And again my favorite photo subject, bridges. I could have spend here weeks, just taking photos. The Forth rail bridge is so massive and so stunning. The Forth road bridge is also very nice, but just not as majestic as the rail one. I will really have to revisit this place one day :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8
• Focal length: 24 mm
• Aperture: 4.5
• Middle exposure time: 12s
• ISO: 200
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

You never know what sunset you will get. Sometime you can guess based on the weather, how it will look like, bu it’s mostly all just luck. It was the same the day I took this photo. The weather was ugly so I decided on a close by spot, the Charles bridge tower. I expected nothing, but got a very nice sunset instead. It just shows you that it is worth going out to take photos, even if the weather is bad :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8
• Focal length: 27 mm
• Aperture: 9
• Middle exposure time: 3.2s
• ISO: 100
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

After being stopped twice that day in London by security guards I started looking more for signs that announced private property (I still don’t understand how a walkway in a city can be designated as private property). And as I walked around this passage, there was an open gate and a big sign announcing that you are entering private property, with few cameras pointed toward the entrance. So I put my tripod 1 cm in front of the sign, and took this shot. So I was still on public land :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots, taken in London, UK.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8
• Focal length: 24mm
• Aperture: 5.0
• Middle exposure time: 5s
• ISO: 200
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

Those of you who follow me on my personal Facebook profile or on my YouTube account probably noticed I have been posting salsa photos and videos the whole day. And I still be the whole weekend. So I’m crazy busy (and tired) with shooting at a Salsa Congress in Bratislava. But of course as each day, here is a new photo for you. Good thing that I have few prepared, so I have one for days when I don’t have the time to edit.

This is a manually blended panorama from 3 shots, each one from 5 exposures. If you want to see how I combine the shots into a panorama, check out this tutorial. Photo taken from the top of the Petrin tower in Prague.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 3×5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II
• Focal length: 168mm
• Aperture: 4.5
• Middle exposure time: 3.2s
• ISO: 160
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

As I mentioned few times before, my trip to London was plague by ugly and bad weather (lets hope my next trip, to Paris, will be better :) ). But still I took some photos, as I will not be there so soon again. One thing I don’t like to do, is push the saturation on a photo. I try to get most of the color buy adjusting the white balance and contrast of a photo. Even if I did ad more saturation, I would feel that the photo is fake, because the scene didn’t looked like that to me. But as always there are exceptions, and this is one of them.

The photo I got here was completely grey, with only a little hint of color. I could probably go with B&W here and make a nice dramatic photo, but even if I like B&W photos, I don’t like creating them that much. Especially with landscape shots, I really miss the color. So I added saturation here, but steel trying to keep it subtle. I also used a 9 stop ND filter here, to blur the traffic and add a little more softness to the water.

I included the original OEV bracket after the brake, so you see what I mean :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots, taken by the Westminster bridge in London.


Here is the original 0EV shot for comparison:

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8
• Focal length: 24 mm
• Aperture: 7.1
• Middle exposure time: 7.1s
• ISO: 100
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

It was really fun taking photos of the Bojnice castle. I was in the park almost alone (only few couples passed by from time time) but the castle was full of guest. The anual ghost festival was still in progress and visitors were enjoying the night tour of the castle. So quite regularly I was able to hear ghostly screams, moans and other sound while I was taking the shots. It really makes the mood, when you are standing alone and in almost complete dark :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots, taken in Bojnice, Slovakia.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 7
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8
• Focal length: 25 mm
• Aperture: 4
• Middle exposure time: 10s
• ISO: 2500
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

I really liked the view from the Calton hill in Edinburgh. So I took there a lot of photos, trying different compositions and different lenses. And of course I had to take at least one panorama, and here it is.

This is a panorama from 3 shots, each one blended from 5 exposures. Taken in Edinburgh, Scotland.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 3×5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II
• Focal length: 140 mm
• Aperture: 8
• Middle exposure time: 1s
• ISO: 100
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

Radian Review

I had a little time to test out the Radian time-lapse device from Alpine labs and I wrote a small review about it. You can find it here.

Petrin Lookout Tower

If you ever are in Prague, I suggest visiting the Petrin tower. It gives you a stunning view of the whole city. Even better is going there late in the evening, as there are less people, and the city looks even better at night.

Took me a long time to edit this one. The tower is very nicely lit up from inside, but that also makes the difference between the light levels on the tower and in the surroundings very big. I took 6 shots, from -3 to +2, but it still was not enough. But at a third attempt I managed to finish this photo (yes, I sometimes discard an edited photo and start from scratch the next day :)).

This is a manual blend from 6 shots, photo taken in Prague.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 6
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8
• Focal length: 16 mm
• Aperture: 7.1
• Middle exposure time: 4s
• ISO: 160
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

New guide on the blog

I added another guide to this blog. This time is all about how I combine photos into panoramas, before I combine them into HDRs. I hope some of you will find it helpful. You can find it in the menu on the right, or go directly to the page here.

Morning bus

Morning shooting is so great. You have the whole city for yourself. Even in such a big city as London, you meet very few people out at 5am. And as a photographer, you know that’s great.
I took this photo at the Westminster bridge. I was there completely alone. And as the sky was quite boring, I player more with long exposures and capturing the passing doubledecker buses. Was able to get this one on the first try :)

This is a manual blend from 5 shots, both buses in the shot are actually one bus, taken from different exposures.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8
• Focal length: 35 mm
• Aperture: 5.6
• Middle exposure time: 2s
• ISO: 200
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken:

As usually when I’m in Prague, at least one day it has to be raining. But I tend to take my camera with me to the city, even if it raining. You never know. And it was same that evening. After about two hours of a quite heavy rain (which I spend in a pub with friends :)) I could go out and take some shots. The light is different after a rain. Some of the best sunsets can be seen right after it. This was a little later, so I got a more yellowish night shot, but I still like it.

This is a 2 shot panorama, each shot blended from 5 exposures, taken by the Manes Bridge in Prague.

• Technique: Manual blending
• Number of exposures: 2×5
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8
• Focal length: 40 mm
• Aperture: 4.5
• Middle exposure time: 10s
• ISO: 160
• Tripod used: yes

Where was this photo taken: