I love night cityscapes, both, admiring and photographing them. It is so relaxing to sit some place high overlooking a nice vista, and watch the pulsating city life while waiting for that perfect capture. This is my second photo from a photo walk in Shinbashi, which is located in dead centre of Tokyo, about 10 minutes on foot from Tokyo station. We spent about 1.5h on the top of the building and this is one of the shots from that day. It is yet another night HDR shot, created from 3 exposures, and then manually blended with 2 exposures for cleaning up the street light streaks and office buildings lights. If you are interested in HDR photography or photo editing, please see my YouTube videos.
0 Comments
Today, we went out to shoot the highway junction in Shinbashi in central Tokyo. On the way, I managed to capture this lovely urban shot, just outside one of the exists from the Tokyo station. Can you feel the buzz of rush hours in Tokyo? It is the craziest time to ride the train or subway or walk the streets, which are packed with people to their limits.
Portrait of little Kaisei, that I took last year in Tokyo for one of my clients. We had a smashing photo shoot outside the studio in a nearby park, took a bunch of great shots, but this one is my favourite. If you enjoy this type of photography, have a look at my Ryuurui Foto Studio website.
Today I visited my favourite calligraphy supplies store, Basshodo. The store is located in Ichikawa, and I love everything about it, including all the amazing people who run it. If you need calligraphy supplies, they can ship it outside Japan, so make sure to visit their online store, or mail them with inquiries. Below photo is a true monster, I took 35 exposures, from which I created this humongous HDR image. Full size photo is 15,000 pixels wide and 6000 pixels tall. I crashed my photoshop a few times while trying to save a 2GB file. Great fun.
Here is another photo of the Tokyo International Forum in Chyoda. I decided to post process every photo of its architecture in a different way, by changing tonality, colours and techniques of photo editing. All images will be HDR photos, so combined exposures from 3 to 5 shots, they will all be photos taken on the same day of the same place, but I will try to make each look completely different.
Searching for peace and tranquillity in Tokyo is like trying to get some sleep in a dorm, full of first year hormone-propelled students. I found this place on the 7th floor of Tokyo International Forum building. The whole level was empty and quiet, just the way I like it, not to mention a rather splendid view of the Gotham City of Japan. This photo is an HDR capture, which means that it was edited from a few exposures. In fact, I took this photo myself. First, I shot three exposures for my HDR photo processing software, and then took one more, with me sitting on the floor, using a remote control shutter. Then, I blended all photos together, added the calligraphy work in photoshop, and voila! The Japanese calligraphy text is also written by me, and it reads 心上雲, i.e. "mind above the clouds". Sometimes it is good to be someplace else, even if it is only in your mind.
Today, together with a Japanese photographer Hidehiko Sakashita (check out his photography art on g+!) we have visited the Tokyo International Forum. I must say, what a place! It is a dream playground for any photographer who enjoys shooting architecture. It is a huge structure, made of glass and metal, with a smashing view hugging its translucent walls. We walked around inside the building for nearly 3h, and had a blast snapping photos. I look forward to our next photowalk!
Here, you can watch a full length video, on how I post processed this HDR image. I took this photo last year, during my visit to Hamarikyu Imperial Gardens (浜離宮恩賜庭園) in central Tokyo. I actually went there with the intention of photographing landscapes, but I got lucky and bumped into a wedding photo shoot, so I could not resist. Traditional Japanese wedding kimono is a true masterpiece. It is hand-made, and painfully expensive. Prices can go as high as $30,000 USD. For this reason, most of the couples rent kimono for for their wedding.
Yesterday we had a quiet still night, so I went out to shoot a near Kaihim Makuhari station area once again. It is a business centre, build with glass, steel, and rather interesting illumination. What you see here is a small fountain, a Lawson convenience store in the background, and some other shops which are swarmed with people during the day. But at night, it is very peaceful there; a perfect time for me to visit. I really enjoyed creating this HDR image, and I am thinking of creating a video to show you how this photo was post processed.
Here is another shot of Shinjuku streets at night. This view is just on the opposite side of Shinjuku station bus terminal. The whole place is abundant in subjects for photographs. This is an HDR photo composed from three exposures, and then manually masked in and blended with the fourth exposure. I started to create short tutorials on photo post processing. Hopefully, I will soon move on from simple tips to more complex videos, covering my methods of HDR image processing, which is what I mainly focus on recently.
|
Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
Categories
All
Archives
March 2016
|