Articles Archives - Page 30 of 117

Dubai, Plotagraph, United Arab Emirates

Endless traffic in Dubain – Plotagraph

November 7, 2017 3 Comments

Spark remote from Alpine Labs

So my streak of selecting only Kickstarter projects that deliver continues, as I just recieved a product from another one of them. This time it’s the Spark from Alpine labs. You may know Alpine Labs as the creators of Radian, the timelapse rotating motor.

The Spark remote is a camera remote that can work in three modes. It either works like a classic wired remote when connected to the camera, as a IR remote, or as bluetooth remote conected to a phone. There you can use the provided app to take photos, long exposure, HDR bracketing, timelapses and more.

For now, I only tested it if all worked and I had no issues. All paired easy and all that I tried worked. I will be using it when I go and take photos in the next weeks, so I will also probably post a review of it.

For now, you can see more about it on the Kickstarter site of Alpine Labs here.

Endless traffic in Dubain – Plotagraph

I knew I want to animate this photo from the first moment I tried Plotagraph. I just wanted to make it more like what I seen. There was just endless traffic how far you could see. So I tried to edit it before, but I did not like the result. So it was standing there in the library for a few months now, and only yesterday, I finished it. I think it was also due to the updated Plotagraph had this year, that I was able to get it to a point I liked it.

So what I did here? I masked out the traffic on all a lanes, than stabilized the middle part, so that does not move, and then animated the traffic. And to make it even more better, I masked out some of the reflection in the skyscrapers, and animated those too :) Now all it misses is the sound of the traffic, but you can imagine that yourself :)

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

Plotagraph, Slovakia

The reflected colors of autumn – Plotagraph

October 31, 2017 No Comments

Plotagraph Social profile

You can find my plotagraphs on this blog, but you may have missed that you can find most of them (and soon all the ones I published here) also on Plotagraph Social website. You can find my profile here.

Of course you can also scroll down to the bottom of this blog and choose the Plotagraph category from the dropdown list. Or just click here :).

The reflected colors of autumn – Plotagraph

I really like this photo. And so of course I had to try and create a Plotagraph from it, just to make it even better :) So I did. As you can see from how it looks and from the animations points screenshot to the side, I went with a quite subtle animation, only in the reflection. I think that was enough.

If you want to know how to create Plotagraphs, check out my tutorial here.

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

France, Paris, Plotagraph

Sunny clouds over Paris – plotagraph

October 29, 2017 No Comments

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

If you read my about page, you may know that I used to work in game design some years ago. So of course I like to play games a lot :) But with a game like the new Assassin’s Creed, I only can think of how great the scenery looks and how wonderful photos it would make for, if it was real (or still existing). Probably would call that a professional deformation :)

How about you? Have you tried the game already?

Sunny clouds over Paris – plotagraph

For today, I have for you another Plotagraph. This time I edited one of my Paris photos. And as the clouds were very soft that day, I decide also to go with a very subtle animation, to just give a bit of live into the photo.

And if you want to see the animation points, so how it was done, check out the screenshot on the side. And for more about Plotagraph, check out my How to create plotagraphs tutorial here and my Plotagraph Pro review here.

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

Dubai, Plotagraph, United Arab Emirates

Sunset clouds in Dubai – Plotagraph

October 24, 2017 No Comments

How to share plotagraphs in a blog post?

Since I’m posting a plotagraph today, I though I would also show you how I include it in the blog posts.

I use the video HTML tag to include the MP4 versions of the plotagraph. Of course if you just export it from Plotagraph, it would be too big, so first I compress it using Hanbrake transcoder (which you can get for free here), where I just use the default settings to recode the file. A file of 1200×800 px then ends up between 0.5 to 1.5 megabytes in size.

Then I use the tag in this form:

‹video poster=”link to image that shows while the video is loading” autoplay=”autoplay” loop=”loop”›
‹source src=”link to the video in mp4 format” type=”video⁄mp4″ ⁄›
Your browser does not support the video tag.
‹⁄video›

You have to fill in the poster, as you need to show some image while the video is loading. Also the image shows when on mobile, as mobile browsers don’t load mp4 videos in pages. Also, if a older browser is used, they will only see the text message that you specify there. The autoplay part is for the video to start automatically on load and the loop will force the video to loop indefinitely.

Sunset clouds in Dubai – Plotagraph

I have not posted a plotagraph in a long time, so how about one. This one is created from a photo I took few years ago at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. The sunset was great that day, and having the possibility to add a bit of movement here, really adds to this photo.

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

Available photography courses

October 24, 2017 No Comments

Online and offline course available from today

If you want to learn more about how I take and edit photos or just get better in your photography skills, you may find my offering of photo course interesting.

I can do all tutoring in English or Slovak language.

For any questions or inquiries about more personalized offer or bigger groups, feel free to message me under miroslav.petrasko@hdrshooter.com or use the contact form here.

Online course via Skype

If you want to get better at editing your photos, this may be for you. For the one or two hours (based on your choice), over a Skype connection we would cover topics from :

Basics of photography, terminology, exposure
Basics of working with Lightroom and Photoshop
Basic corrections, perspective correction, fixing errors
Composition basics
HDR, using HDR specific software like Oloneo Photoengine
Luminance masking
Exposure blending
Working with Panoramas and HDR panorama
Editing one or multiple of my photos together, or a photo you provide.
Photo critique, with suggestions on improvements
General photo discussion

I’m not doing any specific course content, as everybody’s skill level is different and you may be interesting in a specific topic. Based on your skill level, you can suggest what you want to know, or I will choose for you.

For this course I would suggest you own at least Photoshop and Lightroom. Basic knowledge of working with computer is of course also a must.

Everyone who buys this course will also get a copy of the video tutorial series Master Exposure Blending for free.

Online and offline course available from today

Offline course in Bratislava

The second option, is to meet up in Bratislava (for now I’m limiting this to only one city) and take photos together. Here is what we can go through is:

Basics of photography, exposure
Composition in landscape and cityscape photos
Setting up your camera
Taking multiple exposures
Panoramic photos, panoramas, vertoramas, 360 photos
Taking long exposure photos
Choosing exposure
Focusing your photos
General photo discussion

I’m not doing any specific course content, as everybody’s skill level is different and you may be interesting in a specific topic. Based on your skill level, you can suggest what you want to know bout, or I will choose for you.

The location for this course will be the center of Bratislava, the area around the Bratislava castle, SNP bridge and Old bridge. Other location is possible on request.

For this course I would suggest a camera that support manual settings. Since it’s a cityscape course, a tripod.

Everyone who buys this course will also get a copy of the video tutorial series Master Exposure Blending for free.

Once you buy a course, I will contact you within 24 hours so we could arrange a date and time that would suit your needs. For any questions or inquiries about more personalized offer or bigger groups, feel free to message me under miroslav.petrasko@hdrshooter.com or use the contact form here.