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A Little of Magic

A Little of Magic



cameraCanon EOS 6D

settings Aperture 4/1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/10 Focal Length 17/1 

upload_dateAug, 2016

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1034

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Awards

Honorable Mention in Cool Houses Photo Contest
Peer Award
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Top Choice
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Superb Composition
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Absolute Masterpiece
lewisdarb joaolavadinho anstef Trudie photosue50 robert_morsby_9370 mcampi +5
Magnificent Capture
Lil-things stephenbraunginn Jsnides Bart IMIKEMEDIA TASmileyPhotos Lillymeg +3
Outstanding Creativity
loriraehawk KBAUTHENTICIMAGES neilbedford Paul-Stapleton OLGATARBEEVA
All Star
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Superior Skill
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Virtuoso
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Genius
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Emotions

Impressed
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Relaxed
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Top ClassTM

Cool Houses Photo ContestTop 10 class
Cool Houses Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
Photogenic Villages Photo ContestTop 20 class
Photogenic Villages Photo ContestTop 20 class week 1
My Favorite Building Photo ContestTop 10 class
View more
My Favorite Building Photo ContestTop 10 class week 2
My Favorite Building Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
What A Night Photo ContestTop 10 class
What A Night Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
Architecture And Reflections Photo ContestTop 20 class
Architecture And Reflections Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
Nature And The Night Photo ContestTop 10 class
Nature And The Night Photo ContestTop 10 class week 2
Nature And The Night Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
Old Structures Photo ContestTop 20 class
Old Structures Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
The Blue Hour Photo ContestTop 20 class
The Blue Hour Photo ContestTop 10 class week 1
Around the World Photo Contest By DiscoveryTop 20 class
Around the World Photo Contest By DiscoveryTop 10 class week 1
Covers Photo Contest Vol 35Top 30 class
Covers Photo Contest Vol 35Top 20 class week 1
Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 13Top 30 class week 2

Categories

4 Comments | Report
Irkisis
 
Irkisis June 13, 2017
Conjunto magnífico de luz, sombra, locação e ângulo. Linda foto, Pedro. Parabéns!
Alwolfe Premium
 
Alwolfe February 09, 2018
Nicely done!
panjok2
 
panjok2 December 08, 2019
Please tell me where this is at? My wife and I love to travel and would love to see this in person! You have so many great shots and it's a little intimidating. lol Great work! I'm excited to keep clicking right for the next photo of yours. haha
pedroquintela PRO+
pedroquintela December 09, 2019
Well, this village is located in Portugal and it's called Monsanto. I appreciate deeply such wonderful words. Big thanks!
Dee-CrystalClear PRO
 
Dee-CrystalClear May 10
Magnificent. Love your magic!
pedroquintela PRO+
pedroquintela May 10
Big thanks for your support, Dee!

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#village #colors #antique #historic #stone #night

Behind The Lens

Location
Monsanto, Portugal, a historic village that has the peculiarity of have been built within massive boulders. It´s a location that I visit during the 4 seasons trying to get the best mood out of it. The sunset and night are among my favorite timings due to the colors that make contrast with the rugged boulders and the stone houses.
Time
It was shot after the sunset, when the blue hour was making his appearance.
Lighting
It was shot after the sunset, when the last colors of the sky were still there and the blue hour was appearing. At the same time I waited for the lamp post to be lighten to have shadows, contrast and that yellow cast over the scene. Somehow it make it more appealing to the senses. I was pay great deal of importance to the light and always try to use natural light or, when artificial, the existent one on the location. That is also possible because I use a Full Frame body that allows me to push for the shadows in post processing, getting some nice dynamic range out of the raw files. On this particular my settings were: 17mm/ƒ/4/10s/ISO 100
Equipment
Canon 6d Canon EF 17-40 L Tripod Manfrotto 055XProb Feisol 40-D ball head Bag Lowepro Flipside 300
Inspiration
Helen Keller wrote once that "the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart". That´s what I felt on my last trips to Monsanto. In this occasion I intend to capture, at sunset, a scene in the village that I called "Bowler Street". Stood there until get the proper mood and light. I hope you can feel a little of what I experienced. Currently my line of work is all about storytelling, sparking some kind of emotions and connections with the viewer, because I need that feedback to feel motivating to carry on. In this case the natural frame made by the big boulders, the light on the background and the house on the left were simply irresistible, like it was from a movie still. Since I´m a historian, historical locations have a deep impact in me. Beside that I have an intense attachment to this location. It´s magical to me and balances me very much visiting it and talking to his inhabitants. So it was a no brainer to me.
Editing
I always do post-processing on my images, since I shoot exclusively in raw and want to get the most out of the situation. In my case I feel indispensable to open my images and create the feeling that I felt when I shot it. In my case I my post processing tools are an iMac 5k, a Wacom Pro tablet, with Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop, depending of the level of interaction that I want with my image. Here I did my usual workflow, accentuate the shadows and highlights, give a little of punch to the yellows and blues. Corrected the perspective, remove some little purple fringing.
In my camera bag
Many of us pay a lot of attention to the equipment. I was a gear freak since a long time but, slowly, I began to pay more attention to the technique itself and less to the gear. Though, my current equipment is totally focus on my actual line of work - storytelling. My main body is a Canon 6d, witch I love because it´s a light Full Frame, a little old school in format, but with some features that are very handy as the built in wi-fi and gps. The dynamic range and image quality at higher ISO where decisive when I bought it about 2 and half years ago. I love this camera. On the lenses side I use currently on Canon EF: 16-35 F4 IS, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F 1.8, 70-200 F.4 IS Since I also shoot landscapes I use an array of filters graduated and solid from the Hitech Formatt brand - 0,6/ 0,9/ 1.2 and 10 stops. Also a polarizer. I have also 2 remotes, one with cord and another wireless from Canon, in case I get out of battery in one. A couple microfiber cloths are always with me, as well as 3 LP-E6 batteries and a dust blower. When the situation needs it I use the Canon BG-E13 Battery Grip, quite useful on portraits due to the duplication of commands. Last I have a Canon 430EX II flash with a couple of triggers. But it´s not very used since I prefer going on the side of natural light and explore it.
Feedback
The first of all is studying the scenario, in particular the light during the day and how it performs at several apertures. In this case my problem was to have the proper light from the lamp post, the colors in the sky matching. So I waited 2 months since my first try. Another big thing is getting a proper focal length. In this case I doubt about a 14mm and 17mm (I sold both lenses some months ago). The first one was brighter (F/2.8) but the distortion on the foreground rocks was massive and in post processing it wouldn´t have been easy to be made. So I choose the 17mm. Another advice is to get the minimum ISO possible, that way the noise wouldn´t be an issue to solve and you can go a little further when pushing the shadows as I love to do. Finally use your intuition and heart when doing this kind of scenes. Don´t think about stressful things, enjoy the moment and try your best to bring home something that you are proud of, despite your level of expertise. As I always say to my peers and followers, happy shooting!

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