Arco de S. Bento

The Story
April 2009. Since some time I started to leave the car home and take the public transportation to go to work. I would pick the train to Sete Rios and there I took a company bus to work.
Sete Rios was an area of Lisboa that I never properly explored before, photographically speaking. So, one day I took an early train and scouted the area for some interest points. There we have the Twin Towers, an hotel and some other buildings that captured my interest.
In the next weekend after this scouting, I decided to grab the gear and head there. My wife went shop seeing at El Corte Inglés and I started discovering this area.
I started in the Twin Towers (next to Sete Rios train station) and then walked across the José Malhoa Avenue towards Praça de Espanha. A lot of interesting buildings exist in this avenue and in Praça de Espanha there is a Triumphal Arch. This arch was part of the Aguas Livres aqueduct and then it was dismantled and became a pile of rocks for some decades. Nowadays it is, re-assembled, in Praça de Espanha.
The sky that day wasn't overcast as I like it, but it had some high clouds to compose the scenario. I took some photos of this place and then head back to my wife.

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 photo was my first choice from the ones I took that afternoon and it was published in the same day it was taken.
I imported the NEF file into Lightroom, cropped it to my like and removed some dust spots. Then I applied the Mike Lao's "300 V2" preset (you can find it here: http://inside-lightroom.com/?page_id=11) and started retouching some settings: Highlight Recovery to the maximum (the stone was too overexposed after the preset), reduced the Black Clipping and the Vignetting, increased the Sharpening and converted to Grayscale. In the Gray Levels, I slightly decreased the Blues, highly decreased the Reds and highly increased the Greens. Finally I increased Clarity to 30.
In CS4, I've converted to Black & White (Red Filter preset), applied some Shadows/Highlights (0%/20%), added some extra Vignetting (I preferred to do it here rather than in Lightroom because of the significant crop the original image took) and finally: Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, Auto Color and Auto Levels.

Final Photo


Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Arco-de-S-Bento-118119110

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Old Boat

The Story
May, 2010. Almost 5 months after my last photo trip, I finally managed to get out of the house. It is true what they say that us, photographers, have the need to shoot frequently, or else we develop some sort of hangover, like a deprived addict:) All this time my shooting sessions had resumed to one subject: my daughter Lara. And don't get me wrong, she is a fantastic model, but portrait just isn't my favorite photographic style. Maybe with time and with the dramatic skies gone for the next months I would dedicate myself more to portrait.
I was in my final working leave of absence for parenthood and a few days previously I had passed this spot (on the way for Lara's doctor :)). It is in Arrentela's part of the Seixal Bay, a place I passed by a few times before. There, there is an old boat abandoned in front of some restaurant in the bay.
So, as the weather was good for photography (i.e. cloudy as I like it) I picked up the gear, including the tripod and the ND filters, and headed there. On arrival I noticed that there was a high tide, what was a bit disappointing because it meant that the boat was inside the water. I parked nearby and headed to what was left of the shore to get some good perspective. I tried quite a few shots, with the tripod and the ND filters, only with the ND Grads, without anything... Not quite satisfied I decided to take a walk along the bay to see what else I could find.
I stopped near some sewer pipes and tried some long exposures for a while. After that I returned back to the boat and got somehow lucky: the tide had started to get lower and I could get to the boat. That was the good part. The bad part was that the sun was now much lower and in the back of the boat. I tried a couple shots with the ND Grad filter hand held in front of the lens, covering the flare with one of the free fingers I got left, and then called it a day.

Equipment / Technical Info
Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC
Hitech 85 ND 0.9 GRAD SE filter

Shutter Speed: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/9.0
Focal Length: 13 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo


Post Processing
Back home, this photo was one of the few selected. I liked the perspective and it was one of the few that hadn't massive lens flare caused by the Sun in the upper left corner.
I had mixed feelings with this photo has I had with Palafitico. Because of the hard light and the muddy nature of the ground, it was too dirty for my taste. But I quite liked the perspective (if the sky was covered with clouds it would be perfect) so I decided to give it a chance.
I imported the NEF into Lightroom, slightly aligned it and cropped it to my like. Then I changed the Point Curve to Strong Contrast and started playing around with the usual presets. This time, none of the ones I already had used satisfied me. There was another one thou, that could be a good base for further work: COL Hamburg's Funky Twist (you can get it here: http://inside-lightroom.com/?page_id=11).
After the preset, I converted to Grayscale, added some Vignetting and applied my usual Split Tone preset (Highlights: H55, S31; Balance: 53; Shadows: H55, S0). Then, I slightly increased the Exposure and decreased the Blacks.
There was one thing that I didn't liked: the ground was too sharp and dirty. I need to do something to minimize this situation and a Graduated Filter was the answer. I added one to the bottom of the image with -100 in Contrast, Clarity and Sharpness. I also added another with -0,3 in Exposure in the same place. After this, I brushed the boat with an Exposure of 0,4 to light it a bit. To finalize the retouches, I messed with the Grey Levels and decrease the Blues, Magentas and Purples.
In CS4, I just increased the Contrast a little bit. And that was it!
As I said before I had mixed feelings with this one, but I think it turned out OK.

Final Photo


Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Old-Boat-163841443

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Torre de Monsanto I

The Story
April, 2009. Every day on my way to work I take this highway and pass by this tower. It is an office building in Miraflores, near Lisboa and it's particular shape always fascinated me. In Portugal we don't have too many high buildings and this is one of the few.
I work in a financial group and, as a benefit, we have the Thursday's afternoon off in the day before Holy Friday. In that Thursday, the sky was promising so I took the gear to work in hope of some good shots after.
In those days, a highway high pass was being built and it was still closed to traffic, so that spot was perfect for the perspective I wanted.
I parked near the construction site and walked across the high pass to be exactly above the highway. I took some shots and then headed to the belly of the beast (the tower itself).

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 photo was my first choice from the ones I took in that afternoon. As soon I arrived home I started to pick a few to post process.
This one, with the black street and the white lines in the pavement had "Black & White" written all over :)
So I imported the NEF into Lightroom, aligned and cropped it to my like and the head straight to my favorite preset - the one that have all the treatment I applied in King of Darkness and that is the base for some other photos of mine.
Then I reduced the Vignetting, increased the Sharpening and adjusted the Grey Levels (upped the Oranges and Greens a bit).
Finally, I've added a Graduated Filter to even the Vignetting in the top left side.
In CS4, I've adjusted the Levels and added some Contrast.

Final Photo


Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Torre-de-Monsanto-I-118657544

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