Walking through the Ancient

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Walking through the Ancient

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I love Seoul because it is a very variegate city, inside we can find tall skyscrapers and modern buildings but there is a part linked to tradition and traditional life

I’ts the case of this place, this is the beautiful Hanok Village, where you can find the traditional korean house. It is fascinating to walk along its narrow streets among the low houses and the so characteristic and traditional roofs. The Hanok Village offers one of the most interesting view of Seoul, with this street view that leads to the modern buildings

It seems a museum itinerary but the streets are full of real houses, it is considerated a residential zone and some people leave here. I arrived here quite early and found various signs on the spot asking for silence until at least 9 am, to allow the residents to rest

That’s right! in fact I read a few days before about this village that its streets are full of tourists during the day, which is why going there very early in the morning remains the only solution to shooting

Furthermore near the village there are several shops that rent the hanbok, the famous and traditional Korean dress, so it’s not difficult to find someone like you who decided to wake up early to get some shots immersed in the tradition 🙂


WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

Taking this shot did not require any particular technicalities, I reach the top of the village to benefit from the perspective, a girl who dressed in the traditional hanbok dress that was taking selfies just passed she approached a door I started taking some pictures

I take a single shot for this image so this time i didn’t used any digital blending but I used the same luminosity masks to correct the highlights in the sky and recover the shadows

I increased details and pushed up colours using TTS Pro, with dodge and burn tool I dodged some house tiles touched by the light to increase the clarity effect

I corrected the wide angle effect that was created on the houses creating a slight distortion, to do this I used the free transform tool dragging it on side

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 14mm)

Single Shot

ISO: 100 at f/9

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

Conjunctions

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I took this photo in a beach located in the Gulf of Cilento, I love this area of Italy and very often I spend a few days here in the summer. The Cilento area is located in the southern part of Campania and is a UNESCO heritage area that offers not only beautiful beaches but also small mountains, archaeologic areas and natural parks

Although we are along the coast, the proximity of the hills to the sea, makes that in the evening, the sky around the mountains, is often clouded; creating interesting photographic spots not so common on the coasts

I make this shot in the final hours of sunset, to capture the movement of the water I used a 3-stop ND filter to avoid exposures that were too long for each series of shots

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I captured 5 exposure bracketing for this that I blended using my panel TTS PRO, to the blended image I added contrast and details

I fixed lights over the rocks and over the horizon using luminosity masks, than I enhanced colours using a cold filter applied to highlights and a bit less to the shadows

I boosted the colours of the sunset creating a mask for yellow, red and magenta to give more warm to the sky after this I applied a soft orton effect and a soft dodge and burn to the rocks and to the water

As final step I created a soft vignette to give more energy to the central scene

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

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

Pool With a View

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This magical place is near the regional park of Alps in Belluno, skirting the lake of Mis you arrive in this series of natural pools feed by a waterfall with the alps in the background

The crystalline water and the white rock at certain times of the day it reaches its most complete amazing yellow colours when sun goes behind the mountains and all take a great looking yellow like golden hour

To take this photo I decided to create a vertical photomerge of two shots so as to include as much as possible of the scenery

The waterfall that feeds the pools is on the back, so I could not include it in the same shot but I promise you that it will be the subject of my next posts 😀


WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I captured two series of shots to photomerge, for each series I take 3 bracketed shots that I blended using auto blend darks function of TTS PRO 

After a lights fix using curves applied to luminosity masks, I increased details and controlled contrast. With a warm filter, I generate more yellows tones and I decreased the luminosity of the mountain with dodge and burn

I applied a soft orton effect details using my panel, a orton effect that create the typical effect but avoiding to loose sharpness. I create a light painting in the picture using the brush on the main viewer’s eye points

I decrease the luminosity a bit and I generate a soft vignette as final steps

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/7,1

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

Bubble Crack

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Visiting Lake Braies is always beautiful, since I’ve been here other times, on my last visit I wanted to see it in winter. Usually in winter the frozen lakes lose part of their fascination, especially due to the absence of reflections, but in my opinion they gain on the colors and the pov where it is possible to take some pictures and Braies is one of the best on this

I found a very interesting point under the famous pier overlooking the mountain, under the snow could not settle and so remained only the ice, here the view towards the mountain in the background was perfect and the ice with all its variations did the rest

Photo aside this pov was definitely very uncomfortable, I had to shoot quickly because the place was very slippery and my tripod keep slipping away 🙂

I captured the images with two different focus points for focus stacking in order to obtain a unique focused picture of lake Braies 

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

As I mentioned above, I captured all my bracketing exposures first focusing on the ice below and then focusing to the mountain.  Once at the computer I uploaded all the photos between them and started this process to have 3 final images focused near and to infinite

At this point I started using my TTS PRO panel, to make a digital blending between images using auto blend functions. I started removing some people in the scene with clone stamp tool, than I raised the detail levels and adjusted the contrast with the luminosity masks

I used the dodge and burn to give more impact to the bubbles below, then adjusted the colors by increasing the purple and applying a colder filter to the frame. With the glow tool I adjusted the light intensity of the sky and lightened some points of the photo.

Finally I launched a slight orton effect and created a vignette effect to emphasize the central scene

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

 

TECNHNICAL STUFF

Camera: Nikon D-800

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

Three Exposures Focus Stacked (-1; 0; +1;)

ISO: 50 at f/6,3

Software: Photoshop CC2019

Plugin: TTS Pro

The Wayside

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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

 

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

 

A Night in the Village

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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

 

By the Way

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Tokyo Skytree from the nearest bridge. In my previous photos I posted some images taken from the the top of this tower, since it is a fairly impressive structure is seen from the main points of the city and so I took advantage in the evening to do some shots  in the around areas. With a easy google maps research I found this bridge that had a great view in perspective of the Tokyo Skytree, exactly what I was looking for for this shot!

I started shooting at sunset so as to “freeze” the moment of the sunset sky and some elements like the trees, then I waited for it to get darker to start taking the light trails that I added to the final image. During this photo I realized another element to keep in mind when making the photos from the bridges… vibrations due to the passage of heavy vehicles, I noticed a strong vibration when someone of this passed, for safety I preferred redo some of my shots taken in those passages

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

I selected a shot for the correct sky at dusk and others images to select light trails, I selected from this images 2 exposures that I used to add the light trails you see. Iresized the image, I re-adjusted the perspective, than I launched  my panel to add details and to fix the color cast. I fixed the colors adding some cold filters (one for the highlights and one for the shadows). After adding a soft contrast, I fixed the lights of the trails, using glow brush tool included in TTS PRO.

I made som adjustments at the colors, increasing the lights of red and yellows and decreasing the light of blue. With luminosity masks applied to lights 1 and to curves tool I darkened the light of the sky, I finally applied a soft sharpen to light trails and added a small vignette to better give the sense of dark mood

As always 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)

Multiple shots

ISO: 100 at f/22

Software: Photoshop CC2018

Plugin: TTS Pro

 

Sensō-ji

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During my stay in Tokyo I could not miss the most famous temple in the city, I am talking about the Sensō-ji temple. That is a Buddhist temple complex located in the Asakusa district of Tokyo. It is the oldest temple in the city, and one of the most important. I take this photo to the  imposing five-storey pagoda that you can find near the temple

The entrance to the temple is marked by the famous “door of thunder”. It houses a huge paper lantern, painted red with black characters. In the nearbyes there’s a busy shopping street, that leads to the main entrance of the Sensō-ji temple

The Sensō-ji is a popular tourist destinations.  In the shopping street you can find a high number of stores specializing in the sale of traditional Japanese items have emerged in its surroundings, as well as restaurants offering traditional Japanese food (ramen, sushi, tempura, etc.). Many of these shops are run by the heirs of former owners, who started their business thanks to the economic income secured by the great flow of pilgrims to the temple

I really enjoyed the visit to Sensō-ji and among good food, photos and shops the visit to this traditional Tokyo place is very pleasant 🙂

Here you are some shots taken in the temple area:

 

 

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

The main picture of pagoda is a result of a digital blending made from 3 exposures brackets. I used my panel to stack the images and to blend them using luminosity masks blending funcions inside TTS PRO

I increased details and I launched dodge and burn applied to luminosity masks to avoid to affect the unwanted part of the picture, in particular I lightened the darker areas near the door. I also applied a warmer filter to the highlights and shadows to emphatyze the yellow lights and I added some glow effect to the sky

After a fix on the sky colours I added a soft contrast using midtones. As final touch I added a small vignette to increase emphatyze the center of the image

As always 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 15mm)

Three Exposures

ISO: 100 at f/9

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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