New Mosque – Istanbul, Turkey (HDR Vertorama)
The story of this photo

Check out the Before-and-After to see how this image was created
It has been quite a while since the last image I published. During this time, I built this website. Hence, my inactivity.
Well, now I am back to creating images more regularly, and I am going to end this year with this vertorama shot from the New Mosque in Istanbul. In turkish, this place is called Yeni Camii. It is situated on the Golden Horn at the southern end of the Galata Bridge. It is one of the best-known sights of Istanbul.
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How it was shot
- Taken hand-held [details]
- 4×3 autobracketed shots (0EV, -2EV, +2EV)
- Camera: Nikon D7000
- Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
How it was stitched and tonemapped
- CA reduction and white balance correction in ACR
- Created two additional exposures in ACR (+4EV and -4EV) to preserve highlights and shadows [details]
- Saved the images as TIFFs
- Applied noise reduction (Topaz Denoise) to each of the source images [details]
- Resulting TIFF images were then used as input to Photomatix (Details Enhancer option)
- Stitched the 4 tone-mapped TIFFs using Photoshop
How it was post-processed
- Post-processing was done in Photoshop
- Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
- Topaz Infocus on the entire image for sharpening
- Some perspective correction and cropping
- Some retouching to fix stitching errors (due to hand-held shooting)
- Global saturation and levels layers for better contrast and colors
- Saturation layer on the windows (blues, cyans)
- Selective contrast using levels layers on some parts of the ceiling
- Vignette effect using a masked fill layer [details]
- Lightening the center part of the ceiling using a masked levels layer
- Watermarking [details]
Spectacular! Ironically enough I was just working on some images from Turkey myself last night, mostly HDR’s but none stitched. I haven’t tried this technique before and I’m quite interested to see you’ve done it hand held. Gives me hope to try it as you can’t always get tripods into these places.
If you want to see my Turkey shots let me know.
Thanks, Darlene!
I am curious to see your images, and I hope you’ll try a vertorama soon. It’s so much fun!
Cheers
Klaus
http://herviewphotography.zenfolio.com/turkey
Click on the first image to view them on black, and use the right/left arrows to scroll through them. I welcome your comments. I need to do a blog post on Turkey too.
Wonderful, I give you a thousand thanks, you’ve been a teacher for me, always look for HDR tutorials and I had not convinced until I found your page.
I follow your steps exactly, I bought the same tablet that you recommend: the Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet CTL-460, and my level has increased thanks to you.
Thank you Master !!!
You’re welcome, my young apprentice. LOL – I had to cite that Star Wars line. Sorry!
It’s great to hear that you improved. Orlando. And I hope you continue doing so. Thanks for the feedback!
Cheers
Klaus
Your welcome Jedi Master.
Wow! im completely blown away, ILOVE IT. Happy new year 2012 Klaus, and thanks for sharing all these beautiful images, and your knowledge during 2010 your work is simply amazing.
-Victor.
Thanks a lot, Victor!
I still haven’t tried a vert yet. I’m amazed how you can handhold in such low light situations. I have started
Not too good with this iPad. In my previous post I wanted to say I have started 3bracket handholding outdoors following your recommendations. I’m getting decent results. Now on to a vert.
Thanks as always for your tutorials klaus.
Bob
Awesome Work klaus Want to try doing HDR Vertorama pictures next summer so been using the cookbook again …
Your work is so awesome, love this new look website too. Happy new year to you and look forward to seeing more of your work and some new HDR challenges this year.