This is another photo I took last weekend. I really liked as around the sunset, one could see only the outlines of the hill in the distance, so I zoomed in as much as I could to compress the view, and in the end I chosen to do a panorama, to get most of the mountains.

This is a panorama from two exposures, merged in Lightroom, edited in Photoshop.

Technique: Photoshop Edit, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II, Focal length: 200mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 1/20s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.278003, 16.347291

I’ve been experimenting recently with just working with one exposure. It’s actually quite typical for me, to try new stuff early in the year, and this is it for this year :) So instead of using multiple exposures, I try to get the most from a single one. And that’s also for this photo of the Podersdorf-am-See Lighthouse .

This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Phototshop.

Technique: Photoshop Edit, Number of exposures: 1, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 27mm, Aperture: 8, Middle exposure time: 30s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 47.860540, 16.827174

Today I will show you how I edited this photo of the new Old bridge in Bratislava. So let’s get started :)

As you can see from the comparison of the final and starting photos, my main goal here was to brighten the shadow areas, to get at least some detail in them, and to darken the middle part around the horizon.

I started with correcting the chromatic aerations in Lightroom and not much else there. I exported all the files and loaded them into Oloneo Photoengine. The result I got here, was really close to what I wanted, but there were still few more tweaks needed. All I did in Photoengine was to move the strength slider until I got an even lit image.

From there I loaded all the files into PHotoshop, and did the following edits (layers numbered from bottom up):
1. Photoengine result
2. -2EV exposure, to darken few light in the distance.
3+4. -1EV and 0EV exposures, from which I painted in few parts of the water. HDR usually removes makes the water very soft when combining the images, and I wanted a bit of detail there.
5. On a merged layer, I removed any dust spots and also removed the white outlines from the bridge (check out this tutorial for more about this)
6. To add more detail and contrast into the water, I used Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast, and painted in using a mask just into the water.
7. Added a little saturation into the sunset colors around the horizon.
8. To brighten the rocks in front, and few parts of the bridge, I went back to Lightroom, and exported a version of the +1EV exposure, which I exposed by a stop. Then I loaded it as a new layer, and used luminance masking to apply it to few spots.
9. At the end, I found a few ghosted cars far in the distance, which I corrected from the -1Ev exposure.

 
And that’s all I did with to get the final photo :)

Vienna really looks flat from up high. There are really few tall buildings and even those are away from the center. I took this shot right before the sunset, as this one huge cloud formed right above the city. It somehow reminds me of the movie Independence day, just waiting for an alien ship pooping out from it :)

This is a panorama from two exposures, merged in Lightroom, edited in Photoshop.

Technique: Photoshop Edit, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II, Focal length: 70mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 1/25s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.278003, 16.347291

I wanted to visit this castle for a longer time, but newer gotten to it until this weekend. The weather was surprisingly sunny, but it’s still this winter sun, that just does not give enough warmth to the scene. Still it’s a great looking castle, and as soon as I get a tilt-shift lens, so I can get a shot without a distortion, I will definitively go back for more :)

Btw. for those of you who are waiting for the winner announcement of the photo editing contest, please have a little more patience. The people choice winner has already been selected (you can check the album to see who has the most likes), but the jury selection is not decided yet, due to busy schedules of the judges. But I presume I will announce the winners in a day or two.

This is mostly a single exposure, with few spots brightened from a second one. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Technique: Photoshop Edit, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 14, Middle exposure time: 1/60s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.378978, 16.308233