higordepadua
Dubai, UAE
I think this is one of the best views in Dubai. It is where you can see several of the skyscrapers in the commercial and financial center of the city, with emphasis on the Burj Khalifa downtown. No kidding, this photo was planned almost a year in advance. From the time spent to discover the place, to the preparation to be there at the right time, in the proper position. Get access to the site, and then assemble the equipment and manage to stay in the same position for more than 2 hours. No doubt it was worth every second spent on producing this work.
For this photo I placed the tripod in a wall that gives access to the view. Since there was no one, I was able to choose the place where I would stay. I looked closely at the view to choose the best angle and position, keeping in mind that I would need to minimize the distortion caused by the wide-angle lens (14mm) I would use. At the same time, I chose to centralize the Burj Khalifa, which would be the "star" of the photo. The positioning of the surrounding buildings would balance the elements of the photo, distributing interesting subjects from the foreground to the background. In addition, I chose to include the clues and cars trails focusing on exploring a more futuristic look, which is what this city represents.
Since I was positioned from late afternoon until the end of the blue hour, I was able to register the entire transition of sunlight and artificial lights from the buildings and cars. The idea was to register the moment of sunset and at the same time the atmosphere of the lights of the city already beginning to light, and also the traces of the cars. For this, a base exposure and two negative -1 and -2 negative stops, respectively, were used. The base exposure was used to get all the details of the shadows and the textures of the buildings. The first negative, I used to recover the colors of the sky and the horizon yellowed by the setting sun, and also to balance some parts of shadows in the transition from the background to the foreground. And the second negative I used to recover the details of the already bright artificial lights of the buildings and the streets. Then I used a sequence of a dozen exposures that were made at the end of the session, in order to capture the cars trails. This sequence was stacked up for a more consistent and more continuous trail result. This work was done using mostly Luminosity Masks and blend modes in Photoshop.
In the post-processing, I made adjustments of contrasts and micro-contrasts, highlights and shadows, distortion correction, color adjustments as well as sharpening and other minor adjustments. All of these adjustments were also made selectively using Luminosity Masks and I also used the Nik Color Efex Pro plugin.
All rights reserved
Prints available, please contact-me :
>> higordepadua at gmail . com
>> higordepadua.com.br
>> instagram.com/higordepadua ( <- follow me :) )
Dubai, UAE
I think this is one of the best views in Dubai. It is where you can see several of the skyscrapers in the commercial and financial center of the city, with emphasis on the Burj Khalifa downtown. No kidding, this photo was planned almost a year in advance. From the time spent to discover the place, to the preparation to be there at the right time, in the proper position. Get access to the site, and then assemble the equipment and manage to stay in the same position for more than 2 hours. No doubt it was worth every second spent on producing this work.
For this photo I placed the tripod in a wall that gives access to the view. Since there was no one, I was able to choose the place where I would stay. I looked closely at the view to choose the best angle and position, keeping in mind that I would need to minimize the distortion caused by the wide-angle lens (14mm) I would use. At the same time, I chose to centralize the Burj Khalifa, which would be the "star" of the photo. The positioning of the surrounding buildings would balance the elements of the photo, distributing interesting subjects from the foreground to the background. In addition, I chose to include the clues and cars trails focusing on exploring a more futuristic look, which is what this city represents.
Since I was positioned from late afternoon until the end of the blue hour, I was able to register the entire transition of sunlight and artificial lights from the buildings and cars. The idea was to register the moment of sunset and at the same time the atmosphere of the lights of the city already beginning to light, and also the traces of the cars. For this, a base exposure and two negative -1 and -2 negative stops, respectively, were used. The base exposure was used to get all the details of the shadows and the textures of the buildings. The first negative, I used to recover the colors of the sky and the horizon yellowed by the setting sun, and also to balance some parts of shadows in the transition from the background to the foreground. And the second negative I used to recover the details of the already bright artificial lights of the buildings and the streets. Then I used a sequence of a dozen exposures that were made at the end of the session, in order to capture the cars trails. This sequence was stacked up for a more consistent and more continuous trail result. This work was done using mostly Luminosity Masks and blend modes in Photoshop.
In the post-processing, I made adjustments of contrasts and micro-contrasts, highlights and shadows, distortion correction, color adjustments as well as sharpening and other minor adjustments. All of these adjustments were also made selectively using Luminosity Masks and I also used the Nik Color Efex Pro plugin.
All rights reserved
Prints available, please contact-me :
>> higordepadua at gmail . com
>> higordepadua.com.br
>> instagram.com/higordepadua ( <- follow me :) )