HDRshooter.net

Finally I have a normal address for my online portfolio. It’s now www.hdrshooter.net . I really wanted a .com domain, but since somebody has it parked I can’t have it. I really hate when people do this. If you don’t have a page, don’t register a domain.

Of course the old address hdrshooter.smugmug.com still works.

Twitter

Just a reminder :). I post all links to my photos and other interesting stuff (but mostly other photos) also on my twitter account http://twitter.com/hdrshooter
I try to keep my tweets count to a normal (smaller) number, so I don’t spam.

So anyone can follow me, and I try to follow back :)

Little Paradise

The Botanical Garden of the Comenius University in Bratislava is such a nice place for a walk. It is quite close to the city center, but you wouldn’t now it being there :)

I think editing trees in HDR is quite hard. HDR brings out so many details and it whole becomes a one big mess. I had the same problem with this one, so I mixed it with the original shot (0 EV) to bring back the shadows in the trees and separate them from each other. I think I was quite successful :)

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, handheld. Photo taken in late summer of 2010.

Hot on Flickr

This is another great source to find HDR photographers on flickr. The HDRlabs Hot on flickr site http://hdrlabs.com/gallery/hotonflickr.php lists the 30 most interesting HDR photos on flickr at a given moment.

I had a few photos on the site, but I never fully understood how it selects them :)

St. Elisabeth Cathedral

I really have to go to Kosice and take more photos. To bad that when I studied there for 5 years, I had no camera, so I took no photos. This is the St. Elisabeth Cathedral on the Main Street in the middle of the city.

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, handheld. Taken in summer of 2010.

HDR tutorials on the Internet

I’ve been thinking about adding my own HDR tutorial to this site.  I’m slowly writing it down, but it will probably be months before I’m satisfied with it :). But since there are some really nice ones already online, here are links to few of them:

• Stuck In Customs HDR tutorial – a great place to start, covers all the basic and some widely used plugins
• Vanilla Days HDR tutorial – I started with this one, a great tutorial
• Places 2 Explore HDR tutorial – another, different view on the subject
• Golden Sieve HDR tutorial – includes extensive info on HDR and videos with complete walkthroughs
• Brian Matiash HDR tutorial – includes a lot of info also on taking photos and managing your images

There are many more, but these are the ones I liked the most :). They all have a little different approach to HDR. Quite often, in one you see that you shouldn’t do something, and in a second it’s the way to go :)

I think the best way to start, is to try them all and than decide which parts of them to use, for your own photos.

Sunset over Borinka

I almost thought that I take no photos this weekend. After a whole week of warm weather, it started raining on Friday. But luckily the clouds scattered on Saturday and I could fulfill my plans :). I went to ruins of the Pajstun castle, from where you have this lovely view of the surrounding area.

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

HDR Spotting

I add a lot of my photos also to HDR Spotting (http://www.hdrspotting.com/). I had most of my photos featured, but never selected for an editors’s pick.  It’s a really great place to find other HDR photographers and to see some amazing HDR works.

As it still is in a beta state, you need an invite to join. I still have few of them unused so if you are a HDR photographer and want one, just leave me a note :)

Decay

Some months ago, there was a very heavy fog in Bratislava, so I went out to take few pictures. I found this car parked just few streets from my flat. I really wanted a strong contrast look for this one. I punched the details quite a bit, I left the noise as it was and then run it through Photo Tools to add more details and adjust the colors.

It’s also a little more “artistic” look, than my other photos, but I really like to experiment, trying new techniques and plugins :)

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

First 10 000

I just hit my first 10 000 views on my smugmug portfolio (hdrshooter.smugmug.com). Smugmug really count visit much differently than flickr. The first 10 000 on flickr took ages :)

Thank you all for visiting :)

Abandoned

Interior shots are still a little harder for me to post-process. I can’t really get to the point where I want them to be. This one I edited maybe 10 times, each time I updated how I process my photos. But now I think is quite passable :) (but still can get better :) )

HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 450D with Sigma 10-20mm lens. Photo taken at the abandoned military base at Devinska Kobyla above Bratislava