Passport Sunday How-To

If you’re a Passport Member, then today is the day for a new how-to video! In today’s tutorial, you’ll see how I created this photo below. Passport Members have an extra little section that opens up so they can see behind-the-scenes and how-to videos. Enjoy!

New Presets Added to Passport!

For all you Passport people, as well as getting the new travel photography tutorial added back in November, my Aurora HDR 2019 presets pack is now included in your subscription. Go grab it now…

Making of the Rabat Shot

This was a very quick under-3 minute edit that I think you’ll enjoy! (And remember, the Presets section of Passport now includes the download of my Aurora HDR 2019 pack. Have fun!)

Exclusive content for Passport members

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Daily Photo – Standing Guard in Rabat

Here’s a photo I just finished and I really like the way it turned out. I was in Rabat, Morocco, and visited this tomb just as it opened. There was almost no one around, and I gave the “international signal” asking if it was okay to take his photo. He gave me a mustachioed nod, so I took a quick one. Believe it or not, I spelled mustachioed correctly the first time… I was waiting for the red squiggly.

Standing Guard in Rabat

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 21:04:30
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/200
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Trey Ratcliff, Tomb Editor

That clever name was not created by me, but Stu up in Scotland. He’s the good lad that helps edit together all these special videos for Passport Members! Thanks Stu! Today’s special Passport Bonus section shows how I processed this image. Enjoy!

In this quick video tip I’ll show you how I post-process a 3 shot bracketed image using Aurora HDR 2018.

Exclusive content for Passport members

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Daily Photo – Mohammad’s Tomb in Rabat

This is the second photo that I have edited from this tomb, and I believe I like this one better. It’s amazing how much better I’ve come to learn Aurora HDR in just the past few years. In fact, I can’t even remember if I edited the other photo from this tomb with Aurora or Photomatix. Man, my memory is the worst. THE WORST. I hope Google hurries up with their AI because my HI is really leaking like a sieve.

Mohammad’s Tomb in Rabat

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 21:24:43
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/5
• Aperture6.3
• ISO250
• Focal Length11.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-0.3

Aurora HDR Pro 1.2 is here!

Check it out, Aurora HDR Pro 1.2 has been released with a whole lotta improvements and some sparking new features! 🙂

Here’s one of my favourite recent photos from my family trip that was done in Aurora HDR Pro! Look at all that glow action!

NEW FEATURES:
1.Photos for Mac editing extensions support
2.Leica M Monochrome (type 246) RAW file support
3.Open/Save for .HDR and .EXR image formats

IMPROVEMENTS:
1.Better RAW file handling for Panasonic, Olympus and Fuji images
2.Updates to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plug-ins
3.Enhanced masking brush
4.Improved clipping results for overall HDR effect
5.Improved chromatic aberration reduction
6.Better UI support for 11″ and 13″ displays
7.Improved performance and various bug fixes

Well, this day started out great

You’ll read more about it below, but about 30 minutes after this I was in a car crash! My taxi hit another car in downtown Rabat that had run a red light. We t-boned it and I had on no seat belt! Half of me ended up in the front seat with a super-bruised right knee! Everyone jumped out of their cars and it was like a crazy Moroccan street fight. I was thinking I GOTTA GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! So I jumped out very clumsily, pulled my suitcase from the trunk and limped away for about half a km till I was way out of that area… jumped in another cab, then hit the train station to exit stage left!

Daily Photo – Standing Guard at the Tomb

I was only briefly in Casablanca before moving on here to Rabat, Morocco. The first place I visited here was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. I arrived way too early and it was closed. So I kind of loitered around… it was my first real day in Morocco so I was just wandering like a babe in the woods… it was so awesome. I made friends with the other guards that were waiting to get in, then I was able to be first and get a few choice shots while everyone set up for the day of guarding the tomb!

Standing Guard at the Tomb

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 21:26:41
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/400
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

New Bonus Pack for the Holidays!

I just released this new set of Lightroom Presets for the Holidays! This pack has 10 of my new favorites… it’s been about half a year since I have released anything, and this stuff has been building up in my Lightroom, so, anyway, here’s a great pack for you!

Which presets come in this 2014 Holiday Preset pack?

“Abs Underneath”
“Candy-Coloured Fishnets”
“Game of Stones”
“Morning Without Chaos”
“Red Planetlight”
“Samurai Kiss”
“Sandstorm Beyond”
“Something Borrowed”
“Warmer Fruitpop”
“Zenith No

Daily Photo – A Tomb Guard in Rabat

It’s hard to believe that this photo was only edited in Lightroom! You should have seen the “Before” version. The entire interior was pretty much black and in shadow. Even though I know the power of Lightroom and RAW files, I’m constantly amazed and surprised with what you can do!

I was actually inside the tomb of Mausoleum of Mohammed V at the time I took this. It was dark inside compared the outside, but I had to expose for the guard himself, otherwise he would be hopelessly (and probably un-recoverably) overexposed!

A Tomb Guard in Rabat

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 21:26:41
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/400
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

The New Commencement

I know we have thousands of people that have signed up to be in The Arcanum, and maybe this video will just make you feel even more anxious! I hope not… but this is a new video I just released and you can see more about what happens on the inside! 🙂

Daily Photo – In the Mausoleum of Mohammed V

What a beautiful Mausoleum this is! I arrived here to see it at sunrise, but it was closed, and I ended up waiting outside for an hour. I was excited because I was gonna be one of the first in line, but it turned out that no one even got there from the public! It was practically empty, so I was very lucky. There was a no-tripod rule, so I had to do this HDR handheld.

One of the cool things about this photo that you can see if you zoom into the large version is the man sitting on the bottom level, praying.

In the Mausoleum of Mohammed V

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 21:21:27
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/4
• Aperture6.7
• ISO250
• Focal Length11.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Storybird

Have you ever tried out this thing called “Storybird“? If you have kids, I think it is certainly worth a try!

Daily Photo – Little girl on a long blue road

I loved exploring this very old part of Rabat. In this one area, there were a lot of these sorts of amazing streets with blue trimmings. I set up here and waited for a child or something interesting to run down the street. And sure enough, it happened! It was actually bright enough that I was still able to freeze the quick movement even at a high ISO. That always makes the post-processing so much easier.

Little girl on a long blue road

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 23:20:21
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1500
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length13.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2

Reflective Path Trick

The path was already nice and shiny, but here’s a good way to get it to be extra-reflective and goody-shiny in the final photo:

1) Duplicate the layer
2) Blur the new layer on top (Gaussuan around 30)
3) Set the blend mode to Overlay (you’ll see the path get all shiny-shiny!)
4) Duplicate the bottom (original) layer again and move it to the top
5) Mask through to the reflective path!

Daily Photo – The Path in Rabat

This is the very first place I stayed when I got to Rabat, Morocco. This is the interior courtyard and it was pretty in the day, and I had a feeling it would be even better in the night. Indeed it was! I like setting up these kind of shots where the path does not go down the very center, but a bit off to the side, disappearing at the Phi point.

The Path in Rabat

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-01 11:04:40
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time30
• Aperture9.5
• ISO100
• Focal Length13.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+2

Perfect for HDR

This hallway was so full of textures and light and color that it was perfect for HDR! In case you are new to the site, be sure to check out the free HDR Tutorial that can show you how to do this stuff. It’s so fun, and very easy! For those of you that got the full new video, one of the bonus sections shows exactly how I got the reds out of this photo… it was problematic because the exposures all originally looked quite orange!

Daily Photo – A hallway of mirrors in Rabat

This was the entrance to one of the most amazing places I ate in Morocco. So, there are these places called “riads” — which is like a small family-based hotel. It’s somewhere between a hotel and a bed & breakfast. They often have a central courtyard and rooms that face inwards that go up three or four stories. Many of them serve dinners, like this one I visited. This long red hallway was the entrance to the riad, and more pictures are coming… maybe even some food photos!

A hallway of mirrors in Rabat

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-03-02 08:50:29
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time3
• Aperture6.7
• ISO160
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias