While in Lyon, all of the photo spots I planed were full of very classic, old architecture. But while I was walking through the city, I noticed a photo of this, the Euronews building on one of the promo posters for a ship tour company, so I had to find out what it is, and get a few photos.

This is one of them, a two shot vertorama, taken during the blue hour. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

If you ever been to the Buda castle in Budapest, you probably seen the stair going up to the fortification. And this is a view from them, overlooking all the new areas that were reconstructed in the recent years. It really is a very nice area, with very little traffic and great view. Btw. the colorful lights in the bottom left were from an outdoor cinema.

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

An update for the HDR software Aurora HDR has been teased for a while now, and today Macphun opened up pre-orders for the new, 2017 version. And as they usually do, they are running quite a promotion with it, where you will get a bunch of extra stuff (video from Trey Ratcliff, 1 year of Smugmug and more), when you pre-order before the 29the September release date. They are also offering a discounted upgrade price, if you already own the current version.

What is Aurora HDR

Aurora HDR is and all in one solution for creating and editing HDR photos (regrettably, still only for MAC OS), which combines many tools from dedicated HDR tone-mapping programs with features usually reserved to programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. I did a review for the 2016 version and you can find more there.

You can also enroll in a free course to learn more about HDR and Aurora HDR, taught by a great photographer Jim Nix on the Macphun site here.

Whats new?

Aurora HDR 2017 offers many new additions compared to the old one. And they are sticking mostly to the theme, by trying even more to create a complete work-flow in one program. The new features are: new luminosity mask controls, new tone mapping engine, batch processing, polarizing filter, new presets, new layer blend modes, faster raw processing and more. You can check out a video describing them in detail on Macphun website here.

As I mentioned in my review of the 2016 version, Aurora HDR provides many features and creates some very nice results. With the introduction of the new features, it offers even more than before. So if you have not yet tried it out, I would suggest geting the trial, and if you use it, you probably already know if you need to upgrade.
Download the trial and pre-order on Macphun website here.

(Please note, while I had access to a preview version of Aurora HDR 2017, I did not have currently a Mac OS system I could use. That’s why these screen shots were provided by Macphun. A more detailed review of Aurara HDR 2017 from me will come later.)

How about a photo from earlier this year, from my spring trip to Paris. I have not been there for a half year, and I would go back again anytime. Always want more photos from Paris :)

For this one, I did a three shot panorama (with the help of the tilt shift lens). Funny thing, most of the time I edited this photos, was spend with removing the trash from the grass, as it was just so distracting :/

The windmills in Netherlands just looks so great. And they are just a perfect photography subject. If you are curious where I took this photo, check out my Top photography spots in Amsterdam list to find out more.

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