Going home

As it is Christmas tomorrow, I will be visiting my parents for the next few days. That just means that if you send me a message and I don’t reply, don’t be surprised :) I will get to all of it once I’m back. And don’t worry, the blog will have a new post everyday, as usually.

The Green pod – review

The Green pod is a small addition to any photographers gear, that can help you get stable shots in areas where you can’t use a tripod. It helped me many times. Check out my full review of the Green pod here.

Lost in a reflection

It’s quite hard to make a week worth of posts in two days. But somehow I never get to have a big enough photo reserve, so I can leave for a week without having to do a lot of preparation before hand. Maybe if I traveled more. Will have to try it next year. More travels and more photos, that is my current goal :)

But for now, here is another photo taken at the Kuchajda lake in Bratislava. This is a HDR created from 5 shots in Oloneo Photoengine (you can see my review of it here) and finished in Photoshop.

Leave something dark

How about a little photo tip today. One of the problems you very often see in HDR photos and also in non-HDR photos, is that everything is of the same brightness. If you not count the occasions where this is a desired effect (it’s sometimes used in portraits to give the result a soft feel) this makes the photo look very flat and boring. The reason is, you have to have a contrast between the dark areas of the photo and the bright areas. But if you use a tone-mapping program, like Photomatix or Oloneo Photoengine, you can easily get a result where all contrast is lost. This is quite often the result I go for, as it gives me a good start for further edits. But one should never leave a photo like that as the final result.

As the title says, don’t fear to leave some of the pixels black, and also, some of the pixels white. HDR expands the dynamic range, but your goal should not be to capture it all, but to create a pleasant photo for the viewer. And leaving some bright lights and shadows can help very much to achieve this.

Crazy sharp castle

I hope you can see on the photo, how crazy sharp it is. That’s because I took it with the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens. Compared to my other lenses, it creates the sharpest results. I don’t carry it with me so often, as it’s very heavy, but the results are usually worth it. This is of course the Prague castle, as seen during the sunset from the Vysehrad area. I took the big lens with me just for this that day, as it’s quite far away, and I needed to zoom in.

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine and then blended with original shots in Photoshop.

Sale at Stuck In Customs

Now I wonder which of Trey’s tutorials I haven’t seen yet. As he is currently having a 30% end of the year sale for all his tutorials, I will probably buy the ones I’m missing. Haven’t seen the Midnight in Paris yet, so I probably get that. So for those interested, head over to the StuckInCustoms store, and if you choose something, don’t forget to use the code “YE2013” for the discount :)

And the sky opened

Sometimes you get such an amazing sky. And after all the walking up to the Durnstein Castle, I really deserved a one. The walk is horrible. Up a steep hill and all the time up a rocky road. But I think this could be a great place to shoot a timelapse from, so maybe next year :)

This is HDR from 6 shots (I took a -3EV for the sun, but as you can see it was not enough) created in Oloneo Photoengine and finished in Photoshop.

Giving credit

It really great to see that so many people liked my photo. But it’s sad that the people who posted it haven’t given a proper credit to me. It’s even more sad that they posted such a low quality version of the photo. Too bad admins of this page (and other like this) never respond to messages. They probably know that what they are doing it not completely correct. Facebook should really do a cleanup one day.

To see all the rules of sharing my photos, please check out the Licensing page.

Manfrotto Clamp Review

This was one of this years additions to my gear, after I seen my friends in Paris using it all the time. So check out my review of the Manfrotto Super clamp 035 with the 155RC head review to find out more about it.

You can also head over to my Reviews page for all my reviews on this blog.

Secret place

This is one of my favorite places to shoot in Bratislava. And I never seen anyone else there. Of course you can’t get there all the time, as the Danube is to high sometimes and also the stairs are not so visible. But once you get down here you get a great view, and you can have it for yourself. One just has to be careful, so one does not break a leg on the stones :).

This is a HDR created from 7 exposures in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Stumbleupon

Anyone from you using Stumbleupon? I’ve been using it for many years now, always when I’m in a mood for something funny, or when I need some inspiration. I recently also added a stumble button to all my posts, so it’s easier to also add my site to their database. So feel free to stumble :) And you can also find me on Stumbleupon here under my profile.

Free eBook

For those who missed it, I made an E-book for all my newsletter subscribers. You can find it very useful, especially with the upcoming new years fireworks :) So head over to the newsletter page for more information. A lot of you already downloaded it, and I hope you find the information useful. And here is a little quote about the book, I really liked :)

What a gorgeous eBook! Comprehensive and informative! The photos are so amazingly shot and processed, as is the text that frames them. The best eBook that is ever written on fireworks. Good for : Beginners and Intermediates – Vineet Suthan

Sparkling Christmas tree

I did a little photo-shooting in the Central Shopping center in Bratislava on Tuesday. It was very nice of them to give me a permit to use a tripod there. Of course I could shoot it only during their opening hours, which is not so easy. Especially before christmas, it is full of people all the time. But with a lot of photos, and long exposures, I managed to have my photos quite people free :)

This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine and then finished in Photoshop.