Message from ricardoalves
Welcome to my pbase galleries and thank you everyone for visiting and voting my galleries!!
Hope you enjoy...
Ricardo
Note: If you are interested in some of my work please contact me!
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Photograph Biography:
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Ricardo Santiago Alves was born in 20th January 1976 and now lives in Lisbon, Portugal. His interest for photography began at the age of 16, when he get the first photographic camera, a Cosina reflex, which gave him the opportunity to explore the exotic landscapes of Asia and learn how to see through de lens. At 18, he received a manual Nikon FM2, which became his inseparable travel partner for more than 10 years! Nowadays, he both uses digital and analog cameras.
Ricardo his mainly attracted with color landscape photography, exploring the variety of colors, textures, forms, energy and movement found in a natural environment. Besides working as an engineer, he spends most of his time in the field, doing rock-climbing passionately and photographing, always looking for dynamic compositions, distinct light and new challenging views.
At the present, his backpack equipment is a Nikon D300 with a Tokina 12-24mm, a Nikkor 24-70mm, a Nikkor 70-200mm, a shutter cable release, two extra batteries, also a tripod Manfrotto 55 ProB, two graduated neutral density filter (2 and 3 stops), a circular polarizer, a pair of gloves, a backpack rain cover and a collapsible reflector. Additionally he carries a second camera, a large format Shen-Hao HZX4x5-II body, a Schneider 65mm lens, a set of Velvia Quickloads, a cable release and a digital photometer.
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The equipment I use in the PBase galleries:
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Nikon D300
Nikon D200
Nikon D70
Nikon FM-2
Nikkor AF 20 2.8
Nikkor AF 70-210 4-5.6D
Nikkor AF Micro 70-180mm 4.5-5.6D ED
Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR DX
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VR
Nikkor AF-S 24-70 f/2.8G ED
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AF PRO AT-X DX
Tokina AF 20-35/3,5-4,5
Tokina AT-X 28-80/2.8 PRO
Bronica ETR-Si 6x4.56
Bronica Zenzanon-E 250/5,6
Bronica Zenzanon-E 50/2,8
Shen-Hao HZX4x5-II
Schneider 65mm
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A little statement from the author:
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Observation: ‘’Most of the places have natural beauty and good photo opportunities, sometimes you see it in a big scale, other times you find it in little things. For me the key is the light and the right balance of the elements you chose to frame. When I visit new places, I start by looking for elements that own a strong graphic feature, than can be used to create dynamic compositions and try to shoot them with the best available light, most of the time during the late afternoon or in the early morning.’’
Composition: ‘’I think, the most important aspect of composition in landscape is the sense of balance a photo should have, so nothing in the image is too much or to less. It’s equally essential to look for interesting subjects that can catch the attention, use strength lines to lead the eyes and leave some space for the mind to flow in the picture.’’
Color: ‘’Color is always changing in a natural environment and in order to capture the fine and dramatic light you have to be in the right place at the right time. I always concentrate my efforts in getting the best colors I can in the field at the time of the shutting. I rarely use color filters but I do use a lot of graduated neutral density filters, to balance extreme contrast scenes and had further detail, whenever a sight combines a bright sky area and a somewhat darker foreground.’’
Filters: ‘’Whenever I’m shutting sunsets or sunrises pointing towards the Sun I choose a 3 stop graduated neutral density filter with hard edge. When contrast is not so intense a 2 stop graduated neutral density filters with soft edge will work fine. Other filter I regularly use in landscape photography is a circular polarizer, which I find useful to add extra saturation and clearness to the scene.’’
Photoshop: ‘’I’m not a Photoshop expert, but since I’m using digital camera and shutting Raw (NEF) it’s inevitable to do digital post-processing. I mainly focus my digital retouching in improving overall light and contrast in the image, and if colors somehow don’t look right I use ‘’curves’’ and/or ‘’color balance’’ to achieve more neutral colors. A good tip in how to enhance contrast without exaggerating the color saturation of the image is to make contrast fine-tuning in the luminance channel (LAB mode).’’
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