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 

Stone giant

A bridge near by, is very beautiful, but the fact that it has the longest stone arch on the world gives it a speciall dimension... I took this photo just minutes before I took a photo of electricity plant iluminated with lights in previous post...

This is an exception and defenetly not a rule! Mostly when you will be outside at golden hour, you will have opportunity for only one good shot. Relocating lasts too long to get on another location on time to take another good shot!

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 

 

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 

 

Nikon D7100 announced

New Nikon D7100 is announced. It will be available in second half of March. As I had Nikon D7000 and it is really great tool I cant wait to test Nikon D7100. 

New features of new model are a 24mpi sensor and 51 poind focus. 

I will write more about new camera as soon as I get it in my hands!

Here is an HDR image created with D7000. 

We will compare it with a D7100 image!

More posts about Porto in future days.

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

Almost no light...

In some extreme conditions when we are in very low light, we might have only option one shot HDR. If the correct exposure goes over 10 sec there won't be option to bracket +-2EV. We work on lowest ISO for lowest noise and record a RAW file.

I had such case when I was shooting entrance to Planinska cave. Only dim light came from entrance behind the corner. I took one 30sec exposure at ISO200 with Nikon D700 camera and in Lightroom I made 3 exposures. There was so dark in cave that I didn't see anything with my eyes and I had great troubles with focus.

This is the cave shot that came out.

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

 

Word about HDR efects

At HDR as with anything on the world the exaggeration is not a good thing. If we use too much saturation it is not good, if we use too much HDR effects it is bad. With every exaggeration we achieve opposite effect. 



So I prefer to take every effect a bit down and make image, that most people don't really know it is HDR. Last Saturday I was in a tea house, where I have an exhibition of my photos, and there was a photographer that said this aren't HDRs are they... 

Well my purpose was achieved...

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

Where to begin?

It is a good question where to begin with HDR photography?

Of course foundation of photography skills should be solid if we won't have troubles in crucial moments.

I won't specially stress the fact that you should know your camera very well, ant you can only achieve that with lots of work with it!

As for all photography the rule of golden hours is still in place. As it is true that colors are more saturated and vibrant with HDR post processing, there are still better results if you are on location at the right moment and THE VERY BEST time of the day is around sunrise.



For building solid foundation in all ways of photography I recommend Scott Kelbys  books Digital photography. It is a series of four books which will help beginners as well as intermediate photographers to build really solid photography skills.(I only recommend books and gear that I already read or use!) The series contains four books, which guide you through different areas of photography. With following those four books you will master photography enough to be independent and able to work on your own. The books are available on Amazon on link in text or bi clicking the picture on the right or kindle edition on QR kode.


After getting knowledge you need to practice a lot to put that knowledge to life on your photos.

Tomorrow I will say a word or two about the gear that I have already used or tested and would be optimal and the gear that is the best in my point of view. 

All in Passion for HDR!

Greetings from Slovenia!

Samo Trebižan