Thoughts: Learn your gear

You might have the best equipment under the sky and still take poor quality photos. Or you might have pretty decent photo gear and take photos like a pro. How it's possible? One of the key factors to take good photos, although one that many photographers doesn't mention at all, is knowing your gear. No lens or camera body is perfect under all conditions. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses. In case of cameras it can...

Soft winter light

I took this photo during late afternoon in Zakopane. The scenery was beautiful, light was very soft, the snow was falling. Winter wonderland :)EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/7.1Exposure time: 1/500 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 200Number of exposures: 5E.V. Step: 1Flash used: noTripod: noFilters: noSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 4.2.5 (Details Enhancer),...

Black & white HDR from Tatra mountains

This photo was rather boring in colour because the light was very flat. However, after conversion to B&W I somewhat like it. It looks like an old image.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/7.1Exposure time: 1/60 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 400Number of exposures: 3E.V. Step: 2Flash used: noTripod: noFilters: noSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop C...

Blogging for 2 years!

Yes, that's true. I'm blogging here for exactly 2 years! I wrote my very first post on 24.03.2011 and it was just kind of "Hello World" post. However, for the first year I was writing very rarely, just every few weeks or even months. This changed during last year when I started to write new posts much more regularly (daily most of the time). This resulted in drastic increase in number of visits. From just a few (let's say 10...

Reflection at sunrise

I love shooting sunrises. Light is warm. It's calm. Nobody is there. Just me, tripod and a camera - and some wonders of nature :)In this case I wanted to preserve as much mood of the scene I saw as possible. For that reason I tried to keep rocks rather dark (but you can still notice some details in them).EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 35 mmAperture: f/13.0Exposure time: 1/6 s ("middle"...

Layers at sunrise

This photo might be boring but I like how the fog together with morning sun created layers in the mountains.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 105 mmAperture: f/14.0Exposure time: 1/1250ISO: 100Number of exposures: 1E.V. Step: n/aFlash used: noTripod: noFilters: noSoftware: Magic Lantern, Lightroom 4.1, Photoshop C...

Tutorial: Clarity in Photoshop

Photoshop has plenty of various filters and adjustment layers. However, it misses one simple feature which is present in both Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom: Clarity slider. Adjusting this slider in Lightroom can add a great boost to the image, make it pop. I use it on many of my images (usually small values though).So why is this feature missing from Photoshop which is much more powerful than Lightroom in terms of editing...

Crazy weather

This is one of my favorite photos taken recently. The weather was really crazy - it was cloudy, it was snowing and the sun was shining at the same time. This created some pretty dramatic mood and light.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/8.0Exposure time: 1/640 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 400Number of exposures: 5E.V. Step: 1.5 E.V.Flash used: noTripod: noFilters: circular...

HDR tutorial updated once again!

My biggest and most popular tutorial (almost 10.000 page views already), namely HDR tutorial, has been updated once again! This time I added a completely new section about Exposure Fusion (which should help you get ultra-realistic results) and made several adjustments, small changes and also fixed a few mistakes.So if you're interested in Exposure Fusion or haven't read the tutorial yet, head over to it. I would also appreciate...

Don't take photographaps. Make them

For many people capturing a moment is the end of creative process. They press shutter release button, then download the photos from memory card at home and they're done. Sometimes they add one or two additional steps like applying global contrast or sharpening. But nothing more.However, this way photograph will never be very good and even if it is (regarding composition for instance) it will be similar to hundreds of hundreds...

Purple sky

Today just a photo without much talk :)EXIF data:Camera: Canon 50DLens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/11Exposure time: 1/2 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 100Number of exposures: 5E.V. Step: 1.5 E.V.Flash used: noTripod: yesFilters: noSoftware: Magic Lantern, Photomatix Pro 4.2.4, Lightroom 4.1, Photoshop C...

Manually blended sunrise

In the last two days I submitted two tutorials: about Virtual Copies in Lightroom and about some HDR theory so if you're into reading tutorials click on either of these links :) Today there won't be any new tutorial (you have to wait until next week). Instead I'm posting another Fuerteventura sunrise.However, this one is different. In that very case I didn't use HDR to increase dynamic range. Instead I used technique known as...

Tutorial: Understanding HDR (high dynamic range)

Note: this tutorial was originally published on HDR One, where I'm regular contributor.When reading various on-line posts and articles related to HDR photography I often see that there is quite a lot of misunderstanding and myths about it. Many users don’t really know what an HDR image really is, what the difference between HDR and exposure fusion is and what really is tone-mapping apart from a buzz word. Sometimes I’m not even...

Tip: Lightroom's Virtual Copy

Today daily photo was capture in Tatra mountains during evening golden hour. I used 3 exposures only and tone-mapped them in Photomatix Pro. Fine-tuning was done in Lightroom and Photoshop CS using luminosity masks technique.Amongst many, one of the very useful features of Lightroom is so called Virtual Copy. A simple feature that will make your life easier if you experiment with different settings on your images.What is a Virtual...

Before/after comparison: overedited photo

Time for another before/after comparison. Today straight-out-of-the-camera RAW file vs. finished edited image. Comparing the too you might get the impression that I "over edited" the original shot. However, bear in mind that SOOC file was developed with default ACR settings and I even didn't correct white balance for it (upon closer inspection you will notice unpleasant blue cast especially in the shadows in the lower part...

Shepherd huts

There are plenty of shepherd huts in the valleys in Tatra mountains. Here are just a few from Chocholowska valley (BTW I took this photo after something like 14 km of trekking :) ). The weather was far from ideal but I still like the composition with this mountain in the background. However, I hope to visit the very same place in spring/summer/autumn when there won't be snow but instead there will be vividly green grass. With...

Long exposure HDR photo from Canary Islands

Today I would like to share with you a photo I took a few minutes before sunrise on Fuerteventura island. The longest exposure was 247 seconds, taking whole sequence of 5 photos took more than 7 minutes! For that reason I had only one chance to take this photo. A few minutes earlier it was too dark, a few minutes later it was too light.I'm pretty happy with the results although I'm thinking of reprocessing this image.EXIF data:Camera:...

On the way to Morskie Oko

I took this photo on the way to Morskie Oko lake (Eye of the Sea lake) which is the largest and fourth deepest lake in Tatra Mountains.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/9.0Exposure time: 1/640 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 800Number of exposures: 5E.V. Step: 1 EVFlash used: noTripod used: noFilters used: circular polarizing filterSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro...

Mountain stream

I really liked the light in this mountain scene. Despite it was middle of the day, the light was pretty dramatic. Also bright snow contrasts nicely with dark water of the stream. I'm also quite happy with the composition. Both the road and the stream lead the eye through the scene to the forest in the background.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/7.1Exposure time: 1/640...

Another night HDR shot

Today one more night photo. I used Exposure Fusion for that (so technically speaking it was never a HDR photo). I didn't want this one to be ultra bright because I like the mood created by lights against the darkness.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24 f/1.4 L USM IIFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/5.0Exposure time: 10 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 500Number of exposures: 5E.V. Step: 1 EVFlash used: noTripod used: yesFilters...

There's peak... somewhere

Recently I shoot more and more black & white photos. I really like how one can control the mood when shooting them. EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 105 mmAperture: f/9.0Exposure time: 1/320 sISO: 800Number of exposures: 1E.V. Step: n/aFlash used: noTripod used: noFilters used: circular polarizing filterSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop C...

I lied to you

I recently wrote that light it the most important thing in landscape photography. I must admit - I didn't tell you whole story. Sometimes there are other factors which are more important: texture, detail or as in the photo above - contrast. Of course contrast is created by light & shadows (so to some extent I was telling the truth) but in this case the colours aren't that important. When I view above image in full size on...

Lonely hut

Today another photo of a hut.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 24 mmAperture: f/7.1Exposure time: 1/1000 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 800Number of exposures: 3E.V. Step: 2 EVFlash used: noTripod used: noFilters used: circular polarizing filterSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 4.2.5 (Details Enhancer), Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop C...

Tutorial: How to take photos of the stars - part 3. Post-processing

In this part of the series I will show you how to process an astrophoto to get such a result as above.It took me very long time but finally here is part 3 of my tutorial about shooting stars. There might be 1 more in the future but we shall see.If you haven't already read:Part 1. Which discusses equipment and shooting regular starry sky.Part 2. Which focuses on taking photos of star trails.My other tutorials. Straight out of...

Fire mountains

Two days ago I mentioned that photography is all about light. Here is another example. I love this warm light on the peaks against dark blue (or grey - I'm not that good at naming colours :) ) in the lower parts of the mountains.In this case I used a focal length of 300 mm because I wanted to focus on the peaks. It was quite late so there was little to no light in the valley. If I used a wide angle lens I would therefore end...

Mountain hostel

I posted B&W version of this photo recently and here is color version.EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 32 mmAperture: f/7.1Exposure time: 1/500 sISO: 800Number of exposures: 3E.V. Step: 2 EVFlash used: noTripod used: noFilters used: circular polarizing filterSoftware: Magic Lantern 2.3, Photomatix Pro 4.2.5 (Details Enhancer), Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop C...

Green moss

Today a bit less spectacular photo but I still like it. This green moss looks amazingly vividly against the white of the snow. I used circular polarizing filter to increase saturation of greens in this photo. EXIF data:Camera: Canon 5D MK IILens: Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS USMFocal length: 65 mmAperture: f/8.0Exposure time: 1/80 s ("middle" exposure)ISO: 400Number of exposures: 3E.V. Step: 2 E.V.Flash used: noTripod used: noFilters...