Zwinger in Dresden

The large court yard of Zwinger in Dresden was presenting itself very photogenic in the sunset this week when we got to Dresden for a quick visit.

I took the raw material for an HDR on tripod and all that when I was there. Then I thought about going a different way about producing this HDR. Usually I use Dynamic Photo HDR for blending and tonemapping or for fusion technique when I create my HDRs.

This time I exported the photos (Canon RAW) from Lightroom 3 without any adjustments into Photoshop CS 5 and composed them into an HDR. Without any adjustments I saved that HDR as a Tiff file. Then I went back to Lightroom - that had already received the HDR. This photo - of course - looked all dim and pale, since it was lacking any processing that an HDR needs.

I did most the developing in Lightroom and then took the finished picture back into Photoshop to run a Topaz Detail Filter over the photo and blend it on low opacity.

What for?

Here is the row of exposures:

Here is the photo as it came out of Photoshop after the blending and with the entire dynamic range but without any tonemapping and adjusting:

And this is, why I did all of the above:

To give credit here as it is just and fair: I got the idea and technique for this workflow from this blogpost by kwerfeldein:


http://kwerfeldein.de/2012/07/16/hdr-mit-lightroom-4-1/


Though the author there works with LR 4, it works with my version just perfectly (maybe way more is possible in LR 4, who knows?).

Semperoper im Sonnenuntergang

Semperoper, Dresden, Germany. Summer of 2012.

HDR of 3 exposures, blended and tonemapped in Dynamic Photo HDR.

Magic summer

This is Lisbon in April. The sun came out and was glaring down the small alleys in the older parts of Lisbon.

This is an HDR of 3 exposures.

Lissabon im April. Die Sonne kam heraus und flutete die schmalen Gassen in der Lissabonner Altstadt.

Dies ist ein HDR aus 3 Aufnahmen.

Sintra in the sun

Sintra is World Cultural Heritage - this is the view from in front of the main castle onto Sintra.

The HDRs are made of 3 exposures each, blended in Fusion mode in Dynamic Photo HDR. Some color correction made in Photoshop afterwards.

Ontop of the hill in the back you can see the Castelo dos Mouros - the moors' castle, which is just left in its basic form.

Sintra ist Weltkulturerbe. Diese Aufnahmen stammen vom Platz vor dem wichtigsten Schloss in der Stadt. Im Hintergrund sieht man auf dem Berg das Castelo dos Mouros - die maurische Burg.

Die HDRs sind aus jeweils 3 Aufnahmen zusammengesetzt, verbunden in Dynamic Photo HDR im Fusion Mode.

The backstreets of Lisbon

This HDR is a small road underneath the castle of Lisbon. We walked up the hill from the river and got lost in the little roads, walkways and staircases on purpose for a while.

These HDRs are made of 3 exposures each, handheld and joined in Dynamic Photo HDR.

Spiraling Down

Spiral stairs in the castel in Tomar. Handheld HDR, 3 exposures, merged in Dynamic Photo HDR.

Óbidos in HDR

These two HDRs show Obidos, Portugal. They both constist of 3 exposures and are blended in Dynamic Photo HDR.

Obidos is a really well kept historical town with a surrounding city wall and a castle at the end of that wallring. It was fun walking around the tiny roads and little backstreets in daytime and also at night.

The dinner we had in a very well run small restaurant in the middle of town was a real winner, too. Octopus that melted in our mouth and steak that fell appart to the touch. Good wine, good port wine and a little glass of Ginja do Obidos - sherry liqueur that is very red and very sweet. We preferred the "Oppidum" brand.

on top of the hill

Coimbra, from the hill over the river.

HDR of 3 exposures.

The gate is open

Coimbra, Sé Vellha

Peniche Fortress

I know I am posting an awefull lot of Portugal photos these days. But here is yet another one:

Peniche, Atlantic coast in middle Portugal.

HDR of 3 exposures

sunny alley

This little back street alley was in Obidos, Portugal, April 2012.

HDR of 3 exposure, merged in Dynamic Photo HDR, finished in Photoshop CS 5.

Tree's roots

 

Lisbon, April 2012, HDR of 3 exposures, black and white, merged in Dynamic Photo HDR.

a really large tree

In Lisbon we came across the largest tree that I saw in while - spread out as it was in that park.

The HDR consists of 3 exposures from tripod, merged in Dynamic Photo HDR, finished in Photoshop CS 5.

Lisbon, Portugal, April 2012.

Portugese Castle and Church

The stromy and windy weather that we partially met in Portugal this month was providing us with really nice HDR-material. I totally love clouds in the sky and apreciate the extra motive in the photos. A totally couldless sky is not so desirable, if you ask me.

Here is a first one of this vacation to Portugal. 

Sky

HDR of 9 exposures, tripod, composed in Dynamic Photo HDR. 

Sky in Germany close to some hefty thunderstorm. We didn't have long before we had to run from hale after I took the photo.

A North Sea Wreck

Ship wreck on the eastern tip of Norderney, Germany. HDR of 3 exposures. More pictures of Norderney you find under the side bar tag: "north sea".

Beach and Tracks

Norderney, Germany, HDR of 3 exposures, joined in Photomatix, changed with PS CS 5 - for a change...

Alpine Church

HDR of 3 exposures of a church in Fulpmes, Austria. Composed in Dynamic Photo HDR.

Lava and Moss

In Iceland we often pass these landscapes of lava covered in moss. Here is an HDR of one of those shere endless fields along the southern coast. Did you think that that is what lava fields look like?

I love the organic look of the landscape. It looks all soft and cushy, but once you stand close, it looks like you can not even think of walking over that scared and bubbled ground. You shouldn't anyways, since the ecosystem gets destroyed if you trample the moss.

Counting sheep

No, there are no sheep and nobody expects you to count them right now. But when high season comes, sheep counting is all that counts here.

The sheep are herded down from the mountains and the back country ranges. Then they need to be sorted to go home to their respective farms. For this, there are sheep corals in certain places. This is one of the bis ones we saw.

The sheep all go into the middle, then they can be sorted into the sections to be taken home.

click to enlarge

This HDR is made of 2 RAW files, since I did not use a tripod and shook during the third exposure. It did work out well enough.

There is, of course, a clean and colored version of this photo. But I did like the old fashioned look of this variation. How do you like it?