Spiral

Little bonus for today :). I tried a little minimalistic B&W photography. This photo was taken with my 10-20mm lens, I then just cropped it, to make a better composition, and played a lot with contrast and levels. Taken handheld inside the staircase of the Minaret in Lednice.

Jackal at Lednice

Lednice and all the surrounding areas are really a great place to visit. There are few chateaus, parks, castles, churches and a lot more stuff to take photos of :). I spend a whole day there and I see it for a few more, so I at-least see everything there is :). This photo is of the jackal in front of the greenhouse at the Chateau directly in Lednice. There is also a second statue of a lion there.

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.

Still under the bridge

This is exactly what I want my HDR’s to look like, clean, sharp, lots of details, but with a light HDR effect, looking as real as possible. I edited HDR photos almost daily for the last 1 and a half years and finally, I’m getting to the point where I want to be :). And now to start focusing more on the composition side of things :)

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod. Photo taken from under the Old Bridge in Bratislava. In the distance the Eurovea shopping center and Tower 115.

Trees in HDR

Here is a little tip, how I edit trees in my HDRs. They are not the simplest thing to get right (or better said, looking good) and it takes some work.

This image shows three states. The first one is a standard photo (0EV), second shows the result as it came from photomatix and the third is the final photo. As it’s clearly visible, one of the things HDR processing does, it removes most of the shadow. This is usually what we want, as we want as much detail, also in the shadow areas. But with trees (and almost any vegetation) this is a problem, as it removes any texture from them, and all that remains is a big green mess.

Adding contrast helps a lot here, but what I do, is to mix the photomatix result with the 0EV or sometimes the -1EV or -2EV exposure, to restore parts of the shadows. Just layer the photos in Photoshop, with the photomatix result on top, create a mask, and with a soft brush at around 20-30%, brush few times across the trees.

This is very simple, and it really helps, so trees look better :)

There are of course other ways, and you photomatix result really depends on what setting you use.

Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary

About a week ago, I uploaded a photo from inside this church. This one is to show, why I had to stop by this church :). It’s really beautiful. I love the style, with all the brick walls. It’s so great for HDR.

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.

Inside St. Charles’s Church in Vienna

And another beautiful church in HDR. This time the St. Charles’s Church in Vienna. I’m very happy with how sharp it is, as it was taken only handheld and at a higher iso setting.

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, handheld

Stormy clouds over 75

The weather really was against taking photos yesterday. Few minutes after this was take a heavy rain started, so there was it. But still the clouds looked very interesting and the photo looks good :)

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens from a tripod. Photo taken at the Zlate Piesky (Golden Sands) lake in Bratislava.