HDR photographer

Say goodbye to my blog...

2015-04-22T00:13:00.001-07:00

After 4 years of blogging here on Blogger, I would like to announce that I'm shutting this blog down soon...

But here is good news as well - I started a new blog and moved all existing content there ;)
New blog can be accessed here:

http://hdr-photographer.com/

Apart from brand new and professionally looking .com domain there are more changes. I switched to WordPress finally what means virtually no limits as far as layout & features are concerned. Blogger is a cool blogging platform because it requires virtually no webmaster / developer knowledge - everyone can use it to share their thoughts quickly. But with ease come limitations - it's very hard to make any significant changes to how the blog looks. I achieved different look but it required a lot of effort and as a developer myself I'm aware that changes I did shouldn't be as difficult to achieve.

Blog on Blogger will remain accessible for the next couple of weeks (until all remaining content is moved) but all new posts will be published on http://hdr-photographer.com/ from now on (including my review of Lightroom 6 which was released just yesterday). After that period of time I will set up redirection.

Also if you're following my blog, please make sure to subscribe to that new blog.

The Round Tower in Copenhagen

2015-04-15T03:15:00.001-07:00

For today I decided to share another image from Copenhagen. It shows The Round Tower (Rundetårn) which is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe - it was built in 17th century by Danish King Christian IV. The tower isn't very high, it's only about 40 meters tall but it still offers very nice view over Copenhagen old town. Unfortunately when I was at the top, the weather was far from perfect with a lot of clouds and flat light so I didn't get any decent shots. Maybe next time :) Interesting thing is that to get to the top you don't have to climb any stairs. No, instead there is a spiral path which was built because the king wanted to be able to get to the top by his horse-drawn coach. Quite convenient I must say.

As you can see I felt a little artistic when processing this image. The light, textures and detail together with composition made me want to give this image a bit more "fine art" look - something that you can hardly ever find in my photos. I hope you like it.

Interesting thing is that it is one of my most popular images I've ever uploaded to 500px. It scored 99.6 and almost 10.000 views. Not bad at all :) BTW if you're on 500px make sure to connect with me. I started to use 500px more often once again and upload lots of images there recently.

Throne Hall in Amalienborg Palace

2015-04-10T05:31:00.005-07:00

Daily photo - Throne Hall in Amalienborg Palace

Time for another image from Copenhagen as you seem to like photos from that city (I like them too by the way). This one was taken inside Amalienborg Palace, which is home of Danish royal family, and shows one of the many chambers there - Throne Hall. King was sitting on the left and queen on the right throne. Thrones are also protected by two lions (fortunately they are just sculptures).

To get this photo I employed several different techniques: exposure fusion (to process ceiling, floor, walls, lion sculptures), tone-mapping (for thrones, windows and some other smaller areas), manual blending and luminosity masking to blend results of exposure fusion and tone-mapping and to finish the image. So it required quite a lot of work but I'm pretty pleased with the end result. I hope you like it too!

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 16 mm
Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure time: 1/100 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 400
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, exposure fusion, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Fusion/Natural & Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

HDR Photo Contest by Photomatix

2015-04-08T06:09:00.001-07:00

HDR Photo Contest by Photomatix

Do you make HDR photos? Do you use Photomatix? If answer to either of these questions is 'yes', you might want to enter this competition

Photomatix HDR Challenge - Spring 2015

which is held by Photomatix team (I just mention it here).

How to enter the contest?

What you need to do to enter the contest is to edit one of your images in any of Photomatix products (eg. Pro, Essentials or Photoshop Plugin) and submit them on the contest page before 21st June 2015 to one or two categories which are Realistic and Creative HDR. You may submit 3 entries per each category - 6 photos in total.

BTW if you don't have Photomatix software, you can use trial version which can be downloaded from HDRsoft website. The fact there will be watermark present on your images won't affect jury decision in any way.

There are other requirements for photos entering the contest, so make sure to read the rules before sending them.

Prizes

What you can win? In each category main prize is 500 USD Amazon Gift Card (good to buy some photo equipment ;) ) and Photomatix Pro Plus bundle license. If you're unlucky and come 2nd place you will win 200 USD Amazon Gift Card (still enough to buy some photo equipment :) ) and Photomatix Pro license.

What are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for? Edit your images and enter the contest!

BTW, if you don't know how to use Photomatix, make sure to read my free HDR tutorial about it to get started. I hope that, it will help you a little bit.

Daily photo - Silent sunrise

Today I would like to share another landscape photo from Thailand. The one below was taken on a beautiful and peaceful island of Koh Lipe in Satun province very close to Malaysian border. It was just before sunrise and amazing purple & magenta tones started to appear on the sky and water. I used 30 seconds exposure here to blur any ripples and waves and thus create very tranquil atmosphere.

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 35 mm
Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure time: 30.0 s
ISO: 200
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: long-exposure, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Picturesque Nyhavn

2015-04-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Back from Copenhagen

I have just returned from a short trip to Copenhagen where I spent this year Easter so today will be short break in photos flow from Thailand. I think that sharing photos from various locations might in fact make my blog much more interesting.

I must admit that before my travel I was a bit sceptical about that city - I thought of it at as a rather boring place, with bad weather. But I was very positively surprised. It's a beautiful city with very unique atmosphere. Amazing architecture, very nice colours all over the place, it's very clean and it's very very lively (people are running, singing, kayaking, riding bicycles or simply sitting in the cafes and restaurants - there is so much going on wherever you look).

It also seems I was very lucky as I read that on average it's raining in Copenhagen at least every 3 days (what gives 113 days of rain per year!) but during my stay weather was beautiful most of the time with short periods of cloudy sky. But not a single rain drop!

Daily photo - Picturesque Nyhavn

Nyhavn is one of the most picturesque and colourful parts of Copenhagen that I managed to visit. Brightly coloured houses (some dating 17th century), reflections in the water, boats parked on both sides of the canal make it a really beautiful place. And a place where you want to spend some time.

Nyhavn, what literally means New Harbour, was constructed in 17th century by King Christian V as a gateway from the sea to the old inner city. Interesting thing is that one of the most famous Danish writers, Hans Christian Andersen, lived there for 18 years.

To create this image I took 5 exposures, 1 EV apart and used Photomatix Pro's Fusion/Natural to blend them. Thanks to using the fusion I got very natural result. If you would like to learn more about Fusion/Natural, make sure to read section of my HDR tutorial about it.

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 16 mm
Aperture: f/9.0
Exposure time: 1/160 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 200
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Fusion/Natural), Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

My take on smartphone photography

2015-04-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

My take on smartphone photography

Up to now I wasn't great fan of smartphone photography (in fact I avoided it as much as I could) as I was pretty sure the results would be of poor quality, blurry, with low dynamic range, noisy. And with my previous phone they definitely were. But this might change as I recently discovered that my Samsung S5 has quite a capable camera. Apart from using my mighty DSLR, in Thailand I took a looot of smartphone photos. A few of them left me really impressed by what those modern smartphones can do. Dynamic range is quite good, sharpness is very good and colours rendition is very natural. Even in low-light it worked quite well most of the time. There is quite a lot of noise but I still found the photos perfectly acceptable. The only thing I miss on Samsung S5 are manual exposure controls as the only setting I can change is ISO and exposure bias. I cannot set exposure time nor aperture to what I want. RAWs would be nice too but I can live without them (and they would eat phone's memory pretty quickly I guess).

All that is really impressive. I recently read an article on PetaPixel which seems to explain why smartphone cameras are that good nowadays - it seems that 92% of phone users take photos with their smartphones and 36% find quality of camera to be key to decision of buying a phone! So many phone users actually think of their smartphones as cameras. For many it is probably the only camera they have.

I will start to think that way too probably because I don't carry my DSLR camera with me all the time, but I do carry my phone so it's good to know I have powerful camera in my pocket whenever I need it.

Here's a little example. Below panorama was shot and stacked on my smartphone. It isn't perfect but still looks quite nice. And it was created pretty much automatically. In Lightroom I just increased vibrance and contrast a little bit as I found the results a little bit too flat for my liking.

Daily photo - Railay beach at Sunset

When I had been initially planning my Thailand trip a few months ago I intended to spent whole 2 weeks in one place - on Railay peninsula in Krabi province - which is photographer's paradise. But then I read that this place is becoming really boring after more than 2 - 3 days, that there is nothing you can do while being there. And I trusted those opinions and altered my plan (not that I regret as I visited another fantastic place). Lesson learnt: don't believe in opinions of non-photographers.

Generally speaking this place is amazing and even after 8 days there I could find something new to do. I did a lot of swimming, some kayaking, I went on a few trips to nearby islands and spent some time trying local cuisine. If I would had stayed longer I would probably give rock climbing a try (BTW if you're climbing there are a few nice vantage points on Railay peninsula from which you could take some amazing photos). And yeah, this place is just amazing for landscape photography as you could already see from some of my other posts like this or this. Sunsets look really beautiful when you have such amazing cliffs in a foreground (or background depending how you compose your shots).

Here's another photo from Railay, taken during sunset. The place was rather busy at that day so there are a few people in the frame but anyway :)

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 20 mm
Aperture: f/9.0
Exposure time: 1/8 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Phra Nang Beach at Sunset

2015-03-30T05:12:00.001-07:00

Daily photo - Phra Nang beach at Sunset

As I mentioned in some other posts recently, Railay beach in southern Thailand was once selected as one of the 3 most beautiful beaches of the world by National Geographic magazine. Although I wouldn't question that choice as Railay beach is indeed really impressive there is one thing funny about that - just 10 to 15 minutes away by foot there is even more impressive beach known as Phra Nang beach (sometimes referred to as Phra Nang cave).

Phra Nang, similarly to Railay, is closed by high limestone cliffs on both sides. But apart from that you can find several caves and caverns there, you have excellent view on the nearby deserted islands and generally whole experience feels more unreal (really! swimming or kayaking in such place is life lasting memory and I cannot believe I was there). It makes it a great place not only to relax but also to take some landscape photos. And due to location of that beach, it is a perfect place to take some sunset images. Despite the fact, the place is sometimes crowded during midday, near sunset it becomes pretty much deserted with just a few people walking on the beach and trying to capture sunset with their smartphones. And accidentally standing just in front of the lens thus ruining long exposure images :) but I can't blame them of course as they do the same as I do - try to capture beautiful moment.

Anyway, to take the image below I entered one of the caverns on Phra Nang beach during low tide. During high tide it's impossible to take such photo as cavern is full of water and there is no safe place to put a tripod there.

Below photo is a HDR image. I took 7 exposures at 1.5 EV spacing. As you can see even that many exposures aren't enough to recover all details in shadows. However, in case of this image it was done on purpose because I wanted to have top part of the image underexposed to attract attention to spectacular colours in the sky and water.

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 16 mm
Aperture: f/22.0
Exposure time: 0.6 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 50
Number of exposures: 7
E.V. Step: 1.5 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Beautiful end of the day

2015-03-26T08:25:00.002-07:00

Daily photo - Beautiful end of the day

While I'm still preparing some longer posts about Thailand (and thinking about the ways to get back there), today I would just like to share this sunset image from Phra Nang beach in Krabi district. Phra Nang beach is probably one of the most impressive place I've ever been to with numerous tall limestone formations sticking out from the sea.

I had clear idea what I wanted to achieve with this photo - I wanted the sun to be between various formations and create star-like effect. It worked pretty well. And you can see that Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS creates really nice star-burst effect.

BTW for this image (which had some crazy dynamic range) I used luminosity blending technique - not HDR. I tried to tone-map the image in Photomatix but this time I like manually blended result better and so went with this approach.

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 20 mm
Aperture: f/22.0
Exposure time: 2.5 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 50
Number of exposures: 7
E.V. Step: 1.5 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: manual blending, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 5.7, Photoshop CC 2014, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

What I like and dislike about Thailand

2015-03-24T08:29:00.002-07:00

What I like and dislike about Thailand

I really enjoyed my stay in Thailand and today I would like to share with you things I loved and which I didn't like about this country (as there is no rose without thorns).

Let's start with the list of things I liked most about Thailand:

Amazing sunsets - really. One of the most impressive ones I've ever seen with colours in the sky ranging from golden to red to purple. Sunrises left me a little disappointed though as I found them rather boring but it's quite possible I simply wasn't lucky enough with them. Maybe more luck next time
Beautiful landscapes - do you remember Avatar movie? And all those amazing rocky formations standing out from the sea? I mean that kind of landscapes. Krabi district in southern Thailand is just full of them.
Fantastic cuisine. When I was going to Thailand my expectations weren't very high in this regard. I like a lot of Asian cuisine (especially Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian) but Thai wasn't my favourite. But it changed. Due to the fact Thailand was raided by surrounding countries in the past its cuisine reflects that - is full of influences from countries like India but yet it still has something very own to it.
Good transportation possibilities to move from one part to another - it's very easy to find transport (by boat, plane, bus or train) from one end of the country to the other. And once you buy a ticket you don't need to worry much anymore as you will be picked up and directed since then.
It's cheap - you can find both hotels and meals at very reasonable prices. Also prices in the shops are generally lower than in Europe.

And things I disliked:

Poor English. Most of the folks in the places I visited spoke no or very poor English. Even in the hotels and restaurants what made it quite difficult to communicate. Please note, however, that I didn't spend time in the places most popular among tourists (like Phuket or Bangkok) so I can't say whether it's true for whole country.
A lot of rubbish and dirt lying around. Beaches and popular places are generally quite clean but try to get a little bit of a beaten track and you will find a lot of rubbish. Also I didn't notice a lot of trash bins even in the cities I visited so most of the rubbish ended up being thrown on the grass for instance (also, or even mostly, by tourists!)
If someone says it will take a minute to do something it will take much more - eg. our ferry travel was supposed to take 1:30 hours. It took around 3:30. It makes planning a little bit more difficult.
Some places are overcrowded with tourists - in some famous places it's even not possible to get decent photo without dozens of tourists in the frame. Those crowds are also quite tiring.

Daily photo - Admiring the Sunset

Today I would like to share HDR photo of a hotel boy enjoying the sunset while seating on a trolley he uses to transport luggage. Photo was taken during low tide in Railay West beach, Krabi district, Thailand. Low tide created a lot of puddles that reflected the sunset and made the image much more interesting.

And finally EXIF info for this image:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review)
Lens: Canon 16-35 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 20 mm
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure time: 1/6 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.7, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

My Thailand Trip

2015-03-23T07:42:00.001-07:00

Recap of my Thailand trip

As I mentioned yesterday, this time I would like to approach my trip a little bit differently. I intend to post not only photos but also some useful tips if you would like to go where I did (if you would be interested in me organizing photography workshops there, I'm open for suggestions though as I intend to start teaching later this year anyway). So it would be something like a guide for the places I visited.

Today I would like to recap my trip. Our, I should say as I was travelling with a person who got me interested in travelling years ago - my fiancee.

Let's start with a map of places we visited:

I started my trip from Warsaw, Poland from where I went with Aeroflot airlines to Moscow and from there also with Aeroflot to Bangkok (Aeroflot had best offer for that date). Here I would like to tell one thing about Aeroflot - if you find any negative reviews about that airline make sure to check review's date. This airline is constantly improving in recent years and my experience is that it is as good or even better than many popular airlines from western Europe. From kind staff to very good meals to choice of entertainment you have in Economy class (e.g. a lot of movies including some newer ones). Similar thing applies to Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. It isn't dirty and lacking shops and restaurants as you might read in the Internet reviews. It is airport that meets modern standards and have all necessary facilities (I ended up eating in Burger King but anyway...).

Anyway, after getting to Bangkok I changed to Bangkok Airways and flew to Krabi International Airport. From there I took taxi to the city of Ao Nang and there I got on a long tail boat to Railay West beach on Railay Peninsula (this peninsula is only accessible by boat - very high cliffs separate it from the rest of the continent). After 10 - 15 minutes I arrived on Railay Peninsula. Unfortunately it was low tide so I had to drag our bags through the sea (it was around 150 - 200 meters at most but my bags were quite heavy due to including some photography equipment like steady, and heavy as hell, tripod). There are some rocks near the shore and I almost fell down a couple of times but somehow managed not to. Mission accomplished - reached Railay Peninsula after something around 24 hours of travelling.

I spent 8 nights on Railay Peninsula and during that time I photographed a few amazing sunsets there and also made a few trips to local islands (like renowned Phi Phi island, paradise Bamboo island or impressive La Ding island). I will share details and photos about them in separate posts. Railay beach was once selected as one of the 3 most beautiful beaches of the world. As impressive as it is, it is quite funny that there is even more impressive beach nearby (just about 10 - 15 minutes by walking) called Phra Nang beach. It's probably the most impressive beach I've ever seen and let me tell you - it looks much better than on images you can find on-line.

After 8 days on Railay I moved to Koh Lipe island which is even further south, near Malaysian border. To get there I first had to travel to the city of Trang by bus and from there by Tiger Line ferry. All in all whole journey took around 7.5 - 8 hours even though it was supposed to take much shorter. Koh Lipe is a very relaxing place with not so many tourists and very nice views. Sunsets were rather boring there as there were virtually no clouds during our stay there but I managed to capture some starry skies there and some very beautiful sunrise photos.

After 4 days I went back to Ao Nang and on the next day to Bangkok from where I flew back to Europe.

Summing up - 14 days and close to 5000 landscape photos taken :) quite a lot of post-processing work ahead! But it might be very easy this time as even unedited images look really spectacular.

Daily photo - Sunrise on Koh Lipe

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 28 mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure time: 10 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 200
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking, black & white
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz BW Effects

Photomatix Pro Presets - 111 Free HDR Presets

2015-02-05T06:15:00.002-08:00

New Photomatix Pro Presets

It's been a while since I shared any Photomatix Pro presets. For that reason today I decided to update my Mega Pack collection to add new presets I created in the last few months. This time collection features 111 free presets!

You can download the presets here:

https://googledrive.com/PhotomatixPro_Presets_v2.zip

What's in the bundle?

15 completely new and never released presets, most of which use my new favourite processing method, i.e. Contrast Optimizer,
All presets that I shared up to now (96 presets).

Summing up, the collection contains 111 free presets good for landscape, architecture and street HDR photography. There are both very realistic presets and more artistic ones, colourful and black & white - everyone should find something for himself.

Please note that some of the presets will only work in Photomatix Pro 5 or newer as some of them require Fusion/Real-Estate or Contrast Optimizer which were introduced in Photomatix Pro 5.

Note: if you downloaded some of my presets previously you can delete or overwrite them as all of the previous presets are included in this pack.

Here are the instructions, on how to install the presets*:

Download the presets and extract them on your disk.
Start Photomatix Pro 4.2 or newer. If you haven't updated to 4.2 visit HDRsoft homepage and download your upgrade (in case you're eligible to it).
Open any image and tonemap it to go to the tonemapping preview mode.
In the Presets window change tab from "Built-In" to "My Presets".
In the combo-box in the upper part of the Presets window select "Import Presets..." item.
Navigate to the directory where you extracted presets and select all the files you want to import. You might also want to specify category for the imported presets (eg. "Downloaded"). To do this just fill in the text field at the bottom of the Import window.
Accept the selection and wait for the thumbnails to appear. Voila!

* In case of older versions than 4.2 you can follow instructions I posted here.

Daily photo - Golden Sunset

And it's time for a daily HDR photo - it was taken during beautiful golden sunset in Warsaw, Poland. I took as many as 7 exposures here (because by including the sun in the frame dynamic range of that scene became really high).

Charles Darwin statue

2015-02-03T08:10:00.002-08:00

Daily photo - Charles Darwin statue

Charles Darwin, English naturalist and geologist, is best known for his work on theory of evolution by means of natural selection so it's not surprising that his statue can be found in the hall of Natural History Museum - place dedicated to nature and history of various species.

This photo is very simple. I basically just converted it to black & white (bright marble of the statue looked like a good candidate for b&w conversion) and then increased contrast a little bit.

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 32 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/100 s
ISO: 400
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: n/a
Software: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Monastery in Belem

2015-02-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Daily photo - Monastery in Belem

Today I would like to share old Black & White (or monochrome to be more exact) HDR image I took in Lisbon, Portugal. It shows beautiful Jeronimos Monastery aka Hieronymites Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jeronimos) which is one of the most amazing examples of Portuguese late gothic.

To take below high dynamic range image I took 3 exposures at 2 EV spacing, tone-mapped them in Photomatix Pro and finished in Photoshop.

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure time: 1/320 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 3
E.V. Step: 2.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, black & white
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail, Topaz BW Effects

Lanzarote - Land of Volcanoes

2015-01-30T08:00:00.003-08:00

Daily photo - Lanzarote - Land of Volcanoes

Today I would like to share panorama photo I took more than 2 years ago on island of Lanzarote (Canary Islands). Below panorama shows Timanfaya National Park, located in southern part of the island. Many of the volcanoes in the park are still active, despite last big eruptions took place in 19th century, and in fact whole park is very geologically active. Due to this activity just a few centimeters under the ground temperature reaches 100 °C. And at about 10 meters it's already 600 degrees! Walking there is like walking on a ticking bomb. But the views are extraordinary!

After reading above you shouldn't be surprised to learn that alternative name of the park is Fire Mountains (Montañas del Fuego).

BTW make sure to click on the photo to view it in large size as it looks much better this way!

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 65 mm
Aperture: f/9.0
Exposure time: 1/160 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 200
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: panorama
Software: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

HDR Tutorial po polsku (Polish Translation)

2015-01-29T00:18:00.001-08:00

HDR Tutorial po polsku

Today post will be different in a sense that it is targeted towards my Polish readers... so the rest of this post will be written in my native languange :) It's an exception - for posts written in English visit my blog again in a few days time.

Od dłuższego już czasu wiele osób prosiło mnie o udostępnienie mojego poradnika dotyczącego fotografii HDR w języku polskim i dziś mam przyjemność ogłosić, że zakończyłem proces tłumaczenia z języka angielskiego i poradnik jest dostępny, oczywiście za darmo, do ściągnięcia z mojego bloga:

http://goo.gl/wZ3gom

Generalnie zawiera on niemal wszystko to co wersja angielska, z wyjątkiem części Dodatki, opisującej pewne szczególne zastosowania HDR oraz bardziej specjalistyczne narzędzia. Nauczysz się z niego zatem:

teoretycznych podstaw fotografii HDR,
jak robić zdjęcia HDR,
jak rozwiązywać typowe problemy występujące w przypadku fotografii HDR,
jak wykorzystywać program Photomatix Pro do obróbki zdjęć HDR - przy czym nacisk został położony na uzyskanie naturalnie wyglądających zdjęć HDR.

Jeśli odzew będzie pozytywny, prawdopodobnie dodam te brakujące fragmenty do poradnika. Ponadto w kolejnych tygodniach zamierzam poświęcić jeszcze nieco czasu na dopracowanie aktualnej wersji, poprawienie niektórych sformułowań, itp. ale możesz już teraz skorzystać z tego poradnika.

Oczywiście czekam na sugestie i komentarze. A może coś jest niejasne? Coś poprawić? Postaram się udoskonalać poradnik w miarę możliwości tak, aby był jak najbardziej przystępny.

I na zakończenie - czemu tłumaczenie trwało tak długo? Cóż, jest kilka powodów. Po pierwsze jest to bardzo długi tekst, do tego zawierający sporo technicznych sformułowań, które dość ciężko przetłumaczyć na język polski, bo nie ma w nim jeszcze dobrych odpowiedników. Po drugie pisaniem tutoriali, poradników czy artykułów zajmuję się wyłącznie w czasie wolnym, nie zarabiam na tym. Generalnie wolę poświęcić tę niewielką ilość czasu na pisanie nowych tekstów niż tłumaczenie starych.

Sleeping Knight

2015-01-28T07:58:00.001-08:00

Daily photo - Sleeping Knight

Sleeping knight?! No, the title isn't a mistake :) Sleeping Knight is one of the unofficial names of Giewont massif in Tatra mountains that you can see in the picture below. Some say that the mountain looks like sleeping knight and hence the name. Some even see knight's helmet there. Unfortunately my imagination must be very limited because I don't see any knight in this picture. Despite I tried really hard!

Anyway it's a HDR photo from 3 images taken hand-held at 2 EV spacing.

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 80 mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/160 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 400
Number of exposures: 3
E.V. Step: 2.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Trees on a Slope

2015-01-26T08:11:00.003-08:00

Winter & HDR photo guide

We finally have some snow here! Just a little but weather forecasts look quite promising and more snow fall is expected in the following days so I might be finally able to capture some nice winter landscape images very soon :)

As shooting landscapes in winter can be sometimes tricky, make sure to read my tutorial which will give you some general tips about this subject:

Mountains & Winter HDR photography

Daily photo - Trees on a Slope

For today I selected below winter photo taken in Polish Tatra Mountains:

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM (read my review here)
Focal length: 176 mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/320 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Blue hour by the sea

2015-01-23T08:01:00.001-08:00

Daily photo - Blue hour by the sea

For today I selected this blue hour image from island of Crete.

Technically, this image isn't HDR image. Instead I used Exposure Fusion (Fusion/Natural) available in Photomatix Pro 5, which is alternative to HDR. If you would like to learn more about Exposure Fusion, read chapter about it in my HDR tutorial.

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure time: 8 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 800
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.0 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: exposure fusion, luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 5 (Fusion/Natural), Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

Cenote in Mexico

2015-01-22T07:19:00.001-08:00

Daily photo - Cenote in Mexico

Today I would like to share this HDR panorama taken in one of the cenotes in Mexico. I already shared one version of this image in the past... but I like this one a big more.

Finally some EXIF information:

Technical details:
Camera: Sony NEX-6
Lens: Sony 10-18 f/4
Focal length: 10 mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure time: 5 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 200
Number of exposures: 55
E.V. Step: 1.0
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: panorama, long-exposure, manual blending, luminosity masks
Software: PTGui, Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Adjust

HDR photography tip: how many photos do I need for great HDR photo?

2015-01-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

HDR photography tip: How many photos do I need for great HDR photo?

Today I have a short tip for you, fellow HDR photographers. Have you ever wondered, while taking HDR photo, how many bracketed photos you should take for a given scene? 3, 5, 7 or even more? Or maybe just 1? Most photographers make wild guesses here, often taking way too many photos (I often do the same so don't feel guilty!) what can result in ghosting artifacts. Or even worse - too few what results in blown out highlights and/or noisy shadows.

Guess no more - here are the steps to take correct number of bracketed photos:

Set your camera to Spot Metering mode.
Set ISO to the one you will use for your HDR photo (I recommend using lowest value possible). And definitely don't use Auto-ISO.
Switch to Aperture Priority mode (denoted as Av or A). Set Aperture to the value you will use for your HDR photo.
Point your camera at the brightest spot you want to include in your frame (eg. source light, sky) and note down exposure time displayed by the camera, eg. 1/400.
Now point your camera at the darkest spot you want to include in your frame (eg. shadow, dark rocks) and note down exposure time displayed by the camera, eg. 1/40.
Switch to Manual mode. Don't change neither ISO nor Aperture!
Now let's assume that you want to take your photos spacing them by 1 EV. In such case, start with exposure for brightest spot (in our case 1/400), take a photo, multiply exposure by 2 (it then becomes 1/200), take another photo, multiply exposure by 2 and so on until you take a photo with exposure which is greater or equal than exposure for darkest point (in our case 1/40).
So in our case we would need to take photos at following exposures:

1/400
1/200
1/100
1/50 (this exposure is still shorter than longest exposure we need)
1/25

As you can seen we would need 5 photos.
There is one problem though - this approach requires using fully Manual mode. What if you would like to take photos using Aperture Priority mode and use auto-bracketing? Then instead of taking photos in Step 6, let's calculate number of exposures (you can then set it for auto-bracketing feature of your camera):

number_of_photos = log2(slowest_exposure / fastest_esposure) + 1

In our case it becomes:

number_of_photos = log2((1/25) / (1/400)) + 1 = log2(16) + 1 = 4 + 1 = 5

Also note that if you would like to use 2 EV spacing you would need to multiply exposures by 4.

You can find more tips and useful HDR photography information in my free HDR tutorial.

Daily photo - In the Park

Today I decided to share this HDR photo taken in one of the London's parks.

Camera Info

Finally some EXIF info:

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III (read my review here)
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 32 mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/250 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1 EV
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 5 (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.4, Photoshop CC, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail