The whole length of the Charles Bridge

I took this panorama quite a while ago. But as with many other photos I never edited it until now. My photo library is huge and I like to randomly look through it and select older photos to edit. Of course this I do mostly when I don’t have that many new photos to edit. Also, since ones editing skills tend to improve over time, I think I can now edit photo I would not dare to do few years ago.

So this photo is a 2 tile panorama, each tile from 6 exposures. I did so many exposures, as some of the lights around the Prague castle are really bright. In the end I used every single on in the final editing. I combined the shots together in PTgui and then blended them in Photoshop.

And here are few details:

And as I mentioned, here is a composite image based on this Prague panorama. I did extent the top and bottom parts a lot, and then blended in 4 different fireworks photos. It does create quite a different photo, doesn’t it?

New wallpapers

And here are the new ones.

The beauty of Winter

This is another panorama from winter Hallstatt, even if it does not look like one. I zoomed in quite a lot and also did the shots vertically, so it ended quite square like. In this photo of the center of Hallstatt, I really liked the contrast between the blue mountains and the warm colors of the lights. So I did my edit to enhance that, and so it guides the eye into the center of the photo.

This is a two shot panorama, each shot from 5 exposures. I needed so many exposures, as the light on the tower is quite bright and I wanted to get rid of the overexposed area. Basic edits done in Lightroom, combined in PTgui, blended in Photoshop.

When you don’t need a better camera

You often don’t need a better camera at all. To get better photos you usually need to change other things.

Is your composition good?
The most important thing about a photo is the composition. If your composition is bad, the photo is bad. And a better camera will not help you with this. Instead look for tutorials, guides, look at other photographers work and practice more.

Did you learn the basics?
Here I don’t mean just how to control you camera, but much more. Modes, histogram, focusing, choosing the best settings and so on. While the software in the camera is quite smart, you usually can get much more if you do things yourself. Even the best camera will not focus properly all the time, will not choose the best settings for what you need, and sometimes it can even make thing worse. I still remember the day when I switched to manual focusing. My photos became so much sharper instantly.

Do you edit your photos?
Continuing from the previous point. By post-processing your photos you can get much better results than directly from a camera. Try choosing a software you like and learning how to use it. Photoshop, Lightroom, Aurora or similar. Most are not that hard to get into and you can get them quite cheaply.

You maybe need something else
Maybe you don’t need a better camera, but an accessory. Again this depends on the type of photography. But maybe you need a sturdy tripod if you want to do landscapes. Or an external flash if you do portraits.

When you need a better camera

This is very depending on what you do. But here are few reasons.

You need higher resolution
This happened to me. As quite a lot of my photos end up being printer big, especially as wall sized posters, I just needed more resolution. I just can’t make a panorama of every photo. Also screen resolutions go up and up every year. 4k is equal to 8Mpix, 8k to 33Mpix. That is a crazy amount of pixels. And yes, there are upscalers, but they are not always the solution.

You need a faster camera
There are type of photography, where a fast camera and even faster focusing is a must. Sports photography is a good example here. If your camera is slow, you will not get the shot. It has to be able to save the photo quickly and focus even quicker.

Your work demands it
This is a bit indirect reason, but it can happen. For instance I bought a TSE lens, because I knew I would have to do over a 1000 interior photos for a client. So having this did make the whole work quicker and much easier.

Weather and dust resistance
Better cameras usually have better weather and dust resistance, and are made from stronger materials. You can see it if you compare a pro camera to a consumer one. There are much more resistant. My lenses fell on the ground, my camera fell, my tripod got bend and similar. Things happen. Everything works.

Snow covered rocks at the Danube

It was snowing quite a lot in Bratislava on Monday, but as the evening came, it all started melting. So I just had to go out to take few snowy photos before it all went away. I wanted a new nice photo of the snow cowered rocks at the Danube, and as the river is quite low right now, I got them.

This is a two shot vertorama, where I used two exposures for the top part (because I needed to tone down the bright lights of the castle) and one shot for the bottom part. Edited in Photoshop.