ruicardoso

I'm too new at this... I'm still at a point where I can't distiguish

my own vision from outside influences... What does this image make

you feel?...

what do you think about this composition? I'm not sure about the

rock beeing in line with the background tree, but...

This was my first attempt to infrared, looks quite tipical, but i

keep comming back to this image for inspiration... I had never

thougth that shooting in the sun, in the middle of the day could be

as rewarding as i did after printing this immage.

I wasn't very cautious about framing and ended up croping the tree

on the left but I still like the image... What do you think?

and enjoying each new experiment...

what do you think?

i know, the horizon is allmost in the middle, but this image still

talks to me... what do you think?

I couldn't wait to try the infrared filter in one of my favourite

spots, but the sun did't show up... I decided to try it anyway and

kind of like the results, even without a strong IR effect... what do

you think?

To Arthur: This is a 6x6 negative scanned in an Epson 4870 flatbed scanner. I did some levels adjustments and unsharp masking in photoshop.

Regards,

-Rui

Está na descrição da imagem, foi na serra de Gredos em Espanha.

Abraço,

-Rui

I dont't allways use 300mm for this kind of photos... I like this

image, but still there's something missing. What do you think?

First, I'd like to thank you for all your comments. I was able to learn a lot from them. And I never expected that this photo would be elected as Photo of the Week!

Now about this photo and the entire story that is behind it: In first place, Im not a pro; I started a photography course one year ago and this photo was taken while photographing for my first photo project (about railways).

I really did take several photos of this scene, and the most amazing issue is that the photo I showed you was not the photo I was looking for. You can se the photo I was looking for here:

http://www.fotopt.net/so_foto.asp?foto=142457&primeira=147947&tema=-1&tipo=autor&id=6091&num=5">http://www.fotopt.net/so_foto.asp?foto=142457&primeira=147947&tema=-1&tipo=autor&id=6091&num=5

Someone told in his comment that he would prefer the photo with the other people in the background, and this was also what I was thinking about.

The photo I showed first was just taken because I was afraid of loosing this one.Later on, when I looked at the whole sequence I found the photo with people on the background much more interesting than the other. I agree that the scene is not very well balanced, and also this was not the most I could do (it never is), but at that time this sequence of photos made me learn a lot and understand that the best photos are not always the most obvious ones. Its also been a good start for a series of discussions like this and as the time goes on I keep learning more and more with them.

Now, about the tech issues raised in some of the comments:

.The crop I did: The original image that came out of the scanner had just a small trim, not a huge crop, the couple is on the center also in the original (you can see the original photo - before photoshop - in attachment).

.My position in the platform: this station has several platforms; I wasnt in that same platform. I was on the top of a staircase parallel to that one with my elbows supported against the rail.

.The 300mm at 1/20 seconds without a tripod: The lens is a Nikkor 80-400 AF VR (vibration reduction), as you can see in the technical description of the photo, in theory it gives at least 3 stops more than what you would have handholding a simple lens (this would result in the same stillness as if I was shooting at 1/160, if Im not wrong, but this is just tech stuff). And as I told above I had my elbows supported against the rail of a staircase BTW, I use a 50mm most of the time, but in some situations (like this one) I find the 300 or even 400 mm quite handy when I just do not want to intrude, I believe I could never do this with a 50mm, and yes, Im quite shy ;)

.The motion blur: all I can say, and I said it before, is that its real (meaning: not done through digital means). I saw a lot of explanations here on how it was done, and why it would be real or not; all I can say is that the effect of motion is random for most of the effects on the moving train there are hundreds of possible explanations The feet issues have been explained as far Ive seen, and thats the most I can explain, about the lines disappearing from between the legs of the man on the right, maybe the trains surface is not regular and does not always have lines, maybe we are entering science fiction here (Personally I prefer going out and spend a lot of time shooting than caring too much about this)

.Photoshopping: all I did in photoshop was: crop, levels, resize, and unsharp mask... the () means adding a frame around, nothing else. Also I tend to use to much () when I write. I believe we do not need to care about finding rational meanings for everything...

I believe this is all I can say for now, thanks all, its been great to learn with you! (From now on Ill pay more attention to the photo of the week comments!)

All the best,

-Rui Cardoso

Just one of those we shoot and do not know why. Actually this was

not the photo I was looking for, but this was what I got...

Sometimes the random character of reality gives us nice surprises...

What do you think?

Just to answer Michael Bender's question, all I did in photosop was: crop, levels, resize, and unsharp mask...

This means: all the motion efects are real, the picture was taken at 1/20s f16 with the lens at 300mm, the train is mooving fast, the persons in the backgrond are walking, the two lovers are just not moving.