Textured Venice
A textured canal shot from Venice, Italy...
Venice is so stunningly beautiful.
I loved wandering in Venice. It seems at every turn there is some interesting and beautiful scene, and of course it always involves a canal or two! Today's photo is one that I captured just outside of our little apartment rental we had. I literally came out the door, took a left turn, and started shooting. This stuff is everywhere.
I created this HDR in Aurora and then decided I would add a basic texture to it as well. While I don't use textures on many photos, I find that when I do it really does add an interesting element to the shot. In fact, I have started taking textured photos when I travel so that I have some of my own I can use. It's rather fun!
Blue hour in Venice
A pair of blue hour shots from lovely Venice, Italy - so gorgeous after dark!
Just a quick post today my friends - a couple of blue hour shots that I captured on two different evenings in the lovely city of Venice, Italy. As you may have seen in my previous blog post, the new app Luminar is coming from Macphun, and I have been REALLY tied up working on videos for them on that one. So, things are great here but really busy. You'll be seeing a lot of stuff on Luminar soon enough, but in the mean time, enjoy these shots from one of my favorite places!
One of many random, small piazzas that I came across while wandering
This is along the promenade right next to Piazza San Marco - so lovely here at night!
The Bridge of Sighs
The Bridge of Sighs, an iconic sight in Venice, captured during a beautiful sunset. Enjoy!
I always loved the name of this bridge!
I learned the name of this bridge many years ago, because it was in a song that I loved and I had to go look it up. It's supposedly named due to it providing the last view of freedom that a prisoner would see as they crossed from the Doge's Palace (on the right) into the prison (on the left), thus eliciting a sigh from them as they realized they would never see the outside world again. Such a great name for a bridge. So poetic. You can just hear them sighing, can't you?
When I was in Venice, this was a shot that I knew I had to capture at least once. It turns out that I shot it 3 or 4 times. This one was during a lovely sunset, which I am rather thankful for! The colors in the sky and of the course the clouds provide a nice backdrop for the image, I believe. It's just not the same with a plain blue sky behind it. Then again, that's probably obvious. A beautiful sunset makes every picture better. ;-)
Venetian laundry
Some Italian laundry hanging out to dry - a fairly common scene across the entire country!
I just love little scenes like this!
Prior to arriving in Venice, I had hoped to encounter a few scenes of laundry hanging out to dry. I have seen so many photos like that over the years (from all around Italy), and I hoped I would be able to find some of that myself.
Well, I didn't have to look too hard in Venice - it was everywhere!
Literally, I saw this stuff around nearly every turn. It's standard there for folks to hang out their laundry to dry, unlike here in the US where we hang the clothes inside or use a dryer. But there, I encountered these scenes all over the place (and all over Italy).
So yeah, I was a happy man, and was able to find scenes to photograph all over the place, without and real effort. All I had to do was walk around a bit!
Gondolas at rest
Some gondolas tied up and waiting for a ride - a common but iconic sight in lovely Venice.
So many great scenes to be photographed in Venice!
Venice is a visual feast. It's just an incredible place. I knew I was going to enjoy photographing it, but boy was I blown away with just how much stuff I was interested in aiming the camera at. It was one of those places where you fear putting the camera back in the bag in case you miss something.
One thing I shot a lot of there - of course - is the gondolas. They are a globally recognized symbol of the city, and they are everywhere. Having been to Venice a couple of times in my life (though it has been many years since my last visit), I knew I was going to find them and shoot them, but I didn't expect to see so many of them. No complaints of course! :-)
I was out looking for good views of the Rialto Bridge around sunset one day and came across these gondolas, tied up and waiting for their captains, I guess. I started out framing them from the side, with the Rialto Bridge in the background, but I didn't really like the composition too much, so I decided to just shoot them head on. Having the gorgeous buildings in the background looked good to me, so I fired away. The fading light of sunset didn't hurt either. Score!
Such a colorful scene - and a colorful city - and one that I thoroughly enjoyed! Thanks for stopping by!
1 photo, 5 looks - the versatility of Aurora HDR 2017
Today I explore creative options in Aurora HDR 2017 from Macphun. Many people think HDR photos all look the same, but I prove that you can get a wide range of outputs with this powerful product. Have a look and see which version you like best!
Aurora HDR 2017 is a lot more than "just" an HDR editor. It's a full solution to processing any image. Your creative output is limited only by your imagination.
I think that a lot of people - especially those that are not using HDR techniques in their photography - feel like all HDR photos look the same. I don’t feel that way at all, although of course it’s rather obvious why they may think that. I get it.
While I think we all end up with a particular look that we like, and thus employ in a lot of our images, HDR actually allows you quite a bit of latitude in processing and stylizing options. In other words, all HDR photos are not the same, it’s just that we aren’t often being imaginative enough (and I include myself in that diagnosis).
I have accumulated a lot of software over the years, perhaps in hopes of having different tools handy which would presumably allow me to achieve more variety and different looks in my photos. But having the tools and being good with them are entirely different stories.
I have just about everything there is, but I am no better with some of it than anyone else. In fact, some of it I have never even used. If you don’t use it, how are you going to get good at it? What difference does it make then? Sure, you have the option to use it, but that requires a time and effort investment to learn how to use it, and an even larger amount of time to get good enough at it that you could theoretically get really creative with it.
Back at the start of this year, I changed my philosophy about having a lot of tools, and decided that I would get more out of a product suite - and thus more creativity in my output - if I could just go deeper with a few programs and get really comfortable with them.
That’s when I decided on Macphun, and I haven't looked back. (You can read about that here.)
Since that decision, I have dropped use of all the other software that I used for years, and now I completely use Aurora HDR 2017 (you can read about the new version here and here) and the other Macphun products in their Creative Kit (prior to the release of Aurora 2017, I used the previous version exclusively). I use Aurora on about 99% of my images, so you might think that I would end up feeling limited in my processing options. You know, that I might feel a bit restricted, since I pretty much just use one product.
Truthfully, I feel completely the opposite. I feel much freer than before.
I no longer have multiple products to take an image into and experiment with, and multiple products that I have to spend time learning and staying up to date with. I have a single product that I can go incredibly deep with, and by going deep and focusing I can get more out of it. I can learn to be flexible and maintain control over my images by becoming a master of a single product. And the only way to get really good at something is to focus, right? How can you possibly master everything? I don’t have the time for that, or the interest, frankly.
I have learned that I can achieve ANYTHING I want to achieve with a single product - Aurora. It’s that good and that flexible. I loved the previous version, and Aurora HDR 2017 has gotten even better.
If you are interested in a free trial of Aurora HDR 2017, you can download that here. Give it a test drive!
So as I was thinking about this article, I figured that the best way to illustrate my point is to show you some photos. All of these were built upon the same 3 exposure HDR, and all edits were done strictly in Aurora. No Lightroom, no Photoshop, and not even any edits in other Macphun products. It’s all Aurora HDR 2017 (the one exception is the textured photo, because textures are not stored in Aurora, so I pulled that file in to apply to the image, but all adjustments were in Aurora).
I wanted to challenge myself to see just how creative I could get, and see if I could produce a variety of different looks to a photo - looks that I actually like. You know, not different for the sake of being different, but to push my creative self and explore options that are pleasing to my eye. And I hoped that I might expand my creative thinking in the process. Isn’t that what this photography thing is about, anyway?
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. -- George Bernard Shaw
I feel like I achieved exactly that, and truthfully I feel like I could pull off several more versions of this photo that are pleasant. It really does come down to experimenting, learning a product, and not being afraid to try something that you may not initially like. You could end up with many photos that you like, instead of just one.
So pick a product, go deep, experiment, explore, mess up and try again. Get out there and create something - anything - and then create it again, but differently. It’s an amazing exercise in creativity, and you will certainly learn something along the way.
Here are 5 versions of the photo, all created in Aurora HDR 2017. See how different they are? Variety is your friend, my friends. Don't hesitate to do some experimentation.
The Textured version
The moody version
The crisp and cheerful version
The blue hour version
The stark monochrome version
See the variety here? I even created the monochrome in Aurora HDR 2017, despite the fact that Macphun's Tonality product is the best black and white editor on the planet. I use Tonality for all my monochromes - except the one above, of course. That just further demonstrates the flexibility of Aurora HDR 2017.
Do you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments section below!
Download a free trial of Aurora!
If you are interested, take a test drive for free! You can download a free trial of Aurora by clicking here. No commitment and no worries - just try it out and discover for yourself just how flexible the product really is. I believe you will be blown away. Even if you don't do anything with HDR, the power and flexibility of Aurora is great for single exposures, too.
And if you need help while you are test driving it, check out my YouTube channel for videos that show you how I use it. Here's one that I think will help get you started:
Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions!
Just another Venetian sunset
Don't you love it when you get a wonderful sunset at the place you have always wanted to photograph a wonderful sunset? Yeah, sometimes it happens, and when it does, IT'S AWESOME.
I'm working my way through my Venice photos, slowly.
As I've mentioned here before, I am on a multi-week grand tour of Italy with the family. We spent about 5 days in Venice early on in the trip, then onto Florence and more. I'll provide a full report later, but in short it's been fabulous, as any trip to Italy can only be.
Venice was a bit of a photographic dream for me. I had been before, but it was years ago and I didn't know anything about photography back then. This time, I was armed with all my gear, a full list of spots I wanted to shoot, and fingers crossed in hopes of good light.
I got it.
I spent a couple of hours in the area where today's photo was taken, which is along the Riva Degli Schiavone (and yes, I had to look that up!). It's a huge promenade that runs alongside the canal, starting at the Doge's Palace/St Mark's Square area and continuing on for a while (I did not walk the whole thing).
I fired away at the gondolas under a stunning sunset, and have to admit that I was pretty damn excited the whole time. I was silently high-fiving myself while this light was occurring. I always hope for great light, but when it actually shows up along with great clouds AND you happen to be in the perfect spot - well that deserves a little celebration, don't you think?
Afternoon at The Rialto Bridge
Sometimes you have to give up looking for original shots and just join in with the crowd to get the shot you want. And sometimes it's worth it to do so.
I thought this was a pretty great view of the Grand Canal!
We spent some time in Venice Italy recently, and one thing I wanted to make sure I did was get some good shots of the Grand Canal. Although it is large, the truth is that you have to really look hard to find it since Venice is basically a labyrinth of sorts. It can get terribly confusing.
So I did my fair share of wandering there, always on the lookout for interesting views, which of course are just about everywhere! But I was also searching for good views of the Grand Canal. I succeeded in finding a few. Oddly, this view I'm sharing today is pretty much the easiest one to find. And believe me, everyone else is there with you. It's not unique in that way.
It's from the top of the Rialto Bridge, which is the oldest bridge crossing the Grand Canal and arguably the most famous. I crossed that bridge countless times during our stay there, since we were in an apartment nearby and always going to and fro.
I kept passing it up, since it was crowded as heck and I wanted to capture something a bit more unique. But finally I stepped over here one day, wedged myself between the tourists and fired some handheld brackets. No way could I set up a tripod in that crowd! Despite the crowd and the lack of originality here, I do have to say it's a pretty awesome view and a photo that I am rather fond of! Sometimes it pays off to swim with the current, right?
iPhone highlights from Venice
We recently spent 5 nights in Venice, Italy and I captured nearly 3,000 photos. Today I share my 5 favorites from my iPhone.
We recently spent 5 nights in Venice, and I left with about 3000 photos. Here are 5 of them, all from my iPhone.
If you follow me on Facebook, you will know that I am traveling around Italy with the family right now. We are on a multi-week trip around the country, exploring a lot of great cities and photographing the heck out of them. Well, I'm photographing the heck out of them. :-)
We arrived in Milan and spent 3 days there, and after that it was off to Venice for 5 nights. If you haven't been, it's beautiful. Let me just say that. Sure, it's a lot of twisting and turning as you try to navigate the streets, but boy is it fun. And if you wear a FitBit, charge that thing because you will be walking a LOT.
Since we are still on the road, I thought I would toss some of my favorite iPhone shots from Venice out there today. I just haven't had time to get to all my "real" photos from my other cameras. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, enjoy these iPhone shots from that gorgeous city in northern Italy. I already want to go back.
And if the photos don't quite show it, I had a couple of amazing sunsets there. And yes, these are all shot on my iPhone. It's all I have found time to edit thus far.
More coming from the rest of Italy as we continue exploring. Right now I am in Florence, and capturing even more Italian goodness here! Come back soon for a taste of it!