Richard Stauber
November 2025 - Balloon Over Valley of the Kings
Original
About the Image(s)
Last year we were in Egypt touring Cairo and the Nile. In Luxor I had the opportunity take a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings. The photo was processed to represent one scene I saw from the balloon. Some of the processing using layers included manipulation of blend modes, masking, HSL, levels adjustment, shadow- highlights, saturation, black & white conversion; all done with Affinity Photo. Shot with Sony A7iii at 1/80s, f/4.5, ISO 100, 39mm.
4 comments posted
Richard, hi!
Perfect postprocessing!
Posted: 11/11/2025 13:45:34
Perfect postprocessing!
Posted: 11/11/2025 13:45:34
Thanks! Posted: 11/19/2025 21:24:26
Richard - Thanks for sharing your original and final photo as well as some of your editing techniques. It sounds like a fabulous trip and I look forward to seeing other images from your travels.
You did an excellent job bringing up the foreground and blending all the various layers in the final composite. The sunrise colors are beautiful and I love seeing the balloon floating over the area. Posted: 11/11/2025 20:55:33
You did an excellent job bringing up the foreground and blending all the various layers in the final composite. The sunrise colors are beautiful and I love seeing the balloon floating over the area. Posted: 11/11/2025 20:55:33
It was a difficult shot: I switched between GoPro and DSLR and I was certain that one would drop overboard (didn't!). Then I did spend any time with cam setting, I wanted photos but I also wanted to enjoy the experience. I knew that underexposure is better than overexposed so the original is dark (didn't focus bracket- should have). Thank you. Posted: 11/19/2025 21:24:10