The Secret Path

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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

 

 

Dreaming Riomaggiore 2

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Here’s again another shot  from Riomaggiore that goes to close this mini series shot in this beautiful italian town. Together with the previous ones are all photos are taken in the same location, the small and pretty harbour of Riomaggiore, in this spot I moved a few meters to change the angle between the 3 photos that composed this series

Unlike the other images where I captured only sunlight in favor of greater framing of the town, this time I shot directly into the sun, I captured a series of exposures including some very long ones the idea was to have as many shots possibles to blend togheder

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started from two exposures and I start blending the images using luminosity masks. The blend was between a long exposure and a normal exposure this creates a soft effect that I like for this picture. I increased yellows using a warm brush and giving the main color in the direction of the sun. With TTS Fast Panel  I increased details and contrast using luminosity masks applied to curves layer

After recovering som shadows and fixed the highlights I increased the luminosity over the buildings using luminosity masks. Increased vibrance with hue/saturation, same like the latest picture I added a soft glow effect with color efex pro. Last touch was to decrease luminosity just a bit 🙂

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 (Shot at 17mm)

Two Exposure ( Regular shot + 61′ Long)

ISO: 100 at f/11

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Fast Panel – Colo Efex Pro

 

Dreaming Riomaggiore

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Second post in the beautiful village of Riomaggiore, the view of the small port is a view that strikes and captures. I dedicated an entire shooting session at sunset in this location and did not betray my expectations

Those days were very hot days with a clear sky but during the evening  luckily  🙂 it often happened that the sky was covered always leaving clouds interesting in the sky

Also here I captured a long exposure,  like so much the movement of the boats on the flat sea, I captured several shots to have different exposures to stack images into layers and be able to do a controlled blending on the frame

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I take two exposures of the port of Riomaggiore, I made a blend using luminosity masks only in some part of the image, after this the first thing I do is to clone stamp some spot and a half boat that was on the bottom. The first thing done was to increase the yellow lights using a warm filter and dodge and burning the light over the leafs and main building

Using my panel I increased details and I applied contrast using curves adjustment layers applied to luminosity masks, always using curves I fixed lights in the sky and I recovered some shadows too darks.

I applied light bleeding to the left part of the sky and over the building reducing the effect decreasing the opacity. As final step I fixed colors using hue/saturation over the sea and I added a soft glow effect using color efex pro filters

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 17mm)

Long Exposure for 91′

ISO: 100 at f/13

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Fast Panel – Colo Efex Pro

 

The Fisherman’s View

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From many years I wanted to visit these places and this year finally I managed to find a few days to photograph the Cinque Terre. This one is the beautiful port of Riomaggiore, one of the most photographed spots in Cinque Terre. The area around the port has a unique charm, the colors of the houses are very bright surrounded by rocks overlooking the sea

It is one of the most famous and beautiful places in the area, although the town is very small hundreds of tourists every day roam the small streets of this village. I decided to make a long exposure and take advantage of the boats that were near the rocks to counter the movement of boats and of the clouds. I made several photos in this spot and in fact this will be just the first of a series of photos taken in Riomaggiore that I will present in the coming weeks. Stay tuned…

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

For this image I used a single long exposure shot. I edited the image using luminosity masks fixing the lights and darks. I removed some ghost people moving on the harbour than I increased contrast applying curves to midtones

With TTS Fast Panel I increased details, launched orton effect and dodge and burn with I darkened some part of the sky and lightened some other dark spots. Using a warm filter I increased the yellows in the sky using this technique I fixed color cast than I darkened a little bit the image increasing the colors on the buildings

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 20mm)

Long Exposure for 80′

ISO: 100 at f/13

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Fast Panel

 

The Valley of Dreams Pt. 2

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Also this photo was taken in the same location of my last post. I’m still talking about the Valley of the Ferriere located near the beautiful harbor town of Amalfi. On the path that climbs through a valley full of all natural beauty there are many waterfalls  and this is one of those that I found along my way

In particular it was a very narrow stream that flowed down, it caught my attention. It was difficult to find a good position to capture the scene since I could not get too close because of the splashes of water came decided on my filter screen and not too far to not compromise the composition

I used a -6 stop ND filter to smooth the water, compared to the previous photo where in all the shots I’ve done I never exceeded 30 seconds in this shot I had exposure times even longer than 2 minutes, I was in a dense thicket and the light that filtered was very low. Shutter speed for this photo is 120 seconds



 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I started using two exposure, not to made a digital blend but to save trees and leafs from movement. As always I used luminosity masks to decrease the lights around the water and softner the white effect of the long exposure. With my panel I launched details to boost of all them, launched also orton effect beacause I like this effect in all waterfall shots 🙂

Using dodge and burn tool I lightened the darker parts of the wood and I increased light on the direction of the sunrays. With a yellow brush I colored some part of the rocks reducing the opacity and setting the layer as soft ligth, in this way I intensified the yellow color on the rocks with a softner effect. I fixed contrast with luminosity masks reducing the effect decreasing the opacity. Also here I created a small vignette but increasing the bright of the image

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 22mm)

Long Exposure for 120′

ISO: 100 at f/10

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: 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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