Palácio Nacional de Queluz I Photo

Photographer’s Note

This baroque/rococo palace, once a property of the Portuguese royal family, was built in the mid 18th century, on the place of another older palace from a noble man that fell into disgrace one hundred years before. It has clear resemblances of many great royal palaces from its times, notably in its "French style" gardens which design was much the work of a french architect Jean-Baptiste Robillon with the help of the dutch gardener Jose Van del Kolk, although much experts claim that it still is much "portuguese" in some architectural details. Some call it the "portuguese Versailles", other compare it with Frederick the Great's palace of Sanssouci, near Berlin. I suspect that most European countries have there own "Versailles", so this is the closest one in Portugal.

Nowadays the palace is still used to some state ceremonies once in a while. Supposedly it's the official residence of foreign heads of state visiting Portugal and besides that some state dinner parties are held there when important foreign guest come visit the country.

It's actually a nice place to wander around, with its nice gardens and its non too excessive grandeur. Being less than 10 Km from home and with free entrances on Sunday mornings, I decided it was a good idea to go there and enjoy the Autumn sun one morning that I found myself at home with some time to spare until lunch. I confess I hadn't gone there since I was a child. Isn't it interesting and sad how we sometimes keep forgetting of the nice places where we can enjoy a couple of relaxing hours close to home? Consequence of TE, contrarily to what used to be my habits for these quick weekend breaks, I brought the camera with me.

Inside the block that is visible on the image, we attended for sometime an unexpected cute display: a recreation of the life of child princesses for a birthday party. I posted a photo of it as a WS.

You can browse all my posts of this area by following this link.

Location (latitude, longitude): 38.74974,-9.25873

Links to info on the palace and its gardens: Wikipedia, Portugal Virtual, Planetware.

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PP work: besides the usual cropping, colour balancing and saturation, sharpening after shrinking, etc., I spent some time trying to correct the tilt on the FG - strangely the building was perfectly straight, but the border of the fountain was (and still is) tilted. I also brightened the trees, which were too dark and applied different colour adjustment to the sky, where some excess red persisted. I tried putting the clouds more white without much success.

ribeiroantonio, asajernigan, dospordostres, euryan, superpau, sufi, luisafonso, guillaumejm, Donald, lucasgalodoido, parbo, deblink, bostankorkulugu, erdna, adores, xuaxo, AnaRita, JCG has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

ribeiroantonio (22054) 2006-12-10 20:14

Aqui está a foto que eu já há muito tempo andava a desejar ver aqui no TE. Toda a gente vai para Sintra e se esquece desta pequena maravilha tão perto de Lisboa. Já lá fui há mais de 20 anos e nas minhas últimas estadias em Portugal tenho sempre pensado em lá ir novamente mas, como como já é hábito, aparecem outras coisas para fazer e este tem ficado para trás.
Gosto muito desta composição simétrica que nos mostra a fonte no primeiro plano e o bonito palácio ao fundo. As cores estão estupendas e a definição muito boa.
Foi uma laternativa excelente às imagens do Marrocos!!!
António

asajernigan (14368) 2006-12-10 20:31

Jose,
This photo has nice lighting and color with excellent sharpness. You have captured a very nice manor with good perspective.
TFS,
Asa

dospordostres (1127) 2006-12-10 22:04

Hi Jose,
Very nice image with beautiful colors, really an amazing place. Regarding the DOF, the good thing about having both the statue and the building on focus, is that you can see both of them at the same time, but that is also the bad thing about it; the two subjects get a bit mixed up and it's hard to see either very clearly.
Saludos,
Daniel

euryan (8355) 2006-12-10 22:58

Your note was very well written and very interesting. I usually don't like long notes because people just copy and paste stuff from Wikipedia, but your note was not only informative, but also full of personal insights that made it interesting.

The photo is good too. I really like the PP you have done. It looks very sharp, and the contrast is really good. The symmetrical composition works really well considering the subject matter. I visited there 6 years ago. Lovely place.
Regards,
Ryan

[2]

superpau (1460) 2006-12-10 23:49

Hola Jose!
Esta parece una de mis fotos! Y por supuesto, me encanta :D
El cielo esta espectacular y el contraste de todos los colores, el verde, el amarillo del palacio y el azul, es fabuloso.
Parece que te tomaste mucho trabajo en tu PP, pero dió resultado. Algunas veces la inclinación (tilt) es casi imposible de evitar, pero si no lo mencionas, ni lo noto en realidad.
Me gusta tambien tu POV, en el que dejas al palacio en el medio de la foto, muy central. Eso le da un aspecto todavía mas majestuoso a la foto.

Me entusiasmé con mi critica, no? Es que soy sincera, me alegra que muestres más cosas de tu país! Que por lo visto, tiene mucho para mostrar.

Besos!
Paula.

PS: me gustaría celebrar mi cumpleaños de la forma en que muestras en tu WS :D

blankar (797) 2006-12-11 0:45

Hi Jose,
Oh, you've got to be kidding... Are this kind of places around or is it a fairly tale?.... :)

UnTrained (0) 2006-12-11 3:56

Olá José, nice building and very good DOF. I like the amount of colors and details. All PP gives a result which is for me very close to nature - what I expect to see. I am a bit astonished about the centered POV?
Cheers, Ulf

Yar (795) 2006-12-11 13:39

a very beautiful facade of the castle
nice green bushes and trees
very sharp photo, every detail can be seen
...and thank you for the descriptive comments to this photo

guillaumejm (32) 2006-12-11 16:03

Bonsoir josé,
Belle composition & belle lumière (belles couleurs également). Moi qui en général aime bien la symétrie, je me demandais ce que celà pourrait donner si tus avais décalé un peu ron point de prise de vue légèrement sur la gauche (ou sur la droite) pour ainsi avoir en plus l'allée qui mène du bassin au chateau. je ne dis pas que ce serait mieux c'est juste une réflexion, comme ça!.
Amicalement
JMarc

Donald (134) 2006-12-11 19:01

Hi Jose, very nice building and captured so well, I see what you mean about the tilt but I would not know how to correct it, but I bet you that Antonio has told you as he is the Master with a camera and PP a man with great skils, but I cant read his note, but you have delivered a very professional photo for us to look at with great POV DOF Colour and sharpness.Well done my friend.
Donald

lucasgalodoido (16891) 2006-12-11 19:35

Olá José!
Impressionante a Qualidade e nitidez de sua imagem! As cores também ficaram excelentes, além de ser uma bela arquitetura!
Parabéns e Abraço!

parbo (11054) 2006-12-11 21:25

Olá Jose,

Excellent sharpness and colors are dazzling my eyes in your frame (then still thinking between Olympus and d200 again, again). I like your position front of pool and adding great view with green texture, blue sky and splendid architecture of Palácio Nacional de Queluz with your perfectly centered position. Your workshop photo also includes a unique ceremony with same quality of principal photo, from inside. Congratulations. I wish you a very good week.

Friendly Regards,

Ertugrul

luisafonso (858) 2006-12-12 4:36

Muito boa esta tua foto José. Gosto do enquadramento simples e directo com uma forte sensação de equilíbrio causado pela simetria em ambos os lados do edifício. A definição está excelente e as cores muito bem apanhadas por ti e pela tua Olympus. Usaste 25mm mas imagino o que os 14mm da tua lente não teriam feito. Se fosse a ti, pendurava-me em cima destas "ameias" no primeiro plano e tentava apanhar uma perspectiva onde se visse o palácio na sua totalidade com a estátua no primeiro plano (provavelmente nem é possível...). Mas eu gosto muito do que conseguiste. É um post TE muito bom. Venham mais...

deblink (2548) 2006-12-12 17:17

Hi Jose,
This is a very impressive building and fountain. The image is lovely and clear and the blue sky contrasts so well with the colour of the building. Yes as you say in your note, it is funny how often we don't visit the places of beauty that are so close to our own homes. Lovely photo.
Cheers,
Debbie

bostankorkulugu (34148) 2006-12-12 18:22

hi jose,
this is a well framed shot with beautiful colours and great sharpness... amazing architecture...
take care my friend...
korkut

jackart (5618) 2006-12-12 18:52

Hi Jose.

Very good photo. Ilike this clarity. sharpness is excellen. All details of building's facade are very good seen. I like beautiful lights and deep shadows playing on the wall.

Good work

Regards

batalay (21366) 2006-12-12 21:57

Hello José,
With the wonderful detailed note, you give meaning to TrekEarth as a site for photography and geography. I feel culturally richer for having read your account of the Palácio Nacional de Queluz. I've been to Lison 4-5 times, and enjoyed it each time, but have nver seen the Palácio Nacional. Very nice photo, and historica/geographical background. Warm regards,
Bulent

erdna (5360) 2006-12-12 22:12

A very clean, very sharp and superb architectural shot of this Palace. I really like the well detailed foreground part of the fountain.

Andre'

sufi (9568) 2006-12-12 22:54

Merhaba Jose, my friend...
It's a wonderful point of view and perfect composition, indeed. Very creative composition too... The colors and the light are also perfect... I like it so much...
TFS...
Stay well..
Salim.

setenay (7604) 2006-12-13 5:13

Hello Jose,
exellent shot,perfect composition with architectural details of beautiful palace and fountain.I saw Versailles and Sans souchi palaces and I want to visit Portugal too much.
Best wishes
setenay

adores (15821) 2006-12-26 20:54

Olá José!
Já vi que tens várias fotos novas. Esta está óptima, sem dúvida uma boa perspectiva do Palácio de Queluz, com excelentes cores e definição.
Cumprimentos, Anabela

capthaddock (28640) 2007-01-04 14:16

Hi Jose - beautiful architecture, under a pleasant winter light, the symmetric positioning worked well here.

Bluejeans (33345) 2007-01-30 10:46

Ola Jose , muito bonita esta tua foto do palacio de Queluz , bem coloriada cheia de detalhes e uma boa definição, parabens!!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

xuaxo (5899) 2007-04-25 11:13

Um clássico. E perfeito, como fica bem a um clássico. Tão boa como as melhores que tenho visto deste palácio neste ponto de vista.
F

Tango7174 (0) 2007-05-24 9:43

Better than a postcard! Interesting perspective with the fountain in the foreground. Incredibly crisp resolution of both foreground and background. No visitor wandering around, which is an amazing feat when photographing those touristic areas. The details of the note, a bonus.
Congratulations José!

Thành.

JCG (25839) 2008-11-06 11:36

Re bonsoir José,

Un petit bond dans ta gallerie et je m'arrête sur celle-ci que je trouve superbe et d'une qualité exceptionnelle, j'aime beaucoup la netteté de l'image et cette agréable luminosité. Ce palais est superbe, son architecture est tout en finesse. J'apprécie beaucoup l'harmonie dans ta composition. Compte tenu de la journée grise que nous avons eu aujourd'hui sur Versailles, un photo qui fait du bien tout en nous instruisant, merci José.

Avec mes amitiés et à bientôt,

Jean-Charles