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

Read more

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

Read more

Bridge To Neverland

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. I live in an 8th floor of a building that is on a top of a small hill and I have a great view that reaches the "25 de Abril" bridge (that connects Lisboa to Almada over the Tejo river) and the "Cristo-Rei" sanctuary. I was looking at the window and one time I noticed that I stopped seeing the bridge. I looked carefully and I realized that the Tejo river was covered with a thick fog that was hidding the bridge. I quickly finished what I was doing and said to myself: "I must pick the gear and head straight to Cristo-Rei! It's today!"
The "Cristo-Rei" is a religious monument, similar to "Cristo Redendor" in Rio de Janeiro, that has an observatory deck in the top at an altitude of 184 m (604 ft). From this place we can see the Tejo river and Lisboa. We can also see the "25 de Abril" bridge that is very near. I remember that I went there when I was a child but never had returned.
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.
In the hour that I've been there, I took over 100 photos.

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

Shutter Speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: F/8.0
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Original Photo


Post Processing
Funny enough, this photo was my third choice from the ones I've published from that afternoon.
Although it was taken on Sep 21, 2008, I just decided to give it a chance 3 months later.
This situation happens me a lot. I go to some place, take some photos, rush to the computer to choose some to publish and the ones I choose some months later are the best.
Back to post processing, I imported the NEF file into Lightroom and started to play around with some presets I found on the net. In this one I ended using a custom preset from some other photo of mine that was itself already based on another preset from Mike Lao (you can find it here: http://inside-lightroom.com/?page_id=11) - 300 V1.
After applying the 300 preset, I've converted to grayscale and played around with gray levels. I mainly darkened the blues, but also made slight adjustments to the other levels.
Then I decreased the Exposure, increased the Recovery and the Sharpening.
And that was it for Lightroom. I then exported it as a PSD file and opened it in CS3.
In CS3, I've done an Auto Levels and an Auto Contrast, inserted a Gradient (90º, reflected, B&W) in Multiply mode and adjusted the opacity to 15%.
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/Bridge-To-Neverland-107002536

Read more