Author Archives: Giuseppe Sapori

The Wayside

Tags : 

 

We are in Osaka and this is the view from one of the hightest point of the city. I’m talking about another very tall building, the Umeda Sky Building located in the Kita-ku district, in Shin Umeda, an area that developed northwest of the Umeda commercial district

It is a building where there are mainly offices, together with an observation platform where you can admire a beautiful view of the city

The Umeda Sky Building has a bridge structure consists of two twin towers of forty floors connected to each other on the two highest floors; these last two floors house the structure called Floating Garden Observatory, one of the main attractions of the city

Also here like in Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree I took the picture through a window so I had to be careful not to bring the lights inside the structure reflected on the glass

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

Since I go upstairs the Umeda Sky Building with the sunlight, I took advantage of the twilight moment to capture the view of the city with the soft light. I blended my exposures into one image using TTS PRO , I fixed lights and contrasts using luminosity masks

I used dodge and burn and clone stamp to fix some lights relfections that escaped my sight, after this I increased details. I fixed the colors of the frame giving  a blue tone in the foreground but at the same time more warm to lights and skylight

I increased the glow effect using a soft orton effect  and glow painting over the buildings, with the same technique I created a manual vignette around the image

As always I hope you will find this usefull. I love to ear that from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8

Three Exposures (-1; 0; +1)

ISO: 200 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Nishiki Market

Tags : 

 

During my stay in Kyoto my wake up in the morning was always very early. I took advantage of one of this mornings (the day i planned to visit kyomizu-dera and my latest post) to go after to visit Nishiki Market

This is another recommended place on all the Japan Guides and therefore also here late in the morning is filled with too many tourists and people, the experience and especially the photos a real ordeal. In the early morning of course there are fewer people and it would be a shame not to fully enjoy this place…

Nishiki Market in Kyoto is a picturesque and historic market where you can find a huge variety of foods, which in the eyes of foreigners (but somethimes even the Japanese themselves) may be “strange” and is definitely worth a visit here if only for take some souvenir photos

Some small shops have been open for generations and in this market there is an air of other times. Below you can find some shots that I made inside the market, shortly after the opening of the desks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyoto Dusk

Tags : 

 

Since I woke up almost always before dawn during my trip to Japan, I took the opportunity to take some shots even in the streets bordering the main points of interest of Kyoto. This street that in the evening is full of life and locals, in the early morning is a very quiet street and in my opinion enjoys one of the most beautiful views of Kyoto

I stayed here doing some shots waiting for the opening of the Kiyomizu-dera temple that is nearby, I made several shots in the hope that someone would pass in typical clothes in the early morning, but I was not so lucky 🙂

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I blended my exposures into one image, first thing was to fix the lights on th lamps using luminosity masks.  After this I increased details and I applied dodge and burn over the darker areas of the image

I increased the blue tones of the image using my panel with the use of the cold highlights and cold shadows filters that apply selectively a cold filter to highlights and shadows. After a soft dark orton effect, after a slightly increased the shadows and I added more glow to the lamps over the lights

The last passage was to increase the dark mood with a small vignette.

I hope you will find this usefull. I’m always happy to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8

Various Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

The Secret Path

Tags : 

A series of shots collected under the torii of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This one is one of the most important spots in the province of Kyoto, its guided path to the top of the temple in the midst of a characteristic Japanese forest makes the whole journey lovely and charming. The route towards the main temple includes several other minor temples during the way

The route this Fushimi inari Shrine is famous for the countless torii gates that are found along the way, so they are one of the biggest photographic spots in Japan

As I explained in my previous post, I went there early in the morning and I managed to find the time to take alternative pictures:

The first pictures was a snap taken during the passage of a guy, the white color of his shirt in the middle of all that red caught my attention

In the second picture I captured the ghosts of the people that were passing under the torii gates

The third image is a  is a manual shot of the detail of one of the torii

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

Even all the images have a similar treatment, they are all single shots so here I did not do any digital blending between different exposures. For every images I increased the details using the High Details filter included in my panels TTS Fast Panel and TTS PRO than I applied a soft orton effect to generate some glow and soft effect to the frame, a small vignette to the end was applied to all

In the first photo (the guy) I used a dodge and burn along the torii gates to reduce the brighs on the highlights, I lightened the shadows and worked on the colors, in particular I intensified the warm tones, subsequently reducing the saturation level of the reds

In the second image (the ghosts) I merged other ghost images from other exposures I take to have a more ghost coverage in the final frame, I fixed the brights and darks using curves adjustment layers and luminosity masks. 

In the third image (focus) I worked above all on details and lighting, even here I slightly lowered the red level of the torii

I hope you will find this usefull. I’m always happy to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8

Various Exposures

N.1: ISO: 640 at f/4,5

N.2: ISO: 100 at f/16 for 5 seconds

N.3: ISO: 200 at f/2,8

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

The Secret Path

Tags : 

This is one of my favourite photo spot in Japan, the path that leads to the Fushimi Inari Shrine is one the most important spot in the province of Kyoto. Throughout the journey you will pass under these torii in a long uphill path to the sanctuary located at the base of a mountain also called Inari, which is 233 meters above sea level and which includes several paths to other minor

It’s a beautiful place as well as full of meaning, on the early morning there was a cool gentle breeze accompanied by a soft rain with a tranquil silence. The Fushimi Inari shrine is also one of the most photographed spots in Japan like bamboo grove and therefore if you want to find these torii free from tourists of all kinds, even here it is necessary to get up early in the morning 🙂

I took many shots here at this spot, I also had time to make some creative and slightly different shots that I will publish with a second post about Fushimi Inari Temple 

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I take 5 bracketed exposures for this that I blended using TTS PRO, until to reach a final image. The first successive step was to fix the lights around the torii, so I used dodge and burn applied to luminosity masks to darken some extra light areas and give more energy to the shadows. I added some yellow feel at the image using a warm filter applied to luminosity masks to apply the effect only to the highlights

I tried to keep low the lighting level of the photo, so I darkened the exposure by a few points and I raised the level of the highlights to maintain the light between the torii intact. I recovered the shadows in the foreground and I added sharpen to keep the viewer’s view as long as possible

Since I liked the atmosphere of contrast with the light that filters from the torii I tried to intensify it with a vignette giving more light in the central part of the photo, so in addition to darken the rest I further intensified the light source

I always hope you will find this usefull. Love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 24mm)

Five Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Towards the Sky

Tags : 

 

Another image from the Bamboo forest of Arashiyama, in my previous post I have spoken extensively about this forest, which is an unmissable destination for those who go to Japan, but I also talked about how difficult it is to take pictures inside it to stay quiet away from tourists… Well, the photo in question instead does not consider all this 😀

In fact in this incredible location just look up at the sky in some points of the forest to find shows of trees that are intertwined upwards, leaving just some glimmers in the light to enter and it is precisely these glimmers of light to create the magical atmosphere that reigns in the Bamboo forest of Arashiyama

I love the play of light that is created between the trunks of the bamboo, especially those that have formed on the left, illuminating some parts of the forest that are in the shadow areas. I made this shot handheld, without a tripod although in fact I used bracketing as I always do for habit at the end but I have only used one exposure of these, the reason? the wind and the leaves that moved made impossible any sort of alignment between the trees and the image will result blurry if I use digital blending

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

As anticipated a moment ago this is a single shot, so I exploited the potential of luminosity masks to raise and lower the lights and shadows of the image. Although I intervened several times on the central light coming from the opening between the trees, I have also chosen to leave the light source strong, to give greater contrast to the image but also to increase the sense of illumination.

I increased details using my panel placing the effect with 50% opacity and than I launched the orton effect decreasing the opacity to 10%. After increasing the yellow tones of the image with two warm filters applied to highlights and shadows, with dodge and burn I made some adjustments on the top leaves and on the dark tree on the right

I tried as much as possible to keep an editing similar to the one in my previous photo since the same location I like the idea of having results in terms of color and lighting similar, although the subject and lighting in this case is completely different. For this reason also this time I used Color Efef Pro with Sunlight filter and reducing opacity to 35%, to increase the glow coming from the main light

Last passage was to create a dark vignette but this time without increasing the light in the center part of the frame, the light would have been really too much this time 🙂

As always I hope you will find this usefull. Love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Single Shot

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro, Color Efex pro

 

The Bamboo Path

Tags : 

 

Before leaving for Japan I spent several days doing my itinerary and looking at many photos of the locations I would visit, the bamboo forest of Arashiyama is undoubtedly one of the most photographed places in the world.  From a trivial search in google you will find hundreds of images of all kinds of this forest, and all this is enough to make you understand how much this place can be visited and photographed by tourists

For my first time in Japan I could not miss the bamboo forest of Arashiyama and for this reason I decided to move very early in the morning, for some locations such as this, the early alarm clock is the only solution to avoid hordes of tourists photo bombing and their hateful selfie sticks 🙂

The location of the Arashiyama bamboo forest is fantastic, it’s a unique place here you can find a a thick and silent bamboo forest where you can ear the only sound of the wind in through the leaves. Inside the forest I moved to the path that led to the sanctuary, looking for some openings in the trees and the perspective that would better the beauty of the place, after some attempts I found a spot where I stopped to shoot, I realized 7 exposures bracketing to make sure you capture the full dynamic range of the scene

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started blending my exposures using TTS PRO, with the final blended image I increased the yellow tones of highlights and shadows using a yellow filter applied to luminosity masks. In my mind I imagined this pictures as a glow effect so I pushed up orton effect and with the glow tool I increased the lights over the sky

After a soft detail increase through the bamboos I increased the shadows using darks luminosity masks applied to curves tool, in the same way I fixed contrasts using midtones. With dodge and burn I made some fix on the darker part of the picture

I increased a little more the yellow tones using Sunlight filter of Color Efex pro, reducing the opacity to 35%, this effects contributes to create a beautiful glow thorough the trees and a yellow warm over the grove

To finish I created a small vignette always using my panel, if you are not a TTS PRO user to create a vignette essentially it needs a circular selection in PS with the Elliptical Marquee tool, and then invert the selection

I hope you will find this usefull. I like to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

7 Exposure Brackets

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro, Color Efex pro

 

A Night in the Village

Tags : 

 

Second image from Takayama village in Japan, I took this second picture a few minutes after that of my previous post going to photograph the bridge in his front view, the image so quiet in the village at sunset illuminated by these yellow lanterns was a very impressive element for me.

Even the contrast between the yellow lights and the blue twilight has greatly attracted my curiosity, I love the blue hour for these reasons. I captured this image with a very low light, so at ISO 100 the shutter speed was 30 seconds

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

This is a single shot, so this time no blending was done for this picture. Anyway I always used luminosity masks  to fix the lights in the sky, over the lanterns and set the right contrast. I set the proportions and slightly straightened the photo, with the clone stamp I removed a spot at the top

With the glow tool  I made some lights adjustments on the bridge to increase the light and give more warm over the area under the lanters. I gave a soft orton effect and I added a warm filter to the foreground to give more the impression of  lighting coming from the lanterns. I raised up the shadows with luminosity masks and as a last touch I created a small vignette to increase the sense of darkness

I hope you will find this usefull. I like to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)

Single shot for 30′

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

A Night in the Village

Tags : 

 

 

Takayama is located in the Gifu prefecture and it is a small village located between the Japanese Alps. Visiting Takayama means visiting a very traditional part of Japan and enjoying its magical atmosphere. The whole village can be covered on foot in a short time and those that you do here are pleasant walks through restaurants and artisan shops

The Sanmachi sūji district is one of more visited, here is possible to visit not only shops of various kinds, houses, but also small museums and companies among the best and oldest producers of sake even some producers for centuries, in an atmosphere where time seems to have stopped

The trip to Takayama is long and with some transhipment but the place did not disappoint. Personally I found here a magical atmosphere of Japan experience and delicious food! 🙂

The photo spot is the main torii in Takayama symbol of access to the old city located at the end of the bridge, below the river Miyagawa. At dusk this spot has acquired a magical atmosphere, with the river flowing I took the opportunity to take a picture that took as much as possible of this corner of Japan

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I take some bracketing shots that I blended in Photoshop using TTS PRO, with the resulting image I first arranged some perspective lines and made some spot interventions with the clone stamp. Done this I increased details and used a blue filter to increase the degree of dark atmosphere of this image

Using dodge and burn I lightened the reflections in the water and made other small interventions along the bridge. I intervened with the luminosity masks to increase the level of blacks, to create greater contrast to the image and to change the color level with little intervention on the hue/saturation adjustment layer. With the glow tool I increased the brightness of some areas then inserting a vignette at the end to darken the edges

As always I hope you will find this usefull. Love to hear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 16mm)

Multiple shots

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks

Tags : 

Dodge and Burn is a very used technique in photoshop, it allows you to emphasize some of the main elements a image focusing on some points of it. Dodge and burn is mainly use to guide the viewer’s eye to the leading lines. Some time ago I wrote an article about this technique called Dodge and Burn 2 non destructive techniques compared where I talked about how to create the effect without any risk to make any damage to your image

Among the methods illustrated to create dodge and burn there  is the use of a 50% gray  layer and to use separate layers, both are efficient methods but they apply globally to the image. The risk is to apply the effect where is not needed, for this reason the application of luminosity masks into the dodge and burn layer is the key

In the video below I explain how to dodge and burn using luminosity masks. If you do not know how to create luminosity masks I invite you to download my free panel where you can create luminosity masks and launch some very useful effects including dodge and burn

I hope you find all this useful. I always love to ear this from you!

 

« Pagina precedente — Pagina successiva »

Site Founder

Hi, my name is Giuseppe Sapori, a professional photographer and author of this website, created by yours truly to show my work and share with you the techniques I use. My expertise is in the field of Landscape Photography... (Read More)

Instagram Feed

Newsletter Signup

Discount Coupon Codes

Flickr PhotoStream

Other info

About
Contact
Privacy Policy

Facebook Page

Facebook

Newsletter Signup

© 2011 - 2018 Giuseppe Sapori - All Rights Reserved