Last days of Oloneo Photoengine sale

For the next two days, one can still get the Oloneo Photoengine with a huge 50% discount. So if you want to get it, now is the best time. You can find it on their official homepage www.oloneo.com.

Bridge into the fog

The weather this year is really crazy. Almost no snow, and fog all the time. It was not different today, so I thought, I got and take some shots of the SNP brige, while it is partially hidden by fog. But when I got to the bridge, it was completely covered by fog. The fog was so thick, that not even the lights on the restaurant, thats on the top of the bridge, were visible. I could see nothing at all.

You can also see what I had in front of me, from the behind the camera shot I’m including.

This is a blend from two exposures, one for the base, one to darken the lights of the bridge walkway. Other than that I only cleaned dust spots, added contrast, and added noise. You may wonder why I added noise. The reason was, that this photo created crazy strong color banding right from the camera. You can read about that more here.

Technique: Photoshop Blend, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 29mm, Aperture: 10, Middle exposure time: 6s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.139544, 17.103889

Lets look today together at how I edited this long exposure photo from Budapest. And this time, If you want to try editing yourself, you can download the raw files of it from this Dropbox folder.

This photo was taken during a not so colorful sunset, so the biggest task here was to get some color into the photo and detail into the shadow areas.

 
I didn’t do much in Lightroom, just removed the chromatic aberrations. From there I exported all the files and loaded them into Photoengine. Here I made two HDR version. Most settings were the same, just strength and contrast, but in one I also applied the Natural HDR mode, so the grass in the foreground gets a more natural color.

 
From there I continued in Photoshop (layers numbered from bottom up)
1. The more colorful version of Photoengine result.
2. The less colorful version, from which I painted in the grass and flowers.
3. +2EV exposure, to brighten up few shadows
4+5. -2EV exposure brightened, to remove a bit of ghosting from moving grass
6+7. Color Efex briliance/warminth to get more color into the photo. I split it into two layers, so I can use different opacity on top and on bottom.
8. Added overall brightness and contrast using curves.

 
And that’s all I did with this image. To find out more on how I edit, check out the guides and before after categories on this blog, or check out my video tutorial series here.

I should start planning some trips for this year. I really need some new, and preferably daytime photos. The last year with all those crazy, cloudless sunny days was so not great for daytime photos. I just hope it will be better this year, but seeing how winter looks, I’m not really that hopeful. But maybe 2016 will be a surprise :)

This is a night shot from Vienna, taken earlier last year. This is a HDR from 6 exposures, combined in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 6, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 10s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.228242,16.411141

After a bit of delay due to incompletely written address, I finally got my hands on the Everyday messenger bag by Peak Design today.

This was not a normal purchase, but as before, I backed a Kicstarter campaign Peak Design had a few months ago. There I chosen this charcoal messenger bag, with the field pouch and the capture lens clip. So quite a lot of things to try out and get a feel for :)

So let’s look today at my first impressions of the Everyday messenger bag.

Design & Details

For a moment after I unpacked the bag, I was a bit disappointed, that the strap is aranged as one would carry it on the right shoulder. Even all the photos attached show it being carried like that. But luckily, it quite easy and straightforward to remove the shoulder strap from the bag, and just turn it around, and attach it back on. Like this one can set it up for any shoulder, and you will have the shoulder adjustment on the right side (thats in the front). Of course one has to also switch the positions of the waist straps, but thats also quite easy.

 
There are so many small details on the bag, that show that the designer team thought about different situations. Between the color coded pockets (green for empty, red for full cards or batteries), hidden phone compartment, hidden keys compartment, easily adjustable dividers (really easily), hidden cross strap and more, they thought of almost everything (maybe everything, time will tell :))

The most interesting design choice are the multiple attach points for the cover flap. They allow the bag to adjust it’s size to the content, from 13.5l up to 21.5l in volume. This removes one of the problems with most bags (not just camera ones), that even empty, they are just too big. Another very nice part, are the dividers. They are so versatile and easy to adjust, that I’m surprised that nobody used a stile like this before.

 
I’m quite happy that they didn’t skimped on the shoulder strap. It’s really wide and nicely padded. Also the length seems about right. They included an interesting locking mechanism, that makes lengthening and shortening the strap much easier.

And another very nice design choice is the flat bottom of the bag. With that, it can stand on its own, without tiping towards any of the sides. The bottom is even covered by a sort off rubber material, to prevent water damage.

Size

First impression of the bag is, that it really looks small. This is probably due to a quite unusual shape, sort of similar to a V, where the top is wider than the bottom. Additionally, the cover flap can attach in multiple positions, so it can change the size as one needs it. This does makes it smaller than a comparable capacity bag.

 
I tried it out by putting my most carried gear into it. With a Canon 70-200, 28-70 and a 16-35 attached to the Sony a7r, I was still able to close the bag to its smallest size, without any problems. This means that I can still put the pouch on top, and still have quite a lot of space.

Build quality

During the years I had quite a few camera bags. My favorites were the two ones I use right now, one by Domke and one by Think-tank. Quality vise, the Everyday messenger bag seems really similar. I found no manufacturing errors on mine, all seems to be well made. I especially like the zippers, that ale completely covered up from outside and move easily.

 
Time will tell how it fares, but I do have quite high hopes here.

The Field Pouch

Together with the Everyday messenger bag, I also got the Field pouch. This is a small pouch, that you can use to keep smaller things inside the bag. You can even use it as a small shoulder bag, if you have a camera strap made by Peak Design or attach it to your belt.

It uses the same trick as the messenger bag, so it can close in multiple positions, so being as small or as big as you need it to be.

First impressions

I’m really impressed by the bag. Still will need to see how it is in regular use, but for now, it looks really well designed, with lost of small touches, and nice build quality. I’m really happy with my purchase :)

For more about the bag and other Peak design products, check out the Peak Design homepage (btw. you can use the code HDRSHOOTER for a 10% discount of all Peak Design products :)).

If you are still in the New years mood, here are two high resolution wallpapers for you. Both are formated exactly for the Surface pro 4, but since they are both quite a high resolution, they will look fine on any screen up to a 4K one.

You can download them, with all the other available wallpapers from the Wallpapers page.