Today I will show you how I edited this photo, even if it’s not a HDR. Maybe even that will be interesting to some of you :)

So let’s start with comparison of the final and original photos. As you can see, as it’s a fog shot, the photo is very low contrast, and quite bland.

I did quite a few edits in Lightroom. Bumped up the contrast a lot, toned down the highlights of the bridge, opened up the shadows, added a bit of clarity and vibrance. From there I opened the photo in Photoshop.

In Photoshop I did the following edits (layers numbered from bottom up):
1. The Lightroom result
2. A copy on which I cleaned up the dust spots
3. Another copy, on which I removed few of the lights in the distance, and a partially visible ship on the right. They bothered me in the composition, as I wanted to focus only on the bridge (I like to do bigger edits on new layers, to not do have to start from the beginning in case of any mistakes)
4. Bit more contrast added using curves
5. Added a little overall saturation, to make the colors more dominant.
6. Added noise to the sky and the water, to prevent color banding from creating.
7. Color Efex Tonal contrast, set to blend mode color at smaller opacity.
8. Color Efex Tonal contrast, set to blend mode luminosity. This is the same as the previous layers, I just duplicated it and changed the blend modes, so I can choose where the effect and where the color is applied. I used the color with smaller opacity, and the detail with a custom painted mask, so it’s just on the bridge and the shadow.
9. To finish up, I bumped up the saturation again by a little (+2, so very tiny adjustment)

And that’s all I did with this photo, check out the Process category, to see all other process posts I posted on the blog before.

Don’t forget, only 24 hours left to join my photo editing contest. Now is your last chance :)

And today, here is a photo I took earlier last year at the Kuchajda lake. The sunset that day was a bit boring, but for a moment, a cloud right opposite of the sunset caught this wonderful color. So with a bit of running around the lake, I managed top get a photo of it :)

This is a blend of two exposures, done in Photoshop.

Been a bit busy today, so no new photo or article today. But instead, I would like to remind you that you only have 48 hours left to enter my photo editing contest sponsored by Aurora HDR. And also, here are two new 3440×1440 wallpapers for you :) As always you can get them from the wallpapers page.

Some photos are about the composition, some are about the subject, and some are just about the colors. And I really like how simple this one is. It’s even hard to take a photo like this. One would just like to stand there and enjoy the beauty :)

This is a single exposure, on which I did only few edits in Lightroom, and a bit in Photoshop. Photo taken at the Neusidlersee in Austria.

To break a little from the night and fog shots, here is one I took in the middle of last years summer. This was taken in the vineyards above the city Spitz. It’s a really beautiful area, and whats even nicer is that is completely accessible, without any fences.

These were not really my favorite lighting conditions. When the sun is so high up, and there are just no clouds, the light is just too harsh for it to be nice. But when you have nothing else for days and days, you have to take what you got :) This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Technique: Photoshop Edit, Number of exposures: 1, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 16, Middle exposure time: 1/13s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.369212, 15.416969