. Completely opposite the first spot. Again there will be quite a few people here, but again, it changes quickly. There is a boat dock in the way a bit and you can’t get on it, but still the view is nice, especially if you zoom in.

Also if you want a photo with a swan in it, there are quite often around this area.

Parking area above the town

When you go through the city, you will notice signs pointing to the church that is a bit up the hill. You have to follow them, up a covered staircase to get to the church. Once you there, turn 180 degrees onto another walkway with another covered staircase and follow it. You will get up onto a parking area that is above the roofs of the town. The view is quite different to other spots here.

Down at the ship dock

If you want to get a bit closer to the water and get a photo of the front of the town, go here. Just know, boats dock here quite often, so especially during the summer, the view can be blocked. Not much issues during the Winter though. You can also see swans here quite often.

Five fingers viewing platform

Ok, Five fingers is not it Hallstat. Actually you have to go to the neighboring town of Obertraun, to this spot. From there you take two cable cars to get up to here, and you still have to walk about 20-30 minutes to get to the spot. But the walk is not that hard, as it’s quite even. Once there, you will get the best view in the area you can get. Just don’t go onto the Five fingers platform if you are scared of height :)

Elisabeth bridge in Budapest

The Elisabeth bridge is not my favorite bridge in Budapest. It just looks so plain in comparison. And the old bridge it replaced looked so much nicer. Too bad they changed the style. Still, I always looked for a nice composition with it.

I took this photo already few years back, but when I edited it afterwards, I did not like the result. So it was still in the photo library, but never finished. But few days back I tried to re-edit it again, and this time I liked the result. So here it is.

This photo is was taken from the Liberty bridge. Normally that’s not the best place to take night photos from. The bridge, as almost all bridges, shakes from the traffic, especially the trams. But the day I took this, the bridge was closed for traffic. It was full of people and there was some dance performance in the middle. I have no idea what the occasion was, but I was glad as I could take a nice photo because of it.

This is a three shot panorama, each shot from three exposures. Blended, combined in Panorama and finished in Photoshop. I did not use anything else here. It ended up being a 96Mpix photo, as I used the Sony a7R here and that makes for some large shots.

And here are few details: