Behind the shot

Time blen­ding – why it pays to focus on just one image 

Tonight will be a piece of cake. All weather models are predic­ting a beau­tiful sunset. I arrive on site in good time and am pretty sure what I want to photo­graph and how. My tripod, camera and filters are set up in no time, and the sunset is already looking really great at sunset. Now I just have to wait until it really kicks in. But wait a minute, has it already faded a little between the last two shots? Yes… what now? 

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Behind the shot

Nether­lands classics 

Oh man, what’s wrong with my timing? Pheno­menal golden light shines on the land­scape in front of me. I look at my car’s spee­do­meter. I’m already going a little too fast. And there are speed cameras ever­y­where here in the Nether­lands. Two more turns. Damn, another red light. Maybe it’ll stay red for another 10 minutes, who knows. Just a few more metres and I’ll reach the car park, but then the great light was gone. But the clouds look promi­sing. Don’t give up too soon, I thought to myself, and we set off along the path past these beau­tiful wind­mills in the Netherlands.

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Behind the shot

Wood­land photo­graphy at twilight 

I recently spent a few days travel­ling with my family in the Nether­lands and disco­vered a lovely little forest with some inte­res­ting trees close to the beach. However, the weather during those days was a bit unpre­dic­table. It was either pure suns­hine or pouring rain. Neither of these condi­tions encou­raged me to go outside and take photos in the forest. How could I still get some great shots? Then I had an idea. I’ll go when the sun isn’t bothe­ring me. Blue, diffuse, mystical. In this blog/vlog, I’ll show you why the blue hour is an under­rated time for forest photography. 

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Behind the shot

One lens for everything 

FOMO – Fear of missing out. I think we all know what that is, right? Some­times it’s really bad for me. When the weather is great and I have to work or I have other plans, I get it – the fear of missing out on the perfect shot. That’s why I quickly expanded my lens coll­ec­tion. It ranges from 16 mm to 400 mm. Now it even goes up to 600 mm. With a tele­con­verter, that’s actually 1200 mm. I usually have ever­y­thing with me so I don’t miss a shot. What happens? Some­times you miss the shot anyway. Chan­ging lenses takes time. Setting out with only one focal length helps crea­ti­vity; it’s limi­ting on the one hand, but it gives you freedom on the other. If I had to give up all my lenses except one, which one would I keep?

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Behind the shot

Incre­dibly diverse — the dune land­scape of the Netherlands 

Phew… I worked up a sweat again. I had already realised that the condi­tions were going to be fanta­stic that evening. I had scouted out a spot, but hadn’t had time to check it out yet. It should actually be fine if I get there early and have a look around. However, I hadn’t reckoned with my children and so — as a father of two — I ended up with less time than I had hoped. But see/read for yourself.

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Image proces­sing

Bild­be­ar­bei­tung in Luminar Neo 

Skylum had asked me if I knew Luminar? Yes, I said, of course! But so far I’ve only ever used it for one or two effects as a plugin in Photo­shop. Perso­nally, I think the color harmony func­tion is bril­liant. Luminar has changed a lot in the last few years. Can it also prove itself as a “stand-alone” in a complete image editing work­flow? And has it really become as fast as promised? Let’s find out in this BLOG/VLOG!

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Blog

Pola­ri­sing filters in woodlandphotography 

It is the only filter that cannot be imitated using other photo­gra­phic tech­ni­ques or image proces­sing skills, which is why it is probably the only indis­pensable filter in land­scape photo­graphy: the circular pola­ri­sing filter, or CPL for short. You can find out about its effect on photos and how to use it correctly, espe­ci­ally in rela­tion to forest photo­graphy, here. Also: when it’s better to leave it out. Have fun reading. 

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Behind the shot

The perfect morning? — The only important tip in photography 

Oh, it could just have been the perfect morning. The mood of the light, the presence of the perfect amount of misty haze, the spring green and me stan­ding in the biggest sea of wild garlic to take pictures. But the world isn’t perfect and so it is that some places full of wild garlic fell victim to the forestry work in winter and the other­wise perfect morning didn’t coin­cide with the peak of the wild garlic blossom. A pity really. Nevert­heless, some great pictures were taken and I have a very basic tip for you in this BLOG/VLOG!

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Image proces­sing

The influence of image proces­sing on nature photography 

Maybe you’ve been there: You’re on a holiday that you’ve been saving up for for a long time and you capture your expe­ri­ences in pictures. After­wards, you’re a little disap­pointed because your pictures don’t even begin to reflect what you saw. If you have photo­gra­phed in JPG, you won’t be able to do much about it, and some of the pictures might just be for the bin. However, if you have saved the RAWs at the same time, your chances of getting some­thing out of the images increase signi­fi­cantly. This BLOG is all about what is possible with modern image proces­sing using the RAWs of today’s cameras. PS: Without sky repla­ce­ment or adding atmo­spheric elements!

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Behind the shot

Ein Morgen am See 

Obwohl ich im Winter für den Sonnen­auf­gang wesent­lich später hätte aufstehen müssen, als jetzt, wo es schon bald Früh­ling wird, bin ich kaum zum Foto­gra­fieren unter­wegs gewesen. Aber heute habe ich mich über­wunden, denn ich wollte eine träu­me­ri­sche Aufnahme an einem See mit Morgenrot aufnehmen. Also raus aus den Federn, solange die Familie noch schläft und los zu einem nicht all zu weit entfernten See.

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