Halfway to the Coast

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Halfway to the Coast

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The beautiful colors of the Cilento cliffs are one of my favorite spots in this area. This year I have been several times here and every time I managed to capture great sunsets and as many beautiful colors. The mountains are not far from the sea here and this creates a beautiful atmosphere at sunset

When I took this photo in the evening the sea was very rough, I put my tripod on a rock sheltered from the high water and started shooting with the colors of the golden hour until almost complete darkness

Capturing the entire event allowed me to take the whole dynamic range of the scene. In particular the brightly colored sky is the result of the yellow colors of the sunset when it was to turn towards the blue, having more series of shots at my disposal it allowed me to protect the yellows by exploiting the beautiful purple colors of “evening”

At the same time the long exposure of the water was captured in another series of shots that I used on the main frame to edit

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

For this shot I makes 2 different blends: one for a series captured during the golde hour and another with another exposure series captured during the blue hour, so with more darkness.

I selected the shot with the golden hour and I used the blue hour blend to make some adjustments in the main frame, so I used it to blend, water and some part of the sky that i want to replace with a more dark image

I added details and I increased yellow colours in the sky using a warm filter applied to luminosity masks. I used dodge and burn on the rocks to make some lights effect in the direction of the sun, I always used dodge and burn to soften som lights coming from the clouds. I added orton effect and I increased the contrast using TTS Pro that have this function applied to luminosity masks in order to create a series of curves easy to adjust

I fixed the finale exposure and I increased the shadows to mitigate the darkess coming from the foreground rocks

As final step I made some colours increase adjustments, pushing up the vibrance but reducing the blues becoming too strong

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Nikon 14-24 f/2,8 (used at 22mm)

Three Shots (-1; 0; +1) x2

ISO: 100 at f/14

Software: Photoshop CC2020

Plugin: TTS Pro

Korean Nights – Haedong Temple

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During my trip to Korea I visited many temples but few of them really impressed me like this place. What you see in the picture is the famous Haedong Yonggung sea temple located near the city of Busan.

Also this temple was sadly destroyed during the Japanese invasion and subsequently rebuilt only in 1974. The temple is a large one in the middle of the sea and a small wood behind its, the surrounding area is inside a park relaxing and peaceful

When I arrive there I was really impressed of the strongest visual impact of the temple complex built on the rocks of the sea, here there are many panoramic points where you can have a beautiful view of the cliff and the temple in the background.

After visiting the temple I started taking some photos from a bridge overlooking the cliff and from where there is a beautiful view of the temple. However at the end of the day when they were gone all of them I moved down to capture some more shots and found this interesting spot by placing the camera between the bars of a fence on the cliff

Between the two shots I preferred to post this because it captures all the essence of the temple in the evening or anyway when the day comes to an end and the beautiful silence of this location remains, broken only by the waves of the sea

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

Being now at the last light of the day I realized this shot through a series of bracketing of 3 shots, with the darkest exposure of 30 seconds

I blended the exposure using TTS Pro, than I fixed lights and contrasts using luminosity masks. After a spot removal with clone stamp tool I used dodge and burn to lighten some rocks too dark and lighten the surrounding area of the temple

With a yellow brush I also increased the yellow colour aroud the lights near the main temple building

I corrected color cast adding a more blue/purple tone and I decreased the whole exposure of the image to increase the sense of dark mood of this scenery maintaining the exposure im the sky

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

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Three Shots ( -1; 0; +1)

ISO: 100 at f/16

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

Conjunctions II

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From the beautiful beaches of Cilento, I come back with a photo from a different perspective of my favorite beach of this area. To take this picture I used the distortion of my wide angle to create a more impactful effect in the foreground

To take advantage of the distortion it is always good to consider the corners of the image to avoid falling lines on the horizon. I love vertical photos but the management of distortions when you want to highlight a subject in the foreground may not always be easy

In my tutorial 7 composition guidelines for better landscape photography I insered Mind the Corners, to remember the presence of spots or other distracting elements in the picture that could focus away the viewer’s attention, the falling lines are one of them so always check it when you use lens distortion for you shots

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I captured 5 exposure bracketing series that I blended using TTS PRO.I used an additional shot to capture the sea with a long exposure that I used to make the water more soft

With the complete blend, I straighten up the horizon and removed some water spots on the lens. With the use of luminosity masks, I decreased the highlights and I increased the shadows in order to make better visibles the stones around the beach

I increased contrast and I added some blue colors to the image using a cold filter. I added a very soft orton effect and I used dodge and burn to increase the lights over the rocks and decrease the luminosity of the sea

Always using my panel I used the glow tool to make other adjustments and creating a manual vignette over the image

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)

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

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

Vessels

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Always from the same location of Belluno Alps National Park I took this photo of the waterfall that feeds the “pools” of my previous post. They are charaterized by a small stream, but with a strong flow that is powerful enough to feed the whole system of which the valley is characterized

The turquoise color of which the water of the pools below is made up can already be seen in the part below the waterfall where it already begins to take on a very bright color

For this shot I used a Nd3 filter stops with a series of 3-shot bracketing to have the chance to perform digital blending


WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started using a digital blending using my panel with the 3 shots bracketing taken

I regulated brights and contrasts using luminosity masks,than I used dodge and burn to adjust the lights around the rocks near the waterfall. Since the image was very flat I wanted to create a darker and at the same time soft effect with an orton effect filter and in particular the orton effect dark that you can find inside TTS Pro I used a 30% opacity to have a strong effect

I used curves to adjus the luminosity of the whole frame and after generating a strong vignette I fixed the final contrast and color correction to the final image you see

As final step I decreased the luminosity to create a dark mood in the whole picture

I hope you will find this informations 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)

Three Exposures (-1; 0; +1)

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

The Secret Path

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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

 

A Night in the Village

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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

 

Tokyo Nights

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I take this from Tokyo Skytree,  from here you can admire (and photograph) the highest view of the city of Tokyo. The Skytree is a telecommunications and panoramic tower located in Sumida, Tokyo’s special district

With a height of 634 meters it is the tallest tower in the world and the second highest artificial structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the Tokyo Skytree is a strong tourist attraction and one of the main symbols of the city

The view from here is excessively high and everywhere you turn you can find some ideas to photograph from the top of the Japanese capital. Here I managed to make some shots including this where I preferred to emphasize a detail with one of Tokyo‘s main traffic arteries… everywhere I turned around it turned out to be all small 🙂

Also here as in Tokyo Tower to take shots through the windows of the tower I had to pay the maximum attention to the backlights that could reflect the lights on the window and definitively ruining the photo, at this regard also here I came to the rescue my sweatshirt with which I covered most of the reflections that entered the frame

I captured 3 exposures in bracketing mode for this frame, to have the ability to fix the lights and shadows with digital blending, the longer shot was of 25 seconds at ISO 100

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started this picture with digital blending using  TTS PRO, I blended the images using fast blend lights funcion and auto blend darks funcion. With the resulting frame ready I worked on luminosity masks going to fix the darks and lights as I like, to lighten some shadows and decrease some lights too strongs

I added details and using dodge and burn I lighten some darks area of the city and I used some color lookup filters to add to this picture, in particular: crisp winter at 20% filmstock 10% and futuristick bleak 30%

The latest touch was to increase the shadows and adding some extra sharpen to the frame

I always hope you will find this usefull, I love to ear this from you!

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2,8 (Shot at 48mm)

Three Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

 

Stars Zoom

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Hello guys! Here I am again with a night picture from the beautiful Rocca Calascio. What you see is the castle, with the path that leads to the slopes of the fortress. The way was glimpsed in the darkness and the atmosphere created by this photo was something that catch me imediately I like very much that mood and I also like the light pollution behind the castle that seems a daylight lighting

Speaking of the sky and the stars this time I tried to do something different, I enjoyed playing with the zooming and  Photoshop levels to create something original and slightly different from the usual, one created is a startrail zoom made by copying the same level multiple times and changing the blending mode into lighten, the sky full of point-like stars seemed to me too reductive for this beautiful castle 🙂

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

After created the images stack I changed the blending mode into lighten to create a zooming effect, than i merged the result into a final frame. Using TTS PRO I launched luminosity masks with I increased the lights of the darks and decreased the highlights curves. I created contrast zones to fix the light and the contrast over the main part of the picture

The next step was to fix colors using auto correct, that give me a very good color tone, than I slighlty changed it by reducing blues and increasing yellow using a warming filter.

I used dodge and burn to lighten the path that lead to the castle, I also launched orton effect decreasing the opacity to 8% to create a soft and dark dreamy atmosphere in the image. The last step was to darken the image e and to launch a noise reduction with very low opacity just to give the last touch

All the effects I mentioned above are inside my brand new panel TTS PRO, that I recommend to download to  fasten your workflow and to have all the effect in one click application!

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Single Exposure

ISO: 3200 at f/2,8

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Vernazza Sunset

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Second picture from the Vernazza, I made this photo by changing the frame during the blue hour. This picture is the result of two images blend, in particular I blended the sky shot that had visible colors in the sky with another bright exposures that had more movement on the water

In this case I did not use filters since the light was very low, I used the Pluto Trigger function that allows you to make long exposure bracketing shots going over 30′ seconds. I really appreciated all the locations of the Cinque Terre but this one of Vernazza is certainly one of the best that can be found in this area, hope to have the chance to come here next time soon!

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I blended the images using auto blend function of TTS PRO creating a new frame, I increased details and I fixed contrast always using my panel with luminosity masks contrast effect. I applied a warm filter on the highlights and I created a soft light bleeding to intensify the sunset colors and lighting

I made some adjustment using dodge and burn, especially in the darker parts of the town (where i pushed also up with curves and darks masks) the darker parts of the frame. After a highlights fix I created a small vignette. As final adjustments I increased the color vibrance, the yellow look of the image and  some lights adjustments on the plants in the foreground

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Two Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

 

Vernazza Sunset

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One of the most significant sunsets of the Cinque Terre is located in Vernazza, from this incredible spot you can portray the town of Vernazza with all its characteristic elements … the vegetation, the sea, the sun and the coast as well as the town that extends towards the sea

When I decided to travel the Cinque Terre I had this shot among my main objectives and that day I fortunately found a great light with a beautiful colored sky

I go to this spot several minutes before sunset armed with beer and chips to deceive the time once the tripod was placed 🙂

I did all long exposures in bracketing mode since I was shooting directly into the sun direction if I had not had many shots to blend would have been difficult have a non burned sky

Even the long exposure is a requirement that I love in the maritime locations like Vernazza where the water that breaks on the rocks always creates that typical silk effect that I really like. I shot 7 exposure brackets shot with longest on 48 seconds with ND64 filter

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I blended the exposure taken starting from the darkest images, where I gradually move frame to the brightest. With my brand new panel TTS PRO I used luminosity mask contrast function to fix the contrast on the various areas of the picture having great control of them

I make a light bleeding over the sun and on the plants in the foreground and after I removed all the lens flares in the image using eyedropper tool with paint brush in a brand new layer with soft light fusion mode.

With dodge and burn tool I fixed the remaining spot of strong light caused of lens flare, after this always using my panel I launched warm highlights funcion to give a touch of more yellow on the frame reducing the opacity to decrease the effect. After giving to the image a stronger look with more details, I increased a bit the vibrance and I give more light to the shadows for not having them too dark

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 20mm)

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

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

 

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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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