Semana Santa easter procession in Spain

[Digimule]

During the Semana Santa week before Easter in Spain huge processions take place, where men, women and children participate. The biggest processions are in Cordoba, Sevilla, Malaga etc., I had the chance to see a smaller procession in Nerja in Andalusia, beginning at 10 PM. The pics were made with the D50 and 1.8/50, with ISO 800 and 1/60 or 1/80 shutter speed. Hope you like them...
Andreas

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[RFCGRAPHICS]

A very nice series of images. Its so neat to see how people live in other parts of our world.


Regards

RFC

 

[sclamb]

Very nice pictures, and good to see a ceremony that I have not seen before.

 

[BostonRott]

Who or what is Semana Santa? I've not heard of that before. The first image is rather disturbing to me, looks too much like Ku Klux Klan (whom I had the "priviledge" to see march while in college in VA). The rest are quite interesting. That little girl is adroable. :smile:

 

[Digimule]

Who or what is Semana Santa? I've not heard of that before. The first image is rather disturbing to me, looks too much like Ku Klux Klan (whom I had the "priviledge" to see march while in college in VA). The rest are quite interesting. That little girl is adroable. :smile:

Yes, the robes are disturbing when they march through the town at night! And there is aconnection to the KKK, but the other way round, as you can see from this wikipedia article "Semana Santa":

"Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent. It includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) and Good Friday, and lasts from Palm Sunday until but not including Easter Sunday, as Easter Sunday is the first day of the new season of The Great Fifty Days. It commemorates the last week of the life of Jesus Christ culminating in his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
[...]
Spain is renowned in the world for its Holy Week traditions. Seville and Malaga see the most glamorous celebrations, while those of Castille-Leon see the more sombre and solemn events.

A common feature in Spain is the almost general usage of the "nazareno" or penitential robe for some of the participants in the Processions. This garment consists in a tunic, a hood with conical tip ( "capirote") used to conceal the face of the wearer, and sometimes a cloak. The exact colors and forms of these robes depend on the particular procession. The robes were widely used in the medieval period for penitents, who could demonstrate their penance while still masking their identity. (These robes intentionally served as the basis for the traditional uniform for members of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, ironically a very anti-Catholic organization.) These "Nazarenos" carry processional candles or rough hewn wooden crosses, may walk the city streets barefoot, and, in some places may carry shackles and chains on their feet as penance. [...]"

And actually the girl is a boy :smile:

 

[Czechman01]

I think the images are "flat"... try adjusting the levels or if you PM me with your e-mail I can send you a Photoshop Action that will "defog" them.

Always interesting to see different cultures.

 

[Digimule]

Hi Woody,
thanks for the offer, but i don't have PS, I just began shooting RAW and used Raw Shooter Essentials and IrfanView. I also have Gimp, is it possible with that program also?
Andreas

 

[Czechman01]

I'm not sure but if either can perform an Unsharp Mask, try using these settings:

HEAVY: Amount 20%, Radius 60 pixels, Threshold 0
LITE: Amount 14%, Radius 40 pixels, Threshold 0

If you don't want to go the entire Photoshop, you might want to look into Photoshop Elements... it's like 90% of Photoshop at a tint fraction of the price.

 

[Digimule]

Thanks again, I'll try that with Gimp. But the more I think about the right software for me, the more I get the impression that PS or PS Elements are a kind of standard. PS is out of my financial reach at the moment but Elements are definitely worth a try. Seems to be better to join the crowd...
Andreas

 

[DanielD]

I'm using Gimp for the reason that it runs on Linux and PS is so incredible expensive (though very tempting)....
Levels/Curve adjustment are no problem in Gimp, as well as unsharp mask sharpening, though you can't take the paramters 1:1, you'll have to figure these out for yourselves.