Today’s urban photography tip, when in Rome – Shooting iconic sculpture.
The Trevi Fountain in Rome, is there anything more iconic?
OK, yeah, there’s the Colosseum but for romance and a destination, the Trevi Fountain is pretty much it.
When shooting something like this, of course, you should look for opportunities to zoom in close if you can and isolate the wondrous details. But you’ve also just GOT to get the big picture, the fountain in all its glorious details.
It’s so damn crowded around the fountain to get a good shot of nothing but the sculptures you’ve pretty much got to zoom in. Naturally, there will be many shots where you will want to include the crowds, but in this case, I wanted just the sculptures.
When you’re shooting something like this, it’s important just to take, and post process, for the best technical photograph you can create.
It starts with a tonal range that the sensor can handle. I waited for some clouds to move overhead to bath the scene in a pretty even light. Then I had to punch, kick and claw my way to dead center. OK, I didn’t really have to do all that – but I would have.
So I got the shot I wanted. In post, I straightened it out a little and added a little dynamic contrast to punch it up. There I go with the violence again.
In Silver Efex Pro I added a bunch of those little UPoint technology adjustments and used them over some specific sculptural areas to add more brightness and contrast.
Finally back in Lightroom, I used an adjustment brush to brush in a hint of clarity to the water fall.
With post processing, don’t overdue stuff, just a little enhancement goes a long way.
So there you go, when you’re shooting iconic sculpture, what you really want is just a technically good photo.
And as always, please help me keep this site alive by browsing through my ebooks or photo galleries of beautiful New York City black and white photography. There you can select a gorgeous high-resolution print file that you can download for only $20 and print it anywhere yourself. And I’ll donate 20% of the purchase price to one of the following global humanitarian charities that you can select on checkout: UNESCO, Unicef, Earthwatch, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch and The Hunger Project
Until next time, happy shooting.
Bob