New tutorial videos from Trey Ratcliff

I just noticed today, that Trey Ratcliff released new tutorial videos, focusing this time on the use of Lightroom. Even if I don’t really agree with the recent direction of Treys post-processing (he relies too much on filters and presets), Trey has always been a big inspiration for me, and also a big influence on my HDR beginnings. So the new videos are on my to watch list, and once I get to them, I will write up a short review, of what I think about them. For now, you can find more about the videos here.

Sunset at the lighthouse

I usually don’t remove bigger things from my photos, but in this case, there was a ship right next to the lighthouse, which really bothered me. And since this was a long exposure, it was just a blurry mess. So a lot of clone stamping, and it was gone :)

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop. I used a 10-stop ND filter for this photo.

Discount coupon code

Just a little reminder, for the next week, you can still use the coupon code “TWENTYOFF” to get 20% off the price of my video tutorial series, Master Exposure blending.

Different view of the Parliament

While in Budapest, I had the change to get on the roof of one of the hotels in city, which gave me quite a new view of the city center. And one of the photos I took was also this one, towards the Hungarian parliament. To bad that all the buildings in the Budapest center are all the same heights, so even when one gets on a roof, one is newer above the city. Actually only on the top of the St. Stephens basilica, one gets a little higher up. Of course one can go onto the Buda side, on top of the hill, but that’s a different view, from far away.

So as I said, this is a little different view of the Parliament, one that even I haven’t seen before :) This is a HDR from 4 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, and finished in Photoshop. I mostly worked on toning down the colors, as the yellow decorative lights in Budapest are really extreme.

Free copy of DXO Filmpack 3

I randomly came across this offer from DXO. For the next two weeks, one can get a free copy of their Photoshop plugin, that includes filters that simulate analog film cameras. So if you think you could use something like that, give it a try. And of course, it’s free, so nothing to lose :) The plugin can be downloaded from here.

The church on the hill

While I was in Budapest earlier this week, the weather during the day was not that great. Normally I would not really mind, as I would just take photos in the evening and morning, but as I was there taking photos for a client, that could be only taken during the day, this was not the best scenario. Of course it got better in the evening, but that was just too late. But hopefully I got few usable ones :)

This is one taken in the evening, one could say after work :) It’s the Matthias Church on the Buda side of Budapest, on the hill overlooking the city. This is a HDR from 2 exposures (I took more, but as I was zoomed it a lot, few of them got bury), created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

I came across this wheel in Budapest quite randomly, as it’s usually not there, and it’s also quite hidden from the street level by all the surrounding buildings. Still, I really wanted to also go up, but just didn’t got to it. A two day visit is really very short. But still, I took few photos, even if the ground, but I think it would look much better from a high up spot. But there isn’t really one accessible in the area.

And since I took a behind the scenes photo while taking this one, I’m also including it here :)

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

So I got back from Budapest few hours ago and here I have a first photo from this trip for you. This is of course the Hungarian Parliament, captured during the blue hour. I did this photo from the Margaret bridge, and I really had problem with the bridge shaking very heavily, especially when a tram passed by. One would think that such a huge concrete structure would be more stable. But after a while of searching, I found a spot where the shaking was much acceptable, and you can see my setup on a photo on the right. You can also see, that I used 2.8 aperture, to just get as fast as an exposure as possible.

Btw. I have to say, each time I return to Budapest, it looks better and better. During the last months, they finished the area around the Parliament, which just looks so better now, the new metro line, which came very handy during my trip, the square in front of the train station, and much, much more. They really are on a roll now :)

This is a blend from 4 exposures, created only in Photoshop.