Awesome Pictures

Portrait of a meerkat

Today I'd like to share something different - portrait of a meerkat from Warsaw zoo.

BTW I'm in the process of working on the blog code a little bit again so if you notice something isn't working anymore, please let me know :)

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II 
Lens: Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/400 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: no
Technique: n/a
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

First ever Editor's Choice Award

I'm very happy and proud to announce that my photo was published in +Camerapixo magazine, created by +Anetta G. Heller and +Artur J. Heller and it was named Editor's Choice. That's first ever Editor's Choice award I earned anywhere. My photos aren't published in the magazines (online or printed) very often so it's even more important for me. Thank you very much!

To get newest issue (Hot Shots) of Camerapixo, go here. My photo is on page 37 but make sure to view whole magazine because photos in it could become a great source of inspiration for you. They are just amazing!

Today's photo was taken in Hala Kondratowa in Tatra mountains. I wanted to compose it in such a way that the road leads the eye through the scene and I think I managed to achieve that. I used 5 exposures and tone-mapped them in Photomatix Pro 5 beta.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure time: 1/200 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.5
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 5.0 beta (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Stars over Giewont

Recently I don't have luck considering shooting stars. I either have bad weather (clouds, rain, fog) or full moon or both at the same time. However, despite these very difficult conditions I managed to capture above night photo showing Giewont (which is one of the most popular massifs in Polish Tatra mountains) and starry sky just above it.

I'm really happy with the atmosphere of this shot. The fog made it a bit mysterious and the light coming from the street lamp that was just behind me, made this shot a bit surreal. Also to create such mood I used rather warm white balance (if I recall correctly I had it set at about 4500 K).

If you want to learn how to capture starry skies yourself make sure to read my tutorial.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24 f/1.4 L USM II
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/3.2
Exposure time: 13 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 640
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Mountain stream

Today HDR photo of a mountain stream that I photographed in Tatra mountains. I used 3 exposures what was enough to restore all details I wanted.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 105 mm
Aperture: f/16.0
Exposure time: 0.6 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 3
E.V. Step: 2.0
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 5.0 beta (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Tutorial: fixing distortions in Photoshop

This landscape photo had some serious issues with distortion. I fixed them using Adaptive Wide Angle filter presented in the video tutorial below.

It's time for another video tutorial, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to be notified on the updates there. Today I will show you various ways to fix distortions inside Photoshop:

• Using perspective transform tool,
• Using perspective crop tool,
• Using upright tool,
• Using adaptive wide angle tool.

Distortions are something that can sometimes even ruin the photo so it's good to know how to fix them and that it's very easy in fact.

Autumn Lightroom presets collections

Above photo, taken in Tatra mountains, was processed using presets from this post.

Today I would like to share with you my new presets collection for Adobe Lightroom - this time presets for post-processing autumn landscape photos. Make the colours of autumn pop!

You can download my autumn presets here.

Also if you like them, I would greatly appreciate your feedback and shares of this post amongst your friends. It will motivate me to create & share even more free presets. Let me know your favourite ones too! And make sure to give links to photos processed with these presets in the comments below - I'd be very happy and interested to see them.

BTW you can find more presets created by me here. They include Adobe Lightroom, Topaz Adjust and Photomatix Pro presets. And they are all free!

To import presets into Adobe Lightroom:

1. Extract downloaded presets, remembering the location where you did extract the files.
2. Go to Develop module in Lightroom.
3. Expand Presets panel (it's on the left side just below Navigator).
4. Right-click on the folder of your choice (eg. User Presets) and select Import...
5. Navigate to the location where you extracted presets, select all of them and click on the Open button.

There are 6 categories of presets that are described below but each of the presets comes in a few variations what gives a total of 17 autumn presets!

Here is base unprocessed photo:

And below you will find presets in action with a short description of best use:

Preset preview	Preset name	Description & best use case	Number of variants
	Dramatic contrast	Preset which works great for creating very dramatic images. Works very well for dramatic mountain photos and for forest scenes.	1
	Vibrant	Preset with very vibrant colours. Works very well on foggy or rainy autumn days to add pop to otherwise lifeless and colourless images. It might be too saturated for other cases though.	2
	Monochrome	Monochrome preset with large contrast for creating very moody images.	2
	Natural	Preset producing very natural colours. Works best for well exposed photos with good light. Good for typical landscape photos. Might be too flat for foggy or rainy days.	4
	Painterly	Preset with very warm palette and specific look adding a bit painterly look&feel to autumn images. This preset works best for photos with relatively low dynamic range.	6
	Red orange leaves	Preset adding extra pop to red and yellows and decreasing saturation of other tones. Works best if there are many colourful leaves in the frame.	2

Painterly photo of Dolina Bialego

I didn't want to take this photo. I found the scene rather boring and the light way too flat. But my girlfriend for some reason spent a few minutes taking photos of it so I decided to reconsider (ok she asked me to :) ) and finally took some images. And I'm glad I did so because otherwise I would miss a great photo opportunity. I know it's not the best approach for photographer to refuse to take photos but I try not to take photos I know I won't have time to process (and I thought it would be the case). I already have thousands of photos in my "TODO" folder and with each trip I add a few thousands more... the folder grows really fast :) I have to limit myself sometimes.

The photo was taken in Dolina Bialego (White Stream Valley) in Polish Tatra mountains and although there are some more popular valleys there (like Dolina Koscieliska or Dolina Chocholowska) if you're in Polish Tatra mountains make sure to visit this particular one as well because it is really pretty and picturesque. No matter it's winter or autumn.

As you can see from the specs below I was lazy and didn't set up my tripod. It required setting ISO to 3200 to get correct exposure but despite such high ISO value there was just a little noise. Well as I mentioned in this post, times when high ISO results were unusable are gone. Modern cameras can handle high ISO pretty well.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 35 mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/100 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 3200
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Green Mountain

Time for another HDR landscape photo from Tatra mountains. Despite it was autumn, there was still a lot of greens there. But there were more autumnal tones as well and I composed this shot in such a way that there are some reds in foreground.

Also if you missed it, check the winners of my post-processing challenge.

If you're interesting in my HDR post-processing make sure to read my complete HDR tutorial.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/5.0
Exposure time: 1/320 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 400
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1.5
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 5.0 beta (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Inspiring Photographers: Miroslav Petrasko

Time for another great photographer in my Inspiring Photographers series. Up to now I featured two fantastic photographers: Michael Woloszynowicz and Mark Johnson. Make sure to check out their works.

Today I would like to feature the very great Miroslav Petrasko who is one of my favourite HDR and travel photographers. In fact I prefer his works to the more famous HDR and travel photographers. What I love about Miroslav's images is that they are ultra realistic yet they are very vibrant at the same time. Something that so many of us try to achieve yet most of us fail when trying.

What's quite funny is that Miroslav started similar to myself (and about the same time as I did if I recall correctly). He works as video game designer (I used to work as video game programmer and dealt with designers on a daily basis ;) or rather with their crazy ideas :) ) and initially it was just a hobby.

But without further ado here are some information about Miroslav.

Follow Miroslav: portfolio, website, Facebook

Bio: "A little about me. I'm from Slovakia and currently live in Bratislava. My normal day job is to be a game designer and photography started as a very small side hobby to this. But as it usually happens, it grew and now it sometimes takes more time, than the day job. Before I started with photography, I used to create abstract images in Photoshop, and that slowly morphed over time into HDR photography for me."

Favorite subjects: "My main subjects are architecture and landscapes. I love showing of symmetry in huge rooms, or the waste spans of bridges. I also try to find reflections everywhere. They always give something special to the photo."

Photo gear: "On the gear side, I currently use a Canon 5D mark II mostly with the Canon 16-35mm F2.8 lens attached to it. On the software side my main tools are Photoshop and Lightroom, sometimes supported by Photomatix and Oloneo Photoengine."

Photography style: "In my postprocessing I try to add a certain glow and colorfullnes to my photos, but still try to keep it close to realism as possible."

Below you will find a small selection of Miroslav Petrasko's works (after viewing them make sure to follow Miroslav's blog and his FB profile as he is uploading some great stuff on a daily basis :) ). Photo at the top of this post and the one just below are one of the best examples of HDR I've ever seen. Great job Miroslav!

Enjoy!

Rocks above valley

This is a very simple shot. Not much is going on here - I know that :) . However, I still like it because of details in the rocks, colours and layers.

I took this photo in Koscieliska Valley (Dolina Kościeliska) which is one of my favourite valleys in Polish Tatra mountains. It looks beautiful no matter what season and weather it is. If you're in Tatra mountains make sure to visit it, even if you prefer hiking high in the mountains.

BTW there are a few new tutorials I'm working on (a few written and 3rd part of my HDR video tutorial) so stay tuned for updates.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USM
Focal length: 65 mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/100 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 100
Number of exposures: 3
E.V. Step: 2
Flash used: no
Tripod: no
Filters: circular polarizing filter
Technique: HDR, tone-mapping, luminosity masks
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 5.0 beta (Contrast Optimizer), Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC