Handheld photos

I hate it when I have to take landscape/cityscape photos handheld. Rather I really like to take my time, setup the camera, do manual focusing and take the exact photo I want. I especially noticed when I stated using a tripod first time, that the composition of my photos got better. Just the forced slowdown made me think more of what I’m doing. I also ended up less photos in the end.

So how would you get a better handheld photo? Here are few tips, for that.

1. Hold your camera close. The closer you hold the camera to your body, the less change you will move your hands while taking the photo.
2. If you can, place the camera on something. Having a support of any kind will help you keep the camera steady.
3. Higher ISO instead of bigger aperture. Think of it this way, you can de-noise a photo, you can’t sharpen a out of focus one. Just don’t overdo it.
4. Under expose your photo. With the current cameras, you can easily overexpose a photo by 1 to 2 stops, sometimes even more. So underexposing a shot by having a shorter exposure, and then overexposing it after in post-processing, can really help you.
5. Repeat the shot multiple times. The more photos you take, the bigger chance one of them will be good.
6. Use a timer. I noticed when I take handheld photos, that when I press the shutter I push on the camera and so move it down a bit. This can be a problem. So instead, I turn on the 2s timer, and I just hold the camera, so it does not move when it’s recording the photo.
7. Forget about bracketing. Rather just do multiples of the same photo. You can get most from one RAW anyway in most situations and I jet to see anyone with such steady hands that can hold the camera for so long (but maybe you are an exception? :)).

Still if you doing a landscape or a cityscape shot, I would go with a tripod every-time, even in the middle of a sunny day :)

Sunny day panorama from Paris

And while on the topic on handheld photos, here is one. When you go to Paris, to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, you will notice that the use of any tripods of any kind is not allowed up there. So the only thing you can really do, is to shoot handheld.

So I was there during a quite sunny day, and this is one of the photos I got. For this sunny day panorama, I did two shots, combined in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.

If you need tips on where to take photos in Paris, check out this Top Photography spots list.

And here are few details:

Gaming list

I shared with you a reading list so how about a gaming list today :) What games am I currently playing?

I play most games on the Xbox One or the PS4. I very rarely anymore play on the PC (that’s just for work :)), and I never play on mobile. Just don’t like it. Actually I almost always play for about 20-30 minutes, as little breaks between other stuff, mostly work. There used to be times when I could play for hours and hours in a row, but that’s long time ago :) And I never ever play multiplayer. I just don’t like when a game can’t be finished.

So recently, since I never had a PS3, I have been getting through all the remasters on the PS4. Beyond two Souls, Last of US and God of War III recently. I now started Gravity Rush and then still have the Shadow of the Colossus.

On the Xbox, I just finished the second South Park game, and I’m currently playing Catherine, Back to the Future The game and finally want to finish Rise Son of Rome.

I really like to finish all the games I play, and usually when I start one, I play it till it’s done :)

What are you playing this week?

The red lights of the Moulin Rouge

This one is a bit older photo. I took it in 2015 while in Paris. Right after I got back from there, I did tried to edit it, but I just did not like the result. But as time goes, one learns more editing, I tried it again last night. And I got a result I liked withing minutes.

It’s of course the Mouling Rouge, and while I tried to have less people in the shot, it was just too busy that evening. This is a two exposure blend, one for the base another one used to darken the few highlights. Edited in Lightroom finished in Photoshop.

Top photography spots – Lyon

Recently I had more time to work on the blog. And as the Top photography spots are the most popular part of it, I’m working on expanding that part of it. So today, I have for you another list. This time it’s the Top photography spots in Lyon. Lyon is just a wonderfull city in France, that you all should visit if you can, and of course get some great spotos.

So head over to the Top photography spots – Lyon page to check them out. As always, all spots show an example image and GPS location.

Looking up

I quite like taking photos of towers. And the Eiffel tower is just so beautiful every time. Especially this golden yellow color again the blue sky. It create such a natural color contrast.

Have not been to Paris in almost a year now, so I’m not sure how this are looks now. Last time I was there, they were building a glass wall around the bottom of the tower, so who knows. Will have to check it out next time I’m there. But as always looking up is worth it :)

This is a two shot vertorama, combined in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop. I used another two separate exposures for the bottom part, where I removed few people that were too close to the camera.

Quick updates

I’m experimenting with a new addition to the blog. I tend to take a lot of random shot that I don’t post to the blog, or post as a side note to some updates. So I was thinking on where to share those. The first location would be Instagram, but I tend to share only edited photos there, and I don’t think it would look great to mix it up.

So instead, I created a separate section on this blog. You can see the updates to it on the homepage, right under the latest normal post (so right under this one right now :)). Not much there yet, but I will add more. There is also some more formatting and organisation needed, but that will come over time.

Calm morning reflection in Paris

I have quite a lot of photos taken in the early morning. It’s either I don’t have time during the rest of the day while working, or that’s the only time when a location is empty. A good calm morning reflection is also not bad. You can actually see all my reasons to take photo in the early morning (and some reasons why not) in this list, I posted a while ago.

This photo is a blend of two exposures, all done in Photoshop. Taken before the sunrise from the Pont Mirabeau. If you want to check other suggested locations to take photos in Paris, check out my Top photography spots list for Paris here.

Top photography spots – Wachau Valley

I have added a new Top photography spots page to the blog today. This time it’s not for a town or a city, but for an area. To be exact, it’s for the Wachau Valley in Austria. This is a beautiful area with castle ruins, vineyards and small towns country around the Danube. And you can get here by can in about 1 hour from Vienna.

As always, I not only mention the spots, but you also get example photo from the locations together with the GPS coordinates and links directly to google maps.

You can check out the new list here: Top photography spots – Wachau Valley.

Sparkling lights on the Eiffel tower

For today I chosen one a bit older photo for you. This one I took around three years ago (in 2015), while in Paris. And I actually did a lot of photos that evening, that did not work out at all. The Eiffel tower as it is already creates a lot of glow around it. And when the sparkling lights are on, it even worse. And that day, there was so much moisture in the air, that my lens kept on fogging over.

You can check out the image I added to the side here, to see as most of my photos form that evening looked like :)

This is a blend of two exposures, edited in Lightroom, blended in Photoshop.