Amsterdam

Amstel by Night in Amsterdam

During the day canal Amstel is a busy area, with lots of bots in the canal. I guess all canal tours go through here, because it connects some of the interesting areas of Amsterdam. In the far distance you can see the Nationale Opera and Ballet of the Netherlands. On the right there is the Hotel Amstelzicht, which I have stayed at a couple of times.--Jacob Surland www.caughtinpixels.com Licensed creative commons non-commercial v4.0. No derivative Work. Protected by Pixsy.com.

Amstel canal in Amsterdam. On the right-hand side is a small typical Amsterdam Hotel called Hotel Amstelzicht. I have stayed there a couple of times, and the view is amazing.

During the day, Amstel canal is a busy area, with lots of bots in the canal. I guess all canal tours go through here because it connects some of the interesting areas of Amsterdam. In the far distance, you can see the Nationale Opera and Ballet of the Netherlands. On the right, you the Hotel Amstelzicht, which I have stayed at a couple of times.

At Hotel Amstelzicht you can get rooms, with canal view, and it is just amazing to sit and watch through the window and see the locals go around in their small boats. A small family in one, and a bunch of students having a party in another, and then the occasional canal tour boats. You pay a little extra to get the canal view, but it’s worth every penny.

Shoe Boat

Shoe Boat

I guess it’s no surprise that Amsterdam has all these lovely canals. You find house boats, construction boats and just small boats for cruising around in the canals. The yellow shoe shaped boat is one of the more spectacular ones I found.

About the processing

It’s a 5 shot HDR, that I processed with Photomatix. Nothing unusual there. Then I blended layers in Photoshop, to remove a little ghosting in the trees, not much there though. The photo still didn’t really pop the way that I had hoped. I had managed to get a not very pretty handle of bicycle in the lower part of the photo. In the end I decided on this cinematic format, cutting away the handle. The other thing I did like, was the hanging bowl of flowers, so I decided not to emphasize that too much.  I focused on the small Shoe shaped boat and the sun rays in the far end. Those I processed to be emphasized. The boat was a bit dark, I made it more light and the sun rays I emphasized using burn and dodge tools.

Amsterdam Maritime History Museum at Dawn

Amsterdam Maritime History Museum at Dawn

After walking through Amsterdam taking nightscapes I finally arrived to the harbor, to see the sun rise behind the Amsterdam Maritime History Museum. A beautiful place, that I returned to in the evening, to attend to a cocktail party. That I didn’t know, when I took this photo.

About the processing
The photo is a 5 shot HDR. I did the tone mapping with HDR Efex Pro 2. Not a bad tone mapping tool, though I find it more detailed in Photomatix. Afterwards I did a little blending layers. Primarily to remove ghosting in the water, on the masts of the ship.

Cathedral in Amsterdam

Amsterdam ChurchOn a day as hot as a summer, during one of the first days of september I caught this in a Cathedral in Amsterdam. A nice american lady said, that it looked like a nice camera I had there, but that she would precious her pictures just as much I would mine, even though her camera was much smaller.
I had been in the church many years before and knew it was beautiful, so I wanted to go back and get this shot.
The photo is 7 photo HDR. I did the tonemapping in Photomatix, and then took all 7 exposures + tonemapped into photoshop as layers and masked through. I tuned the colors a little and did some final sharpening.