January 2010 | The Story Behind My Photos

The Hill

The Story
April, 2008. After New York, the second part in our US trip was Washington DC. I never thought of visiting DC. New York was always the idea, but after one evening at the movies (I can't remember which movie it was, but the story was in DC) I decided that, if we were to cross the Atlantic to see New York, it would be a waste not to go to DC. So we stayed 4 days in NY and the headed to DC for 3 more days (check the NYC - Times Square photo story for more details on the NY trip).
DC is almost the opposite of NY: it's a very clean, organized, low buildings city. It remembered me of European cities like Paris. It has plenty green spaces, the buildings are monumental and it was kinda hot (in opposition to NY where we freezed) when we were there. It has lots of monuments and we tried to see the most of them.
We traveled by train to DC and it was a very enlightening trip. We passed across Philadelphia and Baltimore on our way to DC. There was one thing that surprised us a lot. If we forget all the glamour of the great cities, the rest of the country is very poor. The suburbs are something unthinkable in European standards: very poor, very dirty, like nothing I can find here in Portugal (which is one of the poorer countries in Europe) except in slums. As the most powerful and most advanced nation in the planet, that kinda shocked me a bit.
Back to DC, we stayed in a very trendy (and noisy, as we found out later) hotel near the center and we mainly walked across the city. One of the spots to see was The Capitol, which, unfortunately, we weren't able to visit inside because all the tickets had been given when we got there. I took some photos there and then we continued our DC visit.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC

Shutter Speed: 1/200 second
Aperture: F/9.0
Focal Length: 20 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo

Post Processing
January 2010. My daughter was born in the 5th of this month and I was home almost one month now. In a few days I was to return back to work and try to return to my normal life after 4 intense weeks of parenting (it was my first kid). As the work home never stopped (with some 2/3 hours exceptions every now and then) the opportunity to grab the camera and get out was a mirage. So I decided to check some old photos to see if there was any worthy of a second chance. This photo seamed appealing so I decided to give it a shot.
I imported the NEF into Lightroom and started playing around with presets (as usual) and noticed one that I never had tried before: "Awesome BW" preset from synaestheta (you can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/presets/discuss/72157612664073371/). The photo was almost perfect but it still needed some adjustments so I've: increased the Sharpening, reduced the Vignetting, increased the Contrast, the Exposure, the Brightness and the Clarity.
In CS4, I've simply increased the Brightness and the Contrast even more. I tried to increase these settings in Lightroom but, for some reason I can't explain, I didn't managed to get the same satisfactory result there.
And that was it. Basically it's the synaestheta preset with a (small) twist.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/The-Hill-152324661

The Watch

The Story
February, 2009. My new acquisition, the 10 stop filter from Hitech, had arrived a few days ago. I was looking to buy an extreme Neutral Density filter since the first time I had seen photos with long exposures during the day. Now that I already had the filter, I started searching for potential spots. They had to be near a water scape. After some search I decided to go to Cabo Raso, near Cascais, about 35 Km from Lisboa. This is a very common spot for long exposure shots near Lisboa.
In this day the sky was cloudy and that would add some extra interest to the scenery: moving clouds :) So I talked with my wife and she agreed to take a small trip there. I packed the usual gear plus the tripod and we headed to Cabo Raso. When we arrived, we parked the car near the lighthouse and my wife stayed inside reading while I went exploring.
First I went towards the rocky beach that's near the lighthouse. I tried some classical perspectives with the rocks in the sand in the foreground and the sea in the background. I had lots of problems with these shots: it was windy, the wide angle lens made me approach the sea and the spray kept the filter dirty all the time. The few shots I managed to take without spray were full of noise from the filter holder light (Later on I discovered a good technique to get around this issue: use part of a sock around the filter holder).
For some tips on how to proper use these kind of filters, please check the Rossio photo story.
Next stop: the lighthouse. This time, from an upper level, I had all the conditions to get away from the spray and try the filter. I took some photos with the lighthouse in the frame. From this same spot, I noticed some abandoned watches that were part of an old fortification that existed there. I took a couple pictures of these watches and get back to the car. The Sun had already set and it was too dark to continue. For the first experiment I was satisfied.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC
Hitech 85 ND 3.0 filter
Slik Pro 340DX tripod

Shutter Speed: 100/1 second
Aperture: F/9.0
Focal Length: 13 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo

Post Processing
When I reviewed the few photos taken this day, I came to a conclusion: almost all of them were rubbish. They were too dirty and too dark. Even this one, if you look at it, it's badly exposed (note: if you take this kind of photos very near the sunset, it's hard to get the exposure right because the light is fading rapidly. You need to increase the exposure time quite a lot than the calculated one) and the colors are all wrong. This last problem was a non issue because the idea was to convert it to Black and White.
I imported the NEF into Lightroom and started by removing some dust spots (they were more visible because I used a very small aperture) and then adjusted the White Balance and the Blue Hue (I always try to get the colors right before converting to Black and White, who knows if the real colors surprise me). Then I added some Fill Light and increased the Blacks, added a Graduated Filter to darken the sky a bit just before I increase the Exposure. Then I started playing around with presets and ended up using the "Matt's Classic Split Tone" preset (you can find it here: http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2007/monday-preset-my-favorite-split-tone/), followed by some high Vignetting increase and by another preset: "Civil War 2" preset by Vidular (you can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidular/2456010834/). Finally, I adjusted the Vignetting to my like.
In CS4, I've converted to Black and White (Maximum White preset), increased the Contrast and applied the "Warm (26)" action (you can find this and other actions to simulate the effect of Gradient filters here: http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com). This gave me the full size (10Mp) final image.
I usually publish my photos with 1024px in the largest size and use a great Photoshop action by Manyk to do the re-size. You can find it here: http://manyk.deviantart.com/art/Web-Sharpening-with-Photoshop-29038461

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/The-Watch-114546227

Mosteiro da Batalha I

The Story
November 2009. My wife was now a little more than a month away from the scheduled date for the birth of our daughter. Her mother's birthday was a few days before this day so we went to Marinha Grande in the weekend for her to be with them.
It was a rainy day and I had been googling for some interesting places nearby for some photo trip. I identified two places: Batalha and Nazaré. We had lunch with her folks and then I drove to Batalha. The idea was to take some photos of the Monastery and then go to Nazaré.
When I arrived at Batalha, it was raining quite a bit. I waited a couple minutes in the car to see if it would stop, but it didn't. Tired of waiting, I picked up the gear and the umbrella and went for a look around. Maybe the rain would stop meanwhile... It didn't. I started with the Unfinished Chapels, where I took some photos and them started to go around the monument to search for another interesting spots. In the opposite side of the monastery, there is the entry to the church itself, so I went in.
This church is quite different from the usual churches: it has no statues, almost nothing to remind us that it is a church. The day was very dark because of the clouds and the inside of the church was lit only by chandeliers light which created a very interesting atmosphere. I started experimenting different perspectives and this one was the classic one: a symmetrical view of the main hall, with one chandelier on each side. I took some other photos in different perspectives in the, almost one hour that I've been there. I was fascinated with the lightning and the low light on the outside allowed me to capture the stained windows perfectly, without underexposing the inside of the church.
I was looking for some good church interior photos for some time now, but never got satisfied with the result... until this day.
Of course that Nazaré trip was canceled. When I left Batalha it was already nighttime.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC

Shutter Speed: 1/3 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 10 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Original Photo

Post Processing
This was my first choice from the dozens of photos I took that afternoon. At first I thought of converting it to Black & White, but quickly gave up that idea. The colored stained windows deserved to be left untouched.
So I imported the NEF file into Lightroom and done minor adjustments: corrected the White Balance, slightly increased the Blacks, boosted the Clarity to 50%, increased the Vibrance, reduced the Saturation and added some Sharpening.
In CS4, I've: reduced the Noise, adjusted the Levels ("Increased Contrast 1" preset), reduced the Saturation and adjusted the Midtone Levels in Color Balance.
That was it, just minor adjustments as you can check in the final image.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Mosteiro-da-Batalha-I-144401972

Abandonado

The Story
December 2008. It has been over a month that I had discovered a very interesting spot. Near the Quinta da Atalaia, Seixal (where the PCP's Avante festival is held) there are a few abandoned ship yards in the Seixal bay. I discovered this spot almost by accident in a Portuguese photography forum's member site.
The first time I've been there, I was with my wife and I was simply scouting the place, finding how to get there, and having a feel of the area itself. These abandoned places are usually hangout places for homeless and junkies, so caution is advised. So that day I just looked at the outside of the place, took a couple pictures, and rescheduled a more detailed visit.
It happened in December of 2008 and this time I went alone. I parked the car near the bay and waited for the people that were there to left before I went in. I didn't know how abandoned this place really was so I went in with eyes on my back, listening to every possible noise that could alert me for some sort of danger.
There are quite a few abandoned ships (and buildings) in this place and I started taking some pictures of them. As the ships are abandoned in the bay, the ground is all muddy (and who knows what else) so there is an amount of risk involved. This ship wreck immediately caught my attention. The ship was broken in two pieces and the front piece is very small but with the wide angle it looks bigger. I took some shots of it and moved on to some other ship wrecks.
The evening was coming very fast and the light became too low. As I didn't took a tripod, the trip was over. "I will return another day", I was sure.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC

Shutter Speed: 1/15 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 10 mm
ISO Speed: 250

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was my only choice from the ones I took that late afternoon. The idea was to convert it to black and white or sepia.
I imported the NEF file into Lightroom, aligned and cropped it to my like. Then I increased the Blacks and the Saturation on the Reds, Greens, Yellows and Oranges. Added some Fill Light, reduced the Luminance on the Blues to darken the sky a little and adjusted the White Balance to make it look more warm. Finally, I corrected the Purple Fringing by increasing the Blue Chromatic Aberration.
In CS3 I've done some Shadows & Highlights (10%/50%), reduced the Saturation by 5%, and done Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Colors. Then I converted it to Black & White with an Action from Manyk "Manyk's B&W Conversion" (you can find it here: http://manyk.deviantart.com/art/Manyk-BW-Conversion-29977377) and then applied the "Warm (27)" action (you can find this and other actions to simulate the effect of Gradient filters here: http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com). Finally, I added some strong Vignetting.
The choice of the Vignetting was made to compensate for the fact that the sky was completely "naked" (i.e. without any clouds) and the Sun had set behind the ship wreck.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Abandonado-105150842

Misty River I

The Story
It was a Sunday afternoon in the end of 2008's summer. I had finished lunch and was in my kitchen in Corroios (near Almada, Portugal) doing the dishes (check the Bridge To Neverland photo story for more details)...
I arrived at the monument and sometimes I couldn't even see the bridge because of the fog. I took some photos from ground level and head straight to the top. From there the view was breathtaking. I took plenty of shots from the top and then returned back to the ground. In ground level I took a few more and this one was my favorite. I loved the amount of detail in it, the BUS crossing the bridge was great.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED

Shutter Speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: F/8.0
Focal Length: 48 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was my first choice from the ones I took that afternoon. There was very little to do, basically it needed more contrast (typical in photos taken in fog situations) .
I imported the NEF file into Lightroom and done some Highlight Recovery and increased the Sharpening and the Blacks.
Looking to it now, the difference isn't that much. The issue was that, in the moment I processed it, I was still importing the NEF files directly into Lightroom and, as I mentioned before, Adobe software can't reproduce correctly the NEF files. This original version you see here (as all the original versions in my posts) is the result of a conversion to TIFF in ViewNX and it has the correct info from the original file.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Misty-River-I-98580228

Misty River II

The Story
It was a Sunday afternoon in the end of 2008's summer. I had finished lunch and was in my kitchen in Corroios (near Almada, Portugal) doing the dishes (check the Bridge To Neverland photo story for more details)...
I arrived at the monument and sometimes I couldn't even see the bridge because of the fog. I took some photos from ground level and head straight to the top. From there the view was breathtaking. I mainly used the Sigma 10-20 to capture the scene but as I was in higher ground I also tried some shots with the 18-70. This photo was one of them. I tried to align the bridge towers to the thirds of the image to guide the eyes from the closer tower to the remainder of the bridge, ending in the fog. What I liked more about this shot was the amount of detail that was possible to capture, even in the fog.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED

Shutter Speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: F/8.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was my second choice from the ones I took that afternoon. There was very little to do, basically it needed more contrast (typical in photos taken in fog situations) .
I imported the NEF file into Lightroom and slightly straightened it. Then I've done some Highlight Recovery and increased the Sharpening and the Blacks.
That was it! Some times, all it takes is a minor adjustment.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Misty-River-II-98584720

Ascensor da Bica

The Story
May, 2009. We've been in Barcelona a couple of weeks before and I was fascinated with the old Barcelona neighborhood. There I decided that I had to go for a visit in old Lisboa as soon as possible. I had several options but I decided to go to Bairro Alto mainly because of this funicular.
Before this day I, as usual, explored the location in Flickr and Wiki to check for good spots. I already knew that there were two "Elevadores" (lifts) in Lisboa: Santa Justa and Glória. But until that day I never had checked to see if there were more. When I found out that there were two others I felt ashamed. How come I, born in Lisboa, forever in love with this city, could not know this?
In google maps/earth I located this one and found out that it connected the low area of Santos to the high area of Bairro Alto. So the course was set: I would park in Santos, take the funicular to Bairro Alto and would explore from there.
This funicular is very different from the other two I knew. In the bottom side, you pick it inside a building and then it starts to climb the hill in some characteristic Lisboa's street. We bought the ticket and got inside. It took a little bit before it started the trip, but then it was worthy. It's a very small trip and you're off to one of the more typical Lisboa neighborhoods: Bairro Alto. This place is also one of the favorite places for the teens to go out at night (I lost the count of how many times I've been there) .
In the end of the ride, we got off the funicular and my wife went to the shops while I started exploring the site. I took some shots of the funicular, from the rails, from the people around and them moved on to Bairro Alto itself.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED

Shutter Speed: 1/250 second
Aperture: F/9.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was the only one that I published from that day. I took plenty of photos in Bairro Alto but none satisfied me as this one. It had to be black and white but I tried something different: I left the characteristic yellow of the funicular as yellow and converted only the remainder of the image to black and white.
In Lightroom I've straightened and cropped it a bit and then applied the Mike Lao's "300 V1" preset (you can find it here: http://inside-lightroom.com/?page_id=11). The preset needed some adjustments after, so I reduced the Vignetting, increased the Contrast, the Blacks and the Clarity. Then I reduced the Saturation to the minimum on all colors except for the Yellows and Brushed all around the funicular where there were still traces of colors. This Brush was a -100% Saturation brush.
In CS4 I've selected all except the funicular itself and created a new layer with that selection. Then, I converted it to Black and White ("Darker" preset) and applied the "Warm (26)" action to warm it a little (you can find this and other actions to simulate the effect of Gradient filters here: http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com). Finally I've done: Auto Tone and Auto Contrast.
I usually publish my photos with 1024px in the largest size and use a great Photoshop action by Manyk to do the re-size.You can find it here: http://manyk.deviantart.com/art/Web-Sharpening-with-Photoshop-29038461

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Ascensor-da-Bica-122720360

Navegadores

The Story
June, 2009. In this day my wife felt like going for a walk in Belém (check the Museu de Marinha photo story for more details)...
We started by visiting the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and then moved on to Padrão dos Descobrimentos. Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) is a monument that celebrates the Portuguese who took part in the Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, of the 15th and 16th centuries. It is located on the estuary of the Tagus river in the Belém parish of Lisbon, Portugal, where ships departed to their often unknown destinations.
I started trying some angles that could take advantage of the beautiful skies that were that afternoon. First, I tried to get the lines in the pavement to guide the eyes to the monument and from there to the clouds. I took some photos with this perspective and then approached the monument and started exploring uncommon perspectives. As almost all the times I went there, there were a lot of tourists around the monument what make me point upper to crop them off. It was then that I realized this uncommon angle. The clouds appear to be an extension of the monument itself and gives us the idea that the navigators are contemplating (or fearing) them.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC

Shutter Speed: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/9.0
Focal Length: 10 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo

Post Processing
This one was an almost ready photo as it came out of the camera.
There were two little details to address: that little bit of land in the lower right corner had to go and the colors would need a more cold and contrasted feel.
I imported the photo into Lightroom, cropped the right corner and applied an Auto Tone. It was better, but I needed to bring that sky even more. So I applied the Mike Lao's "300 V1" preset (you can find it here: http://inside-lightroom.com/?page_id=11) and the result was what I was looking for. In CS4 I've simply done: Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, Auto Color and Auto Levels.
I usually publish my photos with 1024px in the largest size and use a great Photoshop action by Manyk to do the re-size.You can find it here: http://manyk.deviantart.com/art/Web-Sharpening-with-Photoshop-29038461
I was quite satisfied with the result, which is a rare thing. :)

Final Photo