Pisa 2

The sky is genuine - the only wet day on that trip. All comments

welcome!

your lens has a very bad barrel distortion, look at that tower in the background! :-) This is a great shot Colin! Bad weather may have ruined your day, but = indeed good for photos.

Hans, the Italian rain was a great relief as it was so hot last summer. The lens is indeed terrible :-) Thanks for pointing that out! I would take it back to the shop and ask for a replacement except it is a classic 1960's Nikkor F mount and the first at 20mm not to need mirror lock-up. It is not at all sharp compared with modern glass so some work was required to get this looking reasonable.

I love this! Colin - will you tell me (as a newbie to photography) how this would have looked different if taken with your medium format?

Colin, love this shot. The sky is very dramatic. I'm not crazy about the indviduals walking in the right foreground however I guess they add some depth to the image. As an added suggestion, I'm wondering if it would possible to get more definition in the detail on the structure to the immediate left.

Well it so happens...I took some with my large format camera using a 120 film holder. So this is comparing 35mm print film with 120 (6x7cm) slide film and under very quickly changing light conditions. (probably about 20 minutes apart!) These are the un-PS'ed versions. The posted 35mm shot looks quite sharp but that is largely due to a fair amount of PS fiddling. The original 35mm is quite grainy. I have not started on the 6x7 transparency yet and it is not the most successful in terms of sharpness. I think I prefer the 35mm shot anyway because it is more dramatic but you can see the difference. There is just more detail and tonal range for the MF shot which would allow it to be blown up to 15x12 inches at least without showing any signs of film grain. Against of course is slow working, weight, size , cost...and it is not always better as in this case!

And the 6x7cm shot...

Thanks Amar! The trouble with these places as I expect you have experienced yourself is that they are so popular with us tourists that to get a shot with only 2 people in took a wait of several minutes. The bit to the left I did not try to enhance too much as I thought it might detract from the main subject. You may be right:-)

Colin, this is a really nice angle of the piazza and light is excellent. I don't mind the people being there: they give sense of dimension to the buildings.

I was kidding about your lens Colin, I obviously meant the pisa tower.........!! Guess we need to photograph modern buildings to judge barrel distortion. :-) Christina is right about the people. If they were a little closer it would even have been better, but also this gives a nice triangle composition and a lot of depth.

Hans, I got your joke about the leaning tower:-)).

Beautiful light and the sky is nice. Fantastic.

Most definitely true Colin, it is hard to shoot without people in crowded places. It's funny I felt that way about it here, cause I usually would rather have people in such photos. Momentary lapse of sanity.

fantastic image and deep prospective!!!!

Excellent,what else!!!!

Thanks, Colin for the explanation. I looked at Hasselblads on Adorama this morning. OUCH!!!! ;-)

Nice place for a better shot! Fantastic!

Very nice, love the colors and sky!

The moodiness imparted by the weather is great! I like the image with the people in it. Weel seen.

Shot spectacular in every sense and very enlightening your comparative shots with 35mm and mediun format. Thanks

nice shot, the white marbel against thunder sky. mike

Great day for shooting and you took advantage of it. Nicely done.

Grea capture of beautiful light. Great sky and nice perspective.

I love the light, I love the colours, I love the composition, but most of all, I love the sky!

This photo is beautiful. I saw your pictures on one of the no words threads. All of what I have seen is amazing and you really inspire me! I'm going to Italy in December and this also makes me more and more eager for time to come faster! You are so good!