On my last post, I wrote about how I’m always looking for a certain variables to line up in Venice. Ponte dei Sospiri (The Bridge of Sighs) is a perfect example of this. Over the last series of visits, It’s always been covered with scaffolding and under restoration. Because of this, I’ve never been able to get a clear shot of it. Well, that is, until now.
I did quite a bit of scouting on this visit to Venice and thankfully I was able to shoot this on the same morning as Venetian Blues. Any time that I can squeeze 2 shots out of a 4AM wake up call is call for a celebration or at the very least, an extra shot of espresso in my victory coffee. 
Technical Mumbo Jumbo
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 24-70 f/2.8 (Shot at 45 mm)
Tripod: RRS TVC-33 / BH-55 Ballhead / RRS L-Plate
ISO: 100 at f/8 / 400 at f/2.8
3 Exposure Brackets at f/8, 1 Exposure at f/2.8
Hardware: 15” 2011 Macbook Pro, Wacom Intuos5 Small Tablet
Software: Lightroom, Photoshop, NIK
Technique and Details: Digital Blending using 3 Bracketed Exposures at f/8 and 1 Manual Exposure at f/2.8. The f/8 was used to correct the motion blur on the boats from the long exposures at f/8.
In photoshop—with the help of my Wacom stylus—I blended the 3 exposure brackets ( -1, 0, +1) together with simple hand painted masks. Then, with an additional layer, I masked in the boats from the fast exposure at f/2.8. Since the water wasn’t completely soft, I softened it by using a gaussian blur filter along with a few brush strokes with the blur tool. This allowed me to seamlessly blend the edges where the building structure meets the water.
Espresso: Lavazza Rossa (one of my staples)
Your mastery of photoshop is amazing. You’ve made an excellent image. I would love to see how you did it. Great work!
Thanks Gavin!
Wow I love this! I got engaged under the Bridge of Sighs in a gondola so this place means alot to me. You’ve captured a really tangible mood with this photo
I’m really happy to hear that Lise. This part of Venice means a lot to me as well.
As I was reading this, I thought “What is the f2.8 shot for?” Then I read further and you explained it. Taking awesome photos and sharing them is impressive. Sharing the techniques is fantastic and truly appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to read through it Steve. I’m happy you found it interesting.
Un bel ponte! (I hope that’s right. If not, blame the free English-to-Italian online translator.) I am so drawn to the water in this shot. It looks almost like a futuristic metal and is soft at the same time. Beautiful work!
Yea, that’s perfect. It does look a bit metallic. The pre-dawn light was very soft and just lightly blue. It’s cool to see it reflect in the soft water.
Well Elia,
First the article is simple to understand but its too simple. I am just starting out and it would be awesome if you could do some sort of video tutorial with the same processing that you have done. Thank you.
All things come with time. I’ll have some new training materials up soon. Not too worry.