If you follow my photoshop tutorial videos and photography tips on my YuoTube channel, then you know that I use HDR efex pro 2 for my HDR fun, however, Photomatix, which is a software I that I used before, has introduced some interesting updates, I tried switched today to Photomatix and redone this night shot of Hakozaki highway junction in central Tokyo. I mixed only two exposures in Photomatix, and then did some gentle digital blending in photoshop to fix the highlights and the sky, and the result is pretty awesome. The final result looks much more realistic and HDR-y. I think I will create a new video on th
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This shot is depicts exactly the same spot as this one here, but I shot this using a special photography technique. I framed the shot on a tripod, and set the exposure to 1 second. Then, after pressing the shutter, i manually zoomed into the frame. It is a trial and error technique, and it took me a few tries to get those light streaks to be straight lines, and not some wobbly curved lines. You should definitely try this, it works both at night and during the daytime, though when it is dark and the lights are popping out, the effect is more striking. Then I sat down and wrote the Chinese calligraphy of two characters, 東京 (Tokyo), in ancient seal script, and added it to the photo in photoshop.
Infrastructure of Tokyo is insane. From the layers of underground railway, to the elevated highways meandering between buildings like wild snakes, to the network of tiny tight roads where only one small car can pass. It all works together like a Swiss watch, with trains running on time, and roads diffusing the massive car traffic. This photo was taken near Shibuya station, and it is a great example of how dense the infrastructure of Tokyo really is.
Technique: This is a manually created HDR image, through digital blending, i.e. manual blending of layers in photoshop. Digital blending allows for displaying a larger spectrum of dynamic range between the dark and bright tones, as well as deciding on selecting desirable details from various exposures. In this case I mixed the steaks of car lights from 3 exposures, and then the dark and brighter parts of the photo from another 2 captures. To learn more about photo retouching visit my YouTube channel with photoshop tutorials. So we were out in Shibuya in central Tokyo, shooting a beauty session on the busy and humid streets, and we in the middle of it when a wild storm invaded the peaceful skies. A few minutes in and I captured this image, from under the overpass near Shibuya station. I blended this image manually from 3 exposures, though all of the photo were exposed at the same EV value. I simply wanted to grab the best traffic blurs and the storm itself.
I love to roam around Tokyo at night taking photos. The colours, the buzz, the atmosphere of a mega huge metropolis are fantastic and addictive. There is no such thing as the danger of running out of subjects to photograph here. Sometimes I like to put on my telephoto lens, and condense the view to make the scene even more crazy and colourful. Shibuya crossing is one of those spots, where endless rivers of people are flowing all day long, till late evening hours. To create this shot I used a technique known as digital blending, which is more or less a fully manually created HDR image, i.e. an photo assembled from a few different exposures in photoshop or any other photo editing software that allows for layer blending.
To learn more about photo editing, feel free to check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel, with tons of tutorials. I am positing there two tutorials per week. There are two really great times during the year to shoot panoramas and cityscapes in Tokyo. One is during winter season, more or less three months, between December and February, and the other one is during summer, starting at the end of July. While the winter season is great for crisp sharp cityscapes, the summer time offers more moody scenarios. Humidity reaches 85% and above during summer time, and the air is so heavy, it looks like a fog. This photo was shot today, from Shinkiba station platform. It is a digital blend of a three exposures.
Japan is another planet, no doubt about that. Once you get off from the plane you ll get the picture. And here is mine, shot yesterday from the platform on Shibuya Station. It is an overview of the famous Shibuya crossing, with a few pedestrians passing by :-). Shibuya is a one gigantic shopping mall, with thousands and thousands of young people roaming about. Quite a sight.
Shibuya is one of the busiest spots in Tokyo, located in the very centre of Metropolis, it attracts mainly young people and shopaholics. This place never sleeps, and the flowing traffic never ceases. It is also one of the coolest and most versatile places for photographers. You can shoot very unique portraits of Shibuya typical resident visitors, capture some amazing street shots, go nuts with architecture photography, or even city scape if you find an open staircase in one of thousands of claustrophobic buildings. In short, Shibuya is a great place to roam with your camera, regardless of what type of photography you may like best! Photo: HDR image of one of two bus terminals located just outside Shibuya station, created via digital blending technique in photoshop.
For those of you who are into HDR photography, I recommend my video with 10 tips on how you can improve it! Wearing a traditional wedding kimono is a full time job. That is a lot of fabric. Japanese service is usually over the top, but during wedding ceremonies it is completely bananas. One has to see it to believe it, 7 people fixing the kimono, 2 photographers and 6 assistants, and the list goes on. Come to think of it, there are more organisers than guests. No wonder that a wedding at Meiji Jingu in Tokyo costs up to $100,000.
All craziness aside, wedding kimono is a piece of art. They are extremely expensive, for which reason brides rent them for a wedding day. If you are visiting Tokyo, make sure to visit Meiji Jingu on Sunday for the endless parade of wedding ceremonies. It is quite a sight. I was going back home from a photo shoot the other day, and when I saw this staircase I just had to take a shot. It would seem that it is easy to capture the simplest and most ordinary things that we usually do not pay any attention to, but the truth is it is not so simple at all. Making art out of nothing requires some thought and vison, but it is a great exercise for any artist, and photographers are no exception here. I took three exposures of this scene, and wanted to make an HDR image out of them, but in the end, I went for digital blending in photoshop (manual process). Then, I worked on dodging and burning specific areas after converting it into black and white. I am not sure if this staircase will ever get as much attention as it received from me :-)
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Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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