The Story Behind My Photos

Underground

The Story
April 2011. I was alone on holidays that week and I decided to spend some time shooting. When I scheduled that holidays I expected (hoped) that the weather would be rainy so I could go out and take some overcast skies' photos. Unfortunately it was sunny all week so I had to improvise.
I decided to go to the "Parque das Nações" vicinity to check some new spots. "Parque das Nações" is a new zone in Lisbon that was recovered for the 1998 World Exposition and since then it had become a great spot for architectural photos as lots of new (and modern) buildings were built there.
I've took a walk around the vicinity and took some outside photos of the buildings but they all suffered from the same problem: too much blue in the sky.
In my way back to the car, I decided to stop by one of the icons of this area: "Gare do Oriente". This train/metro/bus station was designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava. I've had seen too many photos of that station that I thought it was too much of a cliche to go there. Anyway I decided to give it a try. The security personnel was not too fond of people photographing inside the station so I made it fast. I was in and out in less than 5 minutes and only took about 10 photos.

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

Shutter Speed:1/25 second
Aperture:F/5.6
Focal Length:20 mm
ISO Speed:200

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was my first choice from that day. I imported it into Lightroom, slightly aligned it and increased the Exposure a lot. I had a problem that I noticed right in sight: the light was too uneven. The left side was properly illuminated whilst the right side was almost pitch black. This was due to the natural lightning of the place and the position of the sun on the left of the image. To compensate this issue, I applied a Graduated Filter until the image become as even as possible. Then I, increased the Fill Light, reduced a bit the Exposure, increased the Contrast and changed the Point Curve to Strong Contrast. Added a lot of Vignetting, converted to Black and White and added some Brush Strokes to the skylights in the upper left side to make them as darker as the ones in the right. Finally, I removed the paper on the ground as it was too distracting and applied my custom Split Tone.
I was very pleased with the result, specially because the woman on the left added so much value to the photo.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Underground-203613588

60 Seconds

The Story
January 2011. After a lousy 2010 in what photo trips concerned, I decided that 2011 would be a return to normality. Nothing better than an one week holiday to get the year started. I had discovered a promising spot in the Seixal Bay, called Ponta dos Corvos. This spot had an abandoned factory and an abandoned shipyard that I decided to explore that day. I packed the gear and, after a quick lunch, I went there. It was an overcast day and when I approached Ponta dos Corvos I soon discovered that the road there was a perfect adventure: more holes than road and all of them filled with water. If I only had an 4x4 :) That, the almost raining weather and the insecurity of the spot cut my trip short.
Still it was very early in the afternoon and I couldn't throw that sky away that easily. After a short thinking, I decided to head to Cacilhas and try some long exposures in broad daylight.
I parked in the Cais do Ginjal and started to re-explore the place. After some photos, I decided to try this one. I mounted the tripod and the ND filter and gave it a try. I took half a dozen shots and the afternoon was already over - that's something typical when I do long exposures.

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

Shutter Speed:60/1 second
Aperture:F/9.0
Focal Length:13 mm
ISO Speed:100

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was my first choice from that day. I imported it into Lightroom, removed some dust spots and then applied the automatic Lens Correction for the Sigma 10-20 lens. Then I slightly increased the Exposure, the Black Clipping and duplicated the Contrast. As the river was too dark, I applied an inverted Graduated Filter to the bottom and the reduced the Exposure again. Pushed the Contrast even upper, increased the Clarity to 60 and Converted to Black And White. There I increased the Blue Gray Level - at the moment, my idea was to apply a similar treatment to the one used in 233 seconds. But then I decided to try to decrease the Exposure a lot to have the opposite effect - a very dark look, instead of the brighter one in the other photo - I preferred the way the photo looked that way . I increased the Sharpening and the Black Clipping and then re-adjusted the Brightness - it was too dark. As the vignetting created by the filter holder started to show in the upper left corner, I Cropped it out. The I added another Graduated Filter, this time to darken the sky a little, made small adjustments to the Exposure and Brightness and applied my custom Split Tone preset.
It was ready. I published the photo to the usual sites and after some critiques that mentioned lack of contrast and that the photo was too dark, I decided to fix that issues. I changed the Point Curve to Strong Contrast and increased the Exposure a little.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/60-Seconds-192438666

Palácio do Sola III

The Story
September 2010. I had moved to the new house a couple months earlier and I remembered that, when I was considering buying this house, I went to google maps to check the surroundings. At that time I saw some abandoned houses nearby and I decided to check them out. I saw in the satellite pictures two candidates at a walking distance from home. I marked them in my photo map and decided to google for some more abandoned houses nearby. I found out that an old palace was in ruins and it was very near from home. This was a Friday evening and the weather forecast for the weekend had some cloudy skies. So I decided that I would go scout these places in the next day.
Saturday, I left home with the gear and walked to the first abandoned house in my list. It was a very small house in a place that had no interest whatsoever so I moved on to the next. The second one didn't inspired me any security: I wasn't even sure if it was abandoned, there were cars parked nearby and it was very isolated. I decided it wasn't worth the risk and walked on to the last one on the list: The Sola's Palace (Palácio do Sola).
When I got there, I saw a big open field adjacent to the main building and decided to walk across it to get some good perspectives on the house. Turned out that the house was on top of a small hill, the open field was over crowded with high weeds and there was no entrances there.
I turned back to the street and tried another entry that led directly to some secondary building of the complex. With all my senses in alert state (you never know what you are going to find in that kind of places) I proceeded to the first room. It had no ceiling, as almost every rooms in the entire complex. This was somehow good as the probability of running onto inhabitants was very low. In the entire complex I saw only about 2/3 rooms with ceiling (one of them had a mattress and that meant someone was living there).
I took a lot of pictures in the whole complex and called it a day.

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

Shutter Speed:1/125 second
Aperture:F/9.0
Focal Length:10 mm
ISO Speed:200

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was kinda cliche: the 10-20 deformation, the corner alignment, the surrounding trees, the great sky. Maybe that was the reason why it was the fourth to be chosen form that day. The treatment on this one was exactly the same as in the preceding two (Palácio do Sola I and II) and it was meant to be some sort of trilogy. Somehow, this one grew on me as the days went by.
I imported it into Lightroom, and applied the same processing used in Barri Gotic (I created at the time a preset called "JPN - Gothic") as a starting point. Then I adjusted the Vignetting to my like, decreased the Fill Light, increased the Exposure and convert it to Black & White (increased the Greens and the Yellows, decreased the Blues and the Aquas). To compensate the Exposure increment, I added a Graduated Filter to darken the sky a bit. Changed the Point Curve to Strong Contrast, slightly increased the Clarity and decreased the Temperature to 5000. To finalize it, I did some Color Noise Reduction. These were the adjustments made to the first one of the trilogy. For this specific one, I've also increased the Fill Light, the Green Gray Level and the Black Clipping.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/Palacio-do-Sola-III-180600139

House Of Doom

The Story
July, 2009. It was summer but it felt like it was Autumn. The weather was too bad for the beach so my wife suggested that we went to Palácio Nacional de Queluz (check the Palácio Nacional de Queluz photo story for more details)...
The sky was great that day, cloudy as I like it, so I started to try some different perspectives from the palace building. It didn't took me long to mount the ND Grad filters in the camera to enhance the sky even more.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the different perspectives and this one was my favorite... but it had a big problem. The big flower pots that were at the sides of the walkway weren't at symmetrical positions.
I took some more photos and then we went inside the palace.

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:12 mm
ISO Speed:100

Original Photo

Post Processing
This photo was one of my top candidates from the ones I took in that photo trip. But, as I suspected, the asymmetrical pots were completely ruining the photo. So it rested for 13 months in my hard drive waiting for the day I would decide to give it a chance.
In August 2010, with my photo trips cut very short, I decided to give it a try.
I imported it into Lightroom, slightly aligned it and started to try some of the presets. The one that shed some light was "Civil War 2" preset by Vidular (you can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidular/2456010834/). What if I dramatically increased the vignetting to hide the asymmetrical pots? That preset overexposed the center of the photo, so I reduced the Exposure by 1 EV. Then I also reduced the Sharpening and converted to Grayscale (increased the Greens and the Yellows). Then came the hard part: try to apply Vignetting that would hide the pots, but wouldn't ruin the photo. This was a long step with a lot of try and error until it eventually ended in a acceptable combination. Finally, I've applied my custom Split Tone setting (the one that I used in so many photos like: King of Darkness, Bridge To Neverland or Old Boat).
And that was it. Still not quite fun of the asymmetrical pots, but I think that, overall, it's a nice photo.

Final Photo

Link to image
http://jpgmn.deviantart.com/art/House-Of-Doom-174536519

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

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

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

Barri Gotic

The Story
May, 2009. Once again, we followed my sister and this time we ended up in Barcelona. She was studying there for some months and we couldn't waste the opportunity to know this beautiful city (with free accommodations). Before we went there, we've made a list of places to see and the Barri Gotic (Gothic quarter) was one of the main spots. I've had seen some pictures of it and I was hopping to find this exact spot, but I didn't knew exactly where it was. So it was a nice to have if we would end up in this alley.
In the first day of our visit, we started with Casa Batló from Gaudi in the morning and then we met up with my sister in the Gothic quarter to have some lunch. After lunch we were strolling around the Gothic and we ended up in this exact spot.
I took some photos of it and then we moved on.

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

Shutter Speed: 1/30 second
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Original Photo

Post Processing
February 2010. Facing my new reality (parenthood), I decided to check my hard drive for some old photos to process. I'd been to Barcelona almost one year before and I always had the feeling that none of the photos that I published had any special value. For some reason I can't explain, this photo wasn't in my candidate list from the Barcelona shots. This time I decided to give it a chance.
I imported the NEF into Lightroom, slightly aligned it and when straight to the "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, added some Post-Crop Vignetting to hide that wooden bars in the top and reduced the Saturation to the minimum. Finally, I've changed the Split Toning to match the one that I used in some others photos like Bridge To Neverland or The Hero.
And that was it. Basically it's the synaestheta preset with a different tone.

Final Photo