Pink color at the horizon

The lighthouse at the Neusidlersee in Poddersdorf, Austria is a great place for sunset shots. The sun set’s right behind the lighthouse most of the year, and that can make for some stunning shots. But not always. Sometimes you get only a bit of color at the horizon, with nothing in the sky. Same happened the day I took this photo. But to get as much of the pink color into it, I decided to go with a panorama. Like that, the pink area was expanded, while having less of the empty blue sky.

This is a two shot panorama, each shot from three exposures, blended, combined and finished in Photoshop.

The street towards Les Invalides in Paris

When you are taking photos from a high up place, you can either try to capture as much as you can, or focus on one single part of the scenery. To tell the truth, the wide shots are simpler. The reason is mostly wind. When you are shooting wide, a small movement of the camera will have almost no effect on the photo. When you zoom in, a small movement will completely ruin the photo. It’s the same when you are shooting handheld. The wider you go, the better chance your photo will be sharp.

This photo was taken from the top of the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. This is the only skyscraper in the center of Paris. If you ever been there, you would know, that it can get quite windy there. Since the floor is not really stable (it bends when people walk around), you can’t really use a tripod. Instead I used a clamp and attached the camera to the outside glass wall. It’s a very thick glass there. But like this, the camera was mostly outside, so right in the wind.

Here I used the 200mm lens and zoomed in a lot to get only Les Invalides in the photo. I did multiple shots, hoping that one of them will be sharp enough. And one was. This is a blend of two exposures, blended and edited in Photoshop.

Bench with a view

There are places where you can sit down, enjoy the view and just relax. This is one of them. This bench is along the path you have to take to get to the 5 fingers platform high above Hallstatt in Austria. I have been to this spot already two times in the last few years. And I want to go back. Both times it was a bit hazy when I was there. I would love a nice clear day to get the best view but had no luck with it. A sunset would be also nice, but since the cable cars going up there don’t run in the evening, that will be a bit harder to accomplish.

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

Topaz Sharpener AI

While the interface of the Topaz Sharpener AI is very similar to their other AI applications, it provides more options this time. You have three processing modes to chose from here. Sharpen, stabilize and focus. Sharpen tries to distinguish between noise and objects and sharpen only what needs to be sharp. Stabilize will try and remove the motion blur in your photos. Lastly, focus will try to sharpen areas that are out of focus. Let’s have a look at each one here.

Sharpen

Sharpening is something you have to do on every photo. The results here are quite good, if maybe a bit too strong even on the default settings.

It adds a lot of detail and definition. You can see it very nicely here on this mountain area.

Or on this city photo. I would say the whole shot has more of overall clarity and detail.

Strangely, I noticed one problem. The sharpened version sometimes has less detail in the shadows, that the original photo. It’s like the algorithm just missed the area and just filled it with black.

Stabilize

The Stabilizer processing mode should remove motion blur from the photo. As it often happens that something moves in a shot, this can really be helpful. So I gave it a try on some blurry foliage and boats.

On the foliage, it’s a bit all over the place. Some are almost perfectly defined and sharp. Some look like they weren’t changed at all.

Same on the boats. Probably it depends a lot on how much movement there is. Just look at the two red boats here. one one god it got rid of almost all the movement. Not so much on the other one. Still, the result looks better than the source in both cases.

Focus

The Focus processing mode should sharpen out of focus areas. While this is generally not possible, there is a small range around the sharp area, where this should work. For my example here, I tried it with one handheld shot image. While the main subject, the statue, is generally in focus, few areas like the head are a bit out of focus. So let’s have a look what it can do here.

The results on the statues face are quite nice. Overall it’s more in focus and sharper. It created a bit of artifacts, probably from the texture of the statue, but it still looks fine.

Interestingly, this is what it did with a tower in the background of the statue. Compared to how out of focus it was, it really added some impressive detail.

There is one problem though. I’m not sure if the algorithm splits the image into a grid, but there are many spots where you can see strange effect like this one. It started creating detail in the window and stopped. It sharpened part of the wall, and then stopped. This makes for a very uneven result.

INNOREL stuff

So I thought I give a try with a Chinese brand for a change. I have been using a few other things from Chinese manufacturers recently, and the quality was really good (I really like Xiaomi products :)), so I thought I give one a chance. After searching for a bit, I decided on the INNOREL RT85C tripod. The few reviews I could find were very positive and for the price, it was a steal. If it was as described, it would be great.

How much I paid? I did not take only the tripod. The pack I took was the Innorel RT85C tripod + Innorel U44 ball head + Innorel PW50 monopod base/table tripod + Innorel ZH3 Z pan tripod head. I took so many things, as due to the promotions they offered, it was cheaper than just taking the tripod with the head. After all the discounts and bundle promotions, I ended up paying only 224 USD for the lot.

The tripod and the ball head arrived on Monday, so let’s look at those now.

INNOREL RT85C tripod

The RT85C is the second biggest tripod offered from Ignore. It’s a 4 section tripod that goes up to 187cm with the ball head attached. On the other side, it can be closed down to only 50cm in length. That all is quite great. One needs a tripod that can go up to the eye level, and this one can do that easily for me. One leg can be detached and used as a monopod. You can even switch the attachment screw from 3/8″ to 1/4″ screw. There were even extra steel nails replacements for the rubber feet. In the package, they also provide a carrying bag and the hex keys needed to for all the screws on it.

It’s made from carbon and aluminum, with few rubber parts. There is no plastic on the outside, but I presume the leg locks are plastic on the inside. Not sure if that can be done from a different material at all. It’s relatively light at 1.88kg and feels really sturdy. The leg tubes go up to a 32mm diameter, so that also makes it quite massive. The declared max load is a whopping 25kg.

After two days, I’m quite impressed. I would not say it’s on the level of the Gitzo I had, but being only 1/4th of the price, it’s not really that far. The height is great. Without the middle column, it’s at my eye level. It’s a bit stiff, but it’s new, so no surprise there. The locking on the legs and the middle column feels solid and the whole tripod stands really sturdy.

I’m not a huge fan of the spring loaded locks that lock the legs in position. I prefer the pullout style that is on Gitzo and similar brands. Still, they work fine, even if it’s a bit harder to use them. The middle column can be taken out, but I have yet to find a way to attach the ball head when it’s not there. I contacted the manufacturer to ask about that, so waiting for an answer. Also, I don’t really like the style of the hook at the bottom of the middle column. It stands too much to the side. You can remove it, but that you end up with a hole on the bottom.

INNOREL U44 ball head

The ball head that came with this tripod was the U44. It’s a 44 mm ball head and it looks really nice. Completely made from aluminum in black and silver. It has 4 bubble levels on it, which is a bit of an overkill (I always use the in-camera one as you don’t see these in the dark). It has double panoramic rotation, which is great and makes for easier panoramic shots. The release is arca swiss compatible, and I would not take a different one anyway.

It feels solid. All rotates nice and firmly, and holds steady once locked down. Still need to try it out with a longer lens, to see if there is any give once there is a weight on it. One has to take care when locking the top panoramic rotation, as the difference between locked and unlocked is quite small.