The Secret Garden

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The Secret Garden

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I finally go back to do some excursions in search of interesting points to photograph and I recently discovered this small waterfall that is located in a place not far from Rome

The small waterfall is located at the end of a stone building consisting of a series of ponds which in turn flow into other smaller waterfalls. The scenery surrounding this place is full of nature, a dense vegetation let a magnificent light filter over it

I take a bracketed shot series here, but I managed the shots without bringing too much hihger the exposure in oder to give to the viewer the sense of lights and shadows was here

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I take 5 bracketed shots here but I blended only few exposures using TTS Pro, in particular I mainly managed the image using the darker exposures

After this I increased the yellow light coming from the sky with a warm filter applied to luminosity masks, after this I increased details selectively excluding foliage and water

I launched a orton effect as I usually do in all my pictures and I increased the color vibrance to incrase the yellow light in the sky and the beautiful green of the leafs

As final step I darkened the image a little bit to give more the sense of darkness and leave some foreground part to the viewer’s imagination

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14mm)

Five Expoures (-2; -1; 0 +1; +2)

ISO: 100 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2020

Plugin: TTS Pro

Dreamland

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This image comes from a freehand single shot during my last excursion along the dolomites. It is beautiful to see how the light filters through the mountains, leaving behind you a glimpse of a blue sky veiled with rays of yellow lights

Although from a first glance the forest and the mountains may seem on the same level they are actually at two completely different depths and during my editing with Photoshop I tried to increase these visual differences by increasing the contrasts and adjusting the exposures in this sense

I tried to let the viewer focus his attention on the scenery at the bottom but without decreasing the importance of what constitutes the forest at the foot of the mountain

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

As said at the beginning of this post this is a single shot, so for this photo I did not do digital blending but I only used the luminosity masks to correct lights, contrast and colors

I increased the light effect coming through the sky with dodge and burn and I launched orton effect as I usually do in every my lanscape. After a small push up of yellows tones, I decreased the blacks and the shadows in order to give more prominence to the mountain

With the use of clone stamp tool, I removed some bushes on the bottom of the picture that moves attention away and I manually create a vignette using the glow tool you can find insid my TTS Pro panel

I increased the colors increasing vibrance and a small decrease of expoure as last touch

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Nikon 70-200 f/2,8 (used at 180 mm)

Single Shot

ISO: 320 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2020

Plugin: TTS Pro

Hands Lifted

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Waiting for my next trip I spend a day last week in the Tuscia region. It was a name given to the old region of Etruria now named conventionally has the name of the region around Viterbo

Here there is a beautiful beech forest, located on Monte Cimino. The beech forest and is a pleasant walk (especially the summer) to go through these beautiful centenary trees, very suggestive the lights that filter through the branches during the morning

I found these two trees that they had a shape almost representing hands towards the sky, where a strong morning light filtered creates beautiful plays of light

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I edited the single shot with luminosity masks, used to adjust contrast lights and darkness, no blend here was possible because I was freehand and the wind moved the leaves

I increased details using TTS PRO ,created two warm filters (highlights and shadows) applied to luminosity masks to give more yellows tones to trees and leaves

I launched an orton effect to give more sens of glow in the frame, plus to intensity the light I used the glow tool with a brush around the main lights area

With the use of dodge and burn I reduced some strong lights around the trees and as final step I added a vignette to give more prominence to the light coming to the sky I darkened some rocks with too much lights on them, I adjusted contrast using it applied to luminosity masks

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14mm)

Single Shot

ISO: 250 at f/8

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

The Touch of the Sun

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Looking back at some of the shots taken in Japan, I found this picture that take my interest.

In particular this is the initial area of the Arashiyama Bamboo forest, at this point the bamboo is not as thick and narrow as in some of the inner points but you can appreciate the beautiful through the bamboo

The light is surely the most striking in this photo and in particular how it touches those two large dark trees beside the bamboo, the tree on the right in particular

To make the shot in my opinion very interesting there is also the beautiful game of contrasts and lights on the main avenue and at the end a tourist who enters the frame at the bottom that concludes the composition of the image

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I captured for this shot 3 exposure brakets that I blended using my panel, with the same tool I lauched high details effect very usefull to add details using frequency separation

I incresed the yellow colours applying a warmer filter first to the highlights than to the shadows, separately with a different opacity (usually shadows require less % than highlights)

With the dodge and burn tool I darkened some part of the foliage with too much light and with the glow tool I increased the luminosity at the points of the path and on the fence hits by the sun

With the use of orton effect I increased the glow of the picture, to give more energy to the sunlight. Final steps was to decrease a bit the general luminosity, recover the shadows and to add a small vignette

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 14mm)

Five Exposures (-1; 0; +1)

ISO: 100 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

Towards the Sky

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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

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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

 

The Valley of Silan

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Here is another waterfall shot coming from the Veneto region, we are in the area around Bassano del Grappa where is this small waterfall in the valley Valrovina. Watching some pictures from the web, it seemed very interesting and so I decided to go to this small resort to take some photos

This spot is a well-maintained tourist trail that leads to this waterfall, the path continues to high following the course of the creek. There are several stones along the river where I set up with my tripod to shot at the waterfall

I wanted to bring in the frame as much as possible the view of the creek behind, which with the light of the trees was really very beautiful. I took the photo with an nd64 filter, taking some lighter exposures to try to light up some very dark rock areas

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

This shot coming from a blend of 2 exposure, I blend the best take of the waterfall with another overexposed shot, to bring up all the lights around the rocks

Using Dodge and burn was very useless to recover some underexposed part and increse lighting. After a increase of details I launched orton effect to create a soft dreamy effect, I like so much the glow between the trees on the top of the picture

To complete this work I increased yellow colors. As final I fixed contrast using luminosity mask applied to midtones decreasing the darkest parts to avoid to make too under the darken part of the picture

I hope you will find this usefull. I always love to hear this from you

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Two exposure blend

ISO: 100 at f/14

Software: Photoshop CC2017

Extensions: TTS Fast Panel

The Old Mill

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This picture is always from the natural valley near the river Bussento, the valley around the river is wonderful and full of this great waterfall spot. This is probably the main area of the oasis, the an old mill who as long lost his wheel, where in its place now there’s a small waterfall

I created this image with my nd1000 filter for about 60 second time long exposure, I used 7-shot bracketing function to have a full range of exposure, I started working on the image with the longest exposure time going to recover lights lightly on the darker images

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

By selecting the best exposures  I blended them using luminosity masks. saving the rocks from overexposure and the flow of the waterfall. Dodge and burn  has helped too much to finish this work.

Also in this picture I incresed the yellow colors of the leafs using my filter autumn colors. I also launched details using TTS Fast Panel. I used orton effect to create a soft dreamy look and I pushed up lights coming from the top part of the frame, as final touch I fixed some contrast and lights adding a small vignette

I hope you will like this and find usefull my info. I always love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Seven Exposures (-3; -2; -1; 0; +1; +2; +3)

ISO: 100 at f/16

Software: Photoshop CC2017

Extensions: TTS Fast Panel

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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)

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