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Tokyo International Forum - a true feast for any architecture photographer seeking a great spot to get lost in beauty of steel and glass shapes for a week or two. Seriously, one can spend a month in that place and still find new angles and perspectives to shoot from. I revisited TIF after few month with a solemn purpose of photographing using only ultra wide angle lens. Now this shot was meant to be really cold, so that is why I used cold tones, to emphasize the steel and glass textures, and create a slightly sci fi atmosphere. From this perspective, TIF looks like an interior of a massive alien spacecraft, or a futuristic zeppelin. I think that this place could be amazing spot for my next cyborg photoshop manipulation project. Anyways, If you are after goo Tokyo photos, that place should be on your list.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo
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Sadly, Tokyo International Forum isn't haunted, that is Tristan Junker from Amazing Japan on facebook, with whom I have visited that marvelous piece of architecture, and who was modelling for me. Thanks a lot, Tristan! I absolutely love shooting there, and I bring all my photography students to challenge their composition skills. TIF can be shot during day, at night, and you can use tripods. Higher levels are virtually empty and are a spot often visited by shy couples seeking a refugee, away from the mad rush of Gotham City. The staff is really nice and relaxed. I seriously could shoot there every week, if I had time for it. This time I was photographing with ultra wide angle lens, and today I am editing some of the shots. This photo is a manual blend of 7 exposures, mainly for the shadowy figures of Tristan to be in the right spot. I also maksed in some areas from +1 and -2 and -3 exposures (mainly lights). To learn more about photo editing, visit my YouTube channel, where I have a full workflow photoshop video tutorial on digital blending.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Although I took this shot earlier on this year, I am slowly re-editing all my past photos, to make them remain within the boarders of my current photo editing style. The great thing about shooting photos in RAW format is that you can re-edit them anytime you wish. Naturally, the composition cannot be fixed, but if your editing style changes, you should definitely consider re-doing outdated shots. Then again, this photo was not taken so long ago, and the main reason for retouching is that the previous HDR version was completed i HDR Efex Pro, and recently I find myself creating manually blended HDR photos. It takes much more time, but I am getting much better results. I find myself using HDR programs less and less these days.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo When tourist visit a famous location they usually photograph what they came for, and skip all other things. As a photographer, one should turn his head like a mad parrot with Tourette's syndrome to be able to see everything from all possible angles. If I took the shot of Tokyo Big Sight from the place I was standing, what you see on this photo would be behind my back. Normally, this view would not be that interesting, but those stormy clouds behind the buildings, and the passing Yurikamone line train combined with the sun setting behind my left shoulder, that was lighting all that glass and metal structures were too good of a dramatic view to pass. In fact it was so good, this is the first photo I took when I arrived at the station there. When I was taking the shot I exactly knew how I will post process it, and that it will be a black and white image. Colour image would not be striking enough.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Here is another photo of mine of Tokyo Big Sight's modern architecture. That place is really loaded with great architectural details to photography, be it in colour, or black and white. Below photo shows a corner of one of the inverted pyramids of the central tower, which also acts as a landmark of Tokyo Big Sight, and also Odaiba. Sides of those pyramids are made of triangle-shaped titanium plates. Photo may seem as if was shot at night, but in fact it was a daytime, only the clouds were quite stormy. I added those two birds in photoshop, as I felt that this symmetry needs to be broken for the photo to come alive. I could not call the birds to fly over, so I blended them in. I have recorded my entire workflow so you can see me working on this photo in photoshop Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Conversion to black and white photography is not that simple as one would think. In fact, it is usually more time consuming than editing of a colour photo. Before the conversion can be made, the contrast and colours need to be adjusted. On top of this, if you really want to create a fine art black and white photography, then you will find yourself spending lots of time with pen tool making selections, in order to perform precision dodging and burning of architectural details. Black and white photography is based on 256 tones, whereas colour photography can have millions of colours. On a side note, black and white photography is great for learning how to see tonal differences and contrast, and learn more powerful compositions. If you live or are visiting Tokyo, I organise architecture and urban photography workshops, here are more details.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Photography is an art of capturing light, but for me taking the photo is only 50% of the fun. The other 50% is post processing it. Both take two different types of creativity and artistic sensing. A trick to a good final photo is knowing which direction you wish to take it in post processing. RAW format gives us so much freedom for experimenting, digital blending, composite photography, colouring, and more. The pixels are the limit. When I saw this structure, and those heavy clouds rolling above it, I saw a cold metallic image, with all those lovely triangle and other geometric shapes, bend and curved by shadows and light. I took this shot thinking that I will create a black and white image, and in fact I did, and then I added some colour to it, and I love it. I took this photo two days ago at the Tokyo Big Sight, a true toy store for any architectural or urban photographer. That place is mad, I tell you, MAD!
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Tokyo Big Sight is big, I mean really big. The whole place is an amazing spot for architectural photography, and I reckon you would need three days to shoot it properly and from most of the possible angles. I visited this place two days ago, and I am going back there today in the afternoon. |It is great for black and white fine art photography and photoshop fun, great for HDR enthusiasts, and fantastic for night photography. The surrounding area has also tons of architecture and spots to shoot (just type Odaiba in the search window on this page and you will see all my articles and photos). Tokyo Big Sight will be used for hosting some of the 2020 Olympic Games events, mainly martial arts. The most characteristic structure is the conference tower, with 4 inverted pyramid structures made of titanium panels. Below photo show the entrance to this very tower.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Here is a view from the other side of Dentsu building, which is accessible only if you enter one of the restaurants there. They know it well that people often come there to take photos, so you can easily do that, and tripods are allowed, as long as they do not disturb other customers. There is a table charge fee of 500 JPY / person, so bear that in mind. The view is really nice, and you can capture some smashing panoramas of dense infrastructure of Tokyo. To capture all the views around Dentsu, however, I think you would need to enter 3 different restaurants. This photo is a merge of 9 exposures, which were mainly captured for traffic, trains, and lights variations, and then put together. I also blended neons and street lights from -1 exposure manually to make sure that those arn’t too bright. The bottom part of the picture and any dark areas were masked in in photoshop from +1 exposure. Yes, if you want to get great results, you need to put some work into it, so don’t be lazy and keep masking and blending!
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details.
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