Early morning in Paris

It was on early September morning in Paris. As I climbed stairs on opposite site of Eiffel tower the Sun just raised and offered me a spectacular image. I just missed a cloud or two, but for that I ll have to go to Paris one more time. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia! 

Samo Trebižan

 
More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Move in few seconds of time

After making the two shots from previous posts i rushed to nearby location near church Saint Jerome which is about two minutes of driving away and still caught sun on late evening sky.

The wind made some nice effects on closest trees.  After making this shot the sun went behind clouds and most of dramatic light disappeared.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

 
More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Switch the lense

If we wanto so change a shot we dont ned to mage a great change...

OK the shot in previous post was made with 14-24mm lens, but I hat do try something else so I switched to 50mm prime and repeat the shot. This is the result.

So you see, you don't need to do much to make another different image. Longer lens puts more stress on valley and hills in middle ground and less on sky background. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

  More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

I havent stopped writting!

OK so I was a little bit down after a failed experience in shooting Venice in beginning of July but I am back.

This was really bad experience which showed me, that booking a Hotel and sleeping on site is the cheapest way to do shootings at dawn. Of course I am still waiting for bill for speeding on my way to Venice.

I was in so bad mood that I had to make some more shots on location nearby later in the afternoon that day. These shots made me feel a lot better.

 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

 
More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Venice part 3

Canal Grande at sunrise.

So in early morning hours I rushed to the bridge at Academia, to shoot the church at the end of Canal Grnade. When I arrived on top of the bridge I set my tripod and start shooting... which turned out to be a mistake... Well I was lucky. Elder photographer was shooting a bit lower on the bridge. He called me down and made me realise, that the view is much more spectacular. Well we all know that first possible position is never the best. 

I took my camera and tripod lower and made this shot with view of canal opening into lagoon.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

 
More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Trip to Venice...

As I live only 110 miles away from Venice any trip there means only a day of preparation and night without sleep. As I haven't been there for quite a long time my next trip there is only a matter of time measured in weeks.

Last time I went there for shooting city not carnival was in late July 2011. I started at 1 am and arrived on Piazale Roma at 3:30 am. The city looks very hostile at night, many streets are very dark with almost no street lights.

And than I arrived to Canal Grande very close to main bridge Rialto. 

I headed straight to Piazza san Marco.

I heard that there are no people around at 4 am in Venice... well that is true... no people, only photographers. I must admit that I rarely see so many photographers with tripods....

... more about Venice will be soon on blog. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

The trip

Sometimes the trip is the purpose.

Yesterday as weather was horrible I took the trip to a mountain plateau just to discover new spots worth of taking photos. 

I drove for about 4 hours and made a 100 miles lap, I wasn't very fast driver though. 

All the time there was a hard rain so I could not leave the car, but I spotted some great spots to photograph and I ll repeat the trip few times till the end of May, because those places were so beautiful you cant imagine. 

So scouting for places is also a part of photography, especially if you don't want to hang on some place waiting for golden hour or coming to a place too late. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Ancient bridge in Vipava

I really like bridges... of course only old and beautiful ones. Yesterday as I had few minutes of time I went to one that I saw last weekend and It impressed me.

For shots like this fishing boots will be necessary as we must go to middle of the river. And check the depth of water before plunging in.

I had some doubts about quality of image as river flow was pretty strong and tripod was shaking a bit, but image turned out very good and sharp, even though exposure times were long.

As I was waiting for streetlights to turn on some clouds slided over sky and made the shot even more interesting.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan  

More photos available for purchase in my galleries!

Romantic ruins on ancient salt pans

Ancient Salt pans in Sečovlje (eastern part of Slovenian coast) are really great area for good photography. At golden hours they turn into magical area of sky colors and reflections in canals.

 All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Miracles of underworld

This time I choose omages from cave sistem in Rakov Škocjan, where river Rak flows partly outside and it vaneshes in cave sistems of Slovenian Carst.

The Rak natural preserve is a great place for shooting stunning shots.

The place has direct sunlight only at mid day, so it is almost always great location for creating, but you can imagine dinamic range variation between open shadow and in cave area, so HDR is perfect for great shots.

 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Sad story of ancient beauty...

This castle has a sad story... in fact nobody cares about it and it is slowly becoming a ruin. It is the most beautiful medieval castle in Slovenia and I hope somebody will take action to preserve it!

This three HDRS were taken just moments before storm... in fact I had to run with camera and tripod into my car as soon as I take the last shot...

This spring I plan to get a shot of this beautiful castle when trees will be green...

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Water and HDR

When I am shooting water, I want that silky mood and soft water. 

The best 00Ev time for HDRing water is 10 sec. 

I know it is only twice per day that there is low enough light to do that. 

In that case times in HDR components are between 2,5 sec and 30 sec.

And I don't use any filters...


All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Reflection

At any time you have a chance to shoot a reflection on water, window, or any other reflective material, make a picture. This is one case when composing in center of image is good.

There is a lot of crowds infront of Porto city hall during a day, so I went back at night and take this photo. 

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Back to porto...

As there are some bridges in recent posts, lets continue in this manner.
I am back in my trip to Porto - Portugal.

It is very spectacular city built on steep banks of Douro river just before mouth of the river into Atlantic ocean. With its five bridges it offers many options for spectacular images. 

 
All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Porto at dusk...

Two years ago I visited Porto in Portugal. As always on travels I tried to make as much good photos as possible. For this particular image I arrived to a location just a bit too late and I had a bit too dark sky. A bit more detail would do better, but I was pleased with the Image anyway.

Porto is a very spectacular city for anyone who loves to make good images! This shot was taken from a fort just above Dom Luis Bridge and Douro river.

More posts about Porto in future days.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

What about books...

Actually I read only one book on HDR topics and it was very good. It covered all the topics that photographer needs to get started in HDR.

The book is Trey Ratcliffs  A World in HDR available for $30 at Amazon.

This book is definitly worth of the money. Author takes us through entire process of making great HDR photos! So for anybody who is getting started and wants to upgrade knowledge about HDR, I recommend this book.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

 

Creating HDR

So we have taken three different exposed photos on our computer and we need final steps to merge them into HDR. As I mentioned in earlier posts I will only comment and recommend equipment, software and other solutions, which I have already tried and it worked for me.

For merging photos into HDR I use Photomatix pro 4.2. and I find it really good program.

Now after opening Photomatix 4.2 you get program window and you are ready to start!

First you choose Load bracketed photos in upper left corner. Another window opens.

Choose Browse

Select three bracketed images Av0, Av-2 and Av2 and click open. 

Click OK, and once more OK. 

Merged photo opens in window. If it is not yet selected. select option Tone mapping in upper left corner. 

There your creativity begins!

Experiment with first four sliders, move them to extremes and find mode of image that you like the most. 

In lighting adjustment you have 5 options experiment with clicking buttons.

In more options

white point brightens highlights, do not over light highlights if you don't want blown out highlights.

black point darkens and adds black into image.

Gama controls brightness and temperature controls temperature mode of image.

On the right side of window you have presets that you may use to get your image close to what you like. 

After you are satisfied choose the button Process.

After processing is finished you may adjust contrasts, colors and sharpening and click Done!

And you have the image!

Now you may start and experiment with HDR photos - you know sky is the limit.

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan 

Lets start

So many people mentioned that they would like to make some HDR images but they don't know how to start.

In previous posts we covered some topics about photography, gear, and safety. I assume that reader knows how to handle camera and is familiar with basics of photography.

To create HDR image we first need one or more good images to merge them into HDR.

For creating HDR out of 3 different exposed images we need image with proper light, 2ev underexposed image and 2ev overexposed image. To get that we may bracket 3 or 5 images. It depends on your camera.

This three images should look something like: 

And after process the result is:

If you only have one image, there might be different reasons for that, but the most important reason is moving of subject. In this case RAW recording is a must. Then you take this raw image and make out three images:
export normal lighted,
export darkened for 2ev and 
export brightened for 2ev.

To minimize noise take photos on minimal ISO in both cases!

On Monday I will take you through my work flow!

All in Passion for HDR!
Greetings from Slovenia!
Samo Trebižan