Church of the Frari

Taken with a monopod inside the Frari in Venice.

Surprised there are no critiques of this very fine picture. For me the success of this piece comes from focus on the foreground monochrome statue and the very blurred colorful background. The result, for me at any rate, is that the statue absorbs a feeling of color, something that we color-stimulated folks need in a marble statue.

I thought about what I just said and I think it needs clarification. I love marble statues, but when we photograph them, reducing them to two dimensions, they beg for color and depth, both of which you have provided.

Thank you, Ransford, for your kind comments. Actually, this picture drives me crazy because it's blurry. I sharpened it in PS but you can only do so much. I used a monopod and the fastest shutter I could get to work and took about 10 pics on 3 different occasions, but it's always blurry. The problem is that the statue is actually part of a fountain and only about 10' high, so you have to get really close to get this shot (it's too dark to back off and use a telephoto). But, I'm going to get a better one one day it it kills me!!

I was not aware of a focus problem. Perhaps the size on screen and the fact that my eyesight is not great, BUT the picture is great and that justifies presenting it. Did you try High Pass (under Other on the Filter menu) in PhotoShop on a duplicate layer with an Overlay or Soft Light blend? High Pass IMHO is a subtler sharpening tool that Unsharp Mask because it finds highlight and shadow edges instead of indiscriminately comparing pixels (Unsharp). Besides, I think it would work well with an essentially gray monochrome,i.e., the statue.

Nonetheless, the picture looks great to me as is

I like your composition, accentuating the statue and great background!

Biliana

Very well done. The opposition grey/colour and net/blured works perfectly with the expression and posture of the statue. Really a good shot, and yet this is not the kind of photos that I prefer.

You have many superb works in your folders. Compared with other photos, this one may be technically unsatisfactory to you as you have pointed the blur problem. But this is so impressive to my eyes and to my heart too. I can say "Composition is great" or "Good DOF" or "Beautiful colors" etc. Those are true, but sometimes I want to throw every critical terms away. I like this photo very much!

That's how I feel also and why I posted this in spite of the technical problems. I have a friend who hates this picture and asks why I keep trying (I have tried to get a better one on at least three seperate trips there), but it has always spoken to me from the first time I saw the statue.

I understand. We know what the best exposure is (hopefully), also there must be the best focus for each different photos perhaps. The most sharp focus is not always the best focus. One of the charms of this photo is the contrast of sharpness. The statue is not completely sharp, but enough sharper than background. I like to see a photo which was visited by magical moment like this.

I'm fairly new to photography as a serious endeavor, but I'm a little mystified by photographers, as I read them on PN. They seem obsessed by technical matters. Now I can understand this when images are prepared on commercial commission and presented to a commercial user, who ultimately dictates the specifications for the product. But PN, in my view, leans to photography as an art form. Of course, I come from painting first and then Photoshop before I started taking a lot of photos, but I am surprised how often photographers seem to be looking for flaws. So I arrive at a question posed to another on PN for different reasons: What do you do when you see a great shot that has an imperfection? Do you just not take the picture? Of course, my answer is that you take the picture and "fix" it the best you can. I wanted to get this off my chest, motivated by one of your comments: How can anybody "hate" this picture?

You're right! Personally, I'm with you. It's good to have technical knowledge and know the rules because, more often than not, you will get a better photo that way. But in the end, I just care about it being a picture that means something to me. I've seen GREAT pictures with centered horizons, the subject in the middle, underexposed, over exposed, you name it. I'm not a big believer in "rules." So, I agree. I get the picture as well as I can in camera and then fix it as well as I can later. I would rather have a bad pic then no pic, in most cases! Sometimes that will even lead you to a better picture than a technically perfect one would. For example, I have a pic in my Misc Italy folder of a demon gouging the eyes out of some poor soul. When I took it, I was severely constrained by horrible weather, a piece of dirty plexiglass and my own lack of verticallness (I'm 5'7" so couldn't reach anything higher). However, in the end, I probably got a picture which, while not technically perfect, I'm happier with. On the other hand, this one frustrates me because I don't think the soft focus is artistic or enhancing. It's distracting to the viewer and results from my own lack of knowledge and/or equipment. To frame it like this, I had to get really close (2" maybe) and it's quite dark. Cameras aren't allowed but enforcement is lax. Still a flash is out of the question as is a tripod. For this, I used a monopod but I was just to close to focus in that light. The focus issue is much more apparent in the print, btw. I still like the pic; I just wish I could get it clearer. One last thing, hate was probably too strong a word. My friend just doesn't care for this.

The colors are very rich here Bill, you have done it justice indeed. The bokeh is excellent for a prosumer camera