Praha by Night
Another image from Prague near the hotel we stayed at in the run up to Christmas last – almost a year to the day in fact, as it was during the ‘December snows’ which affected much of Western Europe in late 2010. What a contrast with what we have seen so far of winter 2011! Prague is magical this time of year. I’d certainly wrap up warm if you head out to those wonderful christmas markets, whatever the weather
Dvořákovo nábřeží, Prague
I can’t determine if this beautiful building is a government ministry or a hotel. Clocked as we wearily made our way back to the hotel after a long day trudging the tourist trail in Prague. Weekend’s away (particularly in winter) are exhausting when you visit new places! I find we walk for miles and miles, buzzed to see all we can in a very short period of time. Just…can’t….relax
Have you colour calibrated YOUR monitor?
It seems to be ‘Prague season’ on this site at the moment….it just felt like the right thing to do – get my snow shots up and out there on the interweb whilst we ae still in the depths of winter.
HOWEVER! what excites me much more about this particular shot? Well, its the first time I have processed an image in my life, using a properly calibrated monitor, in this case my beloved Macbook Pro.
Until recently I had always dismissed the idea of spending money and effort to calibrate my ‘workspace’ - it seemed over the top. However, I had been getting annoyed at how a shot produced on my computer looked great on my own screen, only to view it elsewhere (another monitor, a print coming back from a lab) and see colours too dark, or too vivid, or a myriad of other problems. I would get the occasional Flickr comment or suchlike that re-inforced this frustration. From early last year, I had started to quite carefully match the colour spaces I work with across all my software/hardware, having read a few books which covered this topic. But that was about it regards calibration and profiles. Anyway, I attended a marvellous convention at the weekend, the SWPP in hammersmith London – its an annual gathering of wedding and event photographers, as well as lots of photography suppliers. I had a really engaging chat with the (very down to earth) guys from Datacolour whilst there. I shared my frustrations whereupon, they showed me some stuff and in short, convinced me in 2 minutes to buy a Spyder Express 3, a piece of hardware/software to calibrate my screen. Its been transformational! Plugged it it, ran the easy to use software, all done in 5 minutes. I’ve been thoroughly impressed so far with the results – I am fairly convinced its going to really the output of my work, both onto the web and in printed form (though print also requires some work on printer profiles, inks etc. to ensure proper colour re-production). The Spyder 3 Express is therefore thoroughly recommended. I’ll really appreciate any comments on the colours and rendition in the shot posted here (and any I post from here on in), bearing in mind they are popping out of my newly super-duper calibrated ’colour machine’. Thanks in advance!
Namesti Republiki
Walking back to our hotel after a long day and night trawling the streets of prague, I managed to convince Barbara to patiently wait for me in the freezing (-20c) cold of prague whilst I set up this shot in the ‘Namesty Republic’ square for three long and shivering exposures. I was surprised Barbara duly obliged, even though she was limping badly after taking a fall on a slippery pavement. She even offered to hold my tripod bag for me – true love right there people! Well, it was the last photo of the night, I’d been a gent all day, and our warm and welcoming Hilton was only 100 metres across the square. I’ve played with the sky a bit in processing the resulting image; there was alot of very fine drizzle in the air, which made the shot look ‘noisy’ -this was accentuated by some of the rather gorgeous night lighting which illuminates the building’s in Prague’s Old Town. A wonderful city by day and by night.
Prague by Night
Overlooking Prague's 'Old Town Square' and its Christmas market. The clocktower makes for a fabulous view, I highly recommend a trip to the top if you ever visit. I have a few more shots to post which were taken here, I hope you enjoy them.
St Vitus Cathedral, Prague
Wow, what an interior! This is the gothic St Vitus Cathedral, Prague. Very hard to shoot as no tripods allowed and millions of tourists, even at 10am with a fierce blizzard outside. Was fun processing this, I’m not delighted with it but was interested to try a technique I’ve seen practised elsewhere. A beautiful place anyway.
Millhouse, Praha
Decembers apparently been the coldest on record in Western Europe. Wow! Leaving London (where the snow never stays for long) I drove to my parent’s home for christmas and was shocked at how much snow was still lying on the ground. Even though it had stopped snowing several days prior, the countryside of England was still carpeted in the stuff – i’ve never seen anything like it (in all my years…grr). Anyway, here’s another prague shot – proper snow business. Some more to come from Central Europe over the next few days and weeks so keep your eyes peeled…merry xmas.
St Charles Bridge, Prague (Karlův most)
A freezing cold Friday morning in December, braving a blizzard and FF-FREEZING temperatures during a pre-Christmas trip we took to Prague. My first time in the Czech republic too wonderful. This is the 14th century Charles Bridge, probably the cities most famous landmark. Luckily on this morning, the snows had driven away the normal crowds of tourists and hawkers. Perfect!
