The Boat – Ko Panyi, Thailand (HDR)

The story of this photo

View the Before-and-After Comparison to see where this photo comes from!

This photo was shot in Ko Panyi, a small fishing village in Thailand. This is a very special place, and if you go out of your tourist mode for a minute while you are there, it actually teaches you a lesson for life. As nomadic Malay fisherman came to Thailand in the 18th century, there was a law that limited land ownership solely to people of Thai national origins. So, the Malay immigrants weren’t allowed to buy land and settle. Guess what they did! They simply built a whole town completely on the water. Similar to Venice (Italy) the town is built on wooden poles, only a little less sophisticated. That was completely legal since they did not settle on land but on water. Clever, eh?

So, what’s the lesson to learn here? If you have a goal, there is always a way to reach it – you only need an inventive mind, determination and persistence. This is true for just about anything in life. If you really want something – you can make it happen.

The Boat – Ko Panyi, Thailand (HDR) – Dynamic Before-and-After – Simply use the slider to blend the before and the after image

How it was shot

• Handheld [details]
• Three exposures (0, +2, +2ev)
• Camera: Nikon D90
• Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3,5-5,6G ED VR
• Details can be found here

How it was tone-mapped

• HDR created from the three raw files
• Tone-mapping: Photomatix Pro 4.0 (Detail Enhancer)
• Saved as 16-bit TIF

Watch the Making of… video to see where this photo comes from

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 Denoise on the entire image (more aggressively on the sky) [details]
• Topaz Infocus on the entire image for sharpening
• Saturation layer on the sky (master)
• Levels layer on the sky (more contrast)
• Saturation layer on the clouds (desaturation)
• Saturation layer on the buildings (desaturation)
• Levels layer on the buildings (more contrast, brightening)
• Curves layer on the water (enhancing the reflective look)
• Photo filter layer on the water (slight orange/yellow toning)
• Saturation layer on the water (yellows)
• Levels layer on the boat (more contrast)
• Saturation layer on the boat (reds/yellows)
• Levels and saturation layer on the mountains (remove the haze)
• Global saturation and levels layer to fine-tune the image
• Vignette effect using a masked fill layer [details]
• Sharpening using the high-pass filter [details]
• Watermarking

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