New 4K wallpapers

The theme for today’s wallpapers is Paris, especially the Eiffel tower. One funny thing about this 4 photos is, that you get sunrise, daytime, sunset and an evening shot. So you got almost the whole day here :) Download them now from the 4K wallpapers page here.

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.

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 :)

New 4K wallpapers

I’m starting this page with these four 4K wallpapers, all with the same theme. This time they are all from Dubai. I will be updating the selection soon, as with only 4 it looks a bit empty. But until then, feel free to download these here.

Using SyncToy to locally backup photos

So how do one use it? First, decide on a folder you want to backup. Then, decide where you want to back it up too. So either a file-server, external drive or a second drive in your PC. In my case it’s a file-server, that is attached as a mapped network drive in my PC.

Continue by creating a folder pair with Create folder pair button. You can see in the screenshots, I have multiple, split based on whats in the folder.

Choose the folders, choose the type of synchronization, add a name to the pair and confirm. Since it’s a backup, use Echo as synchronization method. This will mirror you computer folder onto the backup folder, but not the other way around. So if you delete a file from your computer, and sync, it will be deleted also from the backup. Of course if you delete it accidentally, don’t sync, and just copy the file from the backup :)

Once the folder pair is done, you can just click on Run to sync them. But I prefer to first hit on Preview, that will list all the changes it will perform first. Like this I can quickly see what it will do. Once that is shown, I hit Run to finish the Sync.

Now just run this each time you want to run a backup and you are done.