Environmental Portrait, Europe, Italy, Photography, Portraits, Travel2015, Carnival, Carnivale, Photoshoot, Piazza San Marco, Venice, gondolas, italy, lanterns, lightroom, long exposure, masks, photoshop, saint mark, street lights, sunrise, travels, water

Sunrise Photoshoot in Venice at Piazza San Marco

Environmental Portrait, Europe, Italy, Photography, Portraits, Travel2015, Carnival, Carnivale, Photoshoot, Piazza San Marco, Venice, gondolas, italy, lanterns, lightroom, long exposure, masks, photoshop, saint mark, street lights, sunrise, travels, water
Sunrise Photoshoot in Venice at Piazza San Marco

You have to be crazier than the rest of the people in Venice in order to get the best shots, which means getting up even earlier than what most people think is already an early time to wakeup. Waking up at 5am to capture the early morning scenes in Venice has its advantages. The main one being that you get there before anyone else, which means you get to pick your spots early :)This photo was an accident. I was photographing something in the complete opposite direction of this scene. Engrossed in my activity and listening to music as I often do while making photographs. I hadn't even noticed that models and photographers had arrived behind me, for the traditional shots of masked revelers at sunrise by the gondolas parked at Piazza San Marco.I turned around, saw the opportunity and quickly made two photographs before the lights went out!This is most likely the only photograph from this trip where I actively photographed the traditional costumes, and likely the only one I'll be sharing here.My intent this trip (from a photography perspective) was to make a few of the classic shots that I had missed previously, but also to try and do something different from the traditional and expected. I'm still working through those attempts, which I will hopefully share as a series with you.Processing wise, nothing too complicated, although I did have to remove a photographer and his tripod from the scene. But that was also kinda fun :) I took the two exposures and after basic adjustments in Lightroom, blended them with a gradient mask in Photoshop to increase the dynamic range. Made some minor colour adjustments using a curves layer, not to correct the colour, but to add to the overall mood and look of the scene. I did emphasise the light and how it falls off into the ground and models, with a feathered masked selection.Hope you enjoy it, more to come.

Before and After

[twentytwenty]Before imageA couple of masked and costumed carnival attendants pose for photographers at sunrise in venice[/twentytwenty] PS. If you haven't already checked it out, I've started a dedicated FujiFilm project called the Fuji X Files where I am sharing photographs exclusively made with FujiFilm cameras like the X100 and X-Pro1.