LightningPaul - photoblog

International Fireworks Festival Duinbergen 2011 #1

LightningPaul — 2011-08-22

Picture of the first day of the international fireworks festvial in Knokke-Heist. That day it was a fireworks-company from Spain. TECH-INFO: this time I wanted to include people to get a sense of scale. I was standing in front of the happening. For this type of images you need a tripod. I'm still experimenting with the exposure length. I'll be posting more trials the next coming days and weeks.

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Church in center of St Petersburg

LightningPaul — 2011-08-16

Shot somewhere in the city of St Petersburg. TECH-INFO: one RAW image converted into a HDR image. After tone-mapping I worked on colors and contrasts in Photoshop.

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Peterhof in St Petersburg

LightningPaul — 2011-06-11

This week I was in St-Petersburg for business. Luckily we had some time to visit this beautiful garden with golden statues. It was amazing to see. Later I'll post more pictures of my trip. TECH-INFO: I shot 9 images handheld with each a stop differences to capture the range (7 would have been enough actually). Merge them into a HDR shot with Photomatix Pro. The newest version (that is 4) does ghost removal which was very handy because some people were moving in the frame. After tone-mapping I enhanced contrasts and brightened some parts. Also vignetting is added.

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Little Lion

LightningPaul — 2011-05-24

When kids come from school or day care (during vacation) they are beautifully painted on the face. I'm a bit sorry for the long delay between this and my previous post. Work and family life took all my time. Now have more time and a bunch of new images to post frequently. I hope you'll enjoy them the next coming weeks and months. TECH-INFO: The light is coming from a big window at left. I think I used some white towel at the right but I'm not sure anymore. RAW converted with DxO Optics Pro. In Photoshop I enhanced colors. Especially with the brush tool (and using layers for darkening or brightening) I added extra contrast, made the white color whiter and other parts darker. The eyes are very slightly brightened. Also the edges and corners are darkened.

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Beautiful Winter Day at Beach

LightningPaul — 2011-01-24

At the Belgium coast we have a lot of miserable days. Such ones where the sky is flat gray, rather windy, very humid and mostly raining. It makes you stay inside the whole day because it's just not nice at all outside. Luckily once in a while we have a blue sky, lots of sun and not too much wind. It's the ideal time to go to the beach with your children. Even if it's 4 degrees Celsius outside. TECH-INFO: I was sitting on my knees (see the shadow) and took 5 images too merge them into HDR one. During tone-mapping I enhanced details in brighter and darker areas. In Photoshop I added a gradient layer to darken the sky, tweaked the colors with the selective color tool and brightened the foreground a bit. Also vignetting is added. Enjoy!

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Town as a Little World

LightningPaul — 2011-01-11

This half of the town Sluis, in South of Holland, near the Belgium border. Many Belgians go for shopping over there because prices are (much) cheaper (is typical for Holland). During the Christmas period they have setup a ferris wheel on market in the center. Enjoy the view! TECH-INFO: a fish eye lens made it easy to capture the whole and fantastic view. After RAW conversion in DxO Optics Pro (I turned off the geometric corrections otherwise I would loose the fish eye look), I boosted the contrast in Photoshop, followed by some desaturation with the B/W tool and at the end I added very strong vignetting which gives the image a kind of circular fish eye look.

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Kid at Christmas

LightningPaul — 2010-12-26

A nice little boy playing and having a peek at his toy and Christmas tree. Merry Christmas for all of you. TECH-INFO: this picture is actually not taken by myself but by a good friend. I have set up the lighting and settings on my camera, she framed and pushed at the right moment. Thanks to her I have some very nice images of me with my family that day (including the day before). I used two speedlight flashes. One at the right pointing to wall and one at the left behind the camear lighting the the ceiling. This gives a nice soft and flattering light. Look at the Christmas ball in the tree to get an idea. After RAW conversion in DxO Optics Pro I made the background a bit darker in Photoshop. Also colors and contrasts are enhanced, it's partly destaturated and cropped into 2/1 format. Finally vignetting is added.

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Snow Fun with the Kids

LightningPaul — 2010-12-19

The last couple of days it has been snowing a lot in Belgium (and especially in the surrounding countries). At coast we have hardly any snow but this time we got lots of it. TECH-INFO: the first key was to do good RAW conversion. I used DxO Optics Pro to get optimal colors, contrast and lighting balance. It's a terrific tool for accurate and still having popping converted RAW's. Afterwards in Photoshop I boosted the blue colors, made the people a bit brighter and added heavy vignetting.

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Another of the Financial Buildings in Warsaw

LightningPaul — 2010-12-11

One of those beautiful buildings in the business center of Warsaw, Poland. TECH-INFO: 5 shots taken on a tripod. Merged into a HDR image and tone-mapped with Photomatix Pro 4. In Photoshop I enhanced several parts using masked adjustment layers. Mainly colors are boosted (like blacks, yellows, reds and blues), the front part with with enlightened glass got a boost, global desaturation is done with the B/W tool and vignetting is added.

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The wooden dome at Beaufort 3 #4

LightningPaul — 2010-12-05

It has been a while that I posted an image of this artwork. See here for the previous one. TECH-INFO: The lines are not straight because I used a fish eye lens. The image consists of 5 shots merged into HDR and tone-mapped in Photomatix Pro. HDR was needed to capture all details. In Photoshop I slightly enhanced colors and added vignetting.

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Old Peugeot Diesel decorating Garden

LightningPaul — 2010-11-29

Taken at the same place of the previous image on my blog. TECH-INFO: very similar as the previous image (one RAW file => HDR => tone-mapped). The background is darkened, contrasts enhanced.

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Car as Garden

LightningPaul — 2010-11-26

Shot in Boulogne-sur-Mer in North of France. TECH-INFO: one RAW file converted into multiple JPG's with different exposures to merge them into a HDR file. Tone-mapping is used for boosting the details and colors. In Photoshop I used dodging and burning using masked adjustment layers in multiply and screen blending mode. Also vignetting is added.

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