Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Traditional Architecture

Here's a rather traditionally framed architectural shot of the fountain in Empire Square, The Belém district of Lisbon, Portugal. The World Heritage Hieronymites Monastery dominates the background.


Empire Square - Belém, Portugal
Canon PowerShot S2IS at 35mm EFL
1/320s, f/4.0 & ISO ??? - handheld


The monastery provides a quite detailed backdrop for this fountain but the foreground feels lacking. Any suggestions on what I could have used to add a little interest in the foreground? Or would cropping it out all together, work better?
Posted by Stephen Parker at 6:58 PM
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3 comments:

  1. Craig StoneFebruary 11, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    Hi Steve,

    I'm going to be really painful on this one.

    I agree that much of the immediate foreground it not interesting to me at all.

    What I think would turn this into an awesome shot (and this is not likely to be possible but how I image it in my minds eye), would be to get up closer to the fountain, get elevated somehow so that you can see the fountain shooting water up into the air, but not higher than the top of the roof behind it if you know what I mean.

    Maybe if you got further away, and had a building to get up a bit to get some elevation and then shoot with a longer lens to get some background compression happening too to being the fountain and building closer together maybe?


    I'd also like to see a version where you stood on top of the very edge of the forground steps and cut out the outside of the water concrete surround so that it was just water to the edge of the frame, then a structure in the water that was shooting more water too.

    Just some rambling thoughts for you.

    What do you think?

    Regards
    Craig.

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  2. Stephen ParkerFebruary 11, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    Craig,

    Good comments, however what's not obvious in this image is that between the fountain and the monastery is a 4 lane highway. Shooting from an elevated position will expose this effectively cutting the image in half.

    My only real solution here is to crop the foreground out or place an object there. For an object, I would imagine a person seated in the lower left corner, angled towards the tower of the monastery and reading a travel guidebook.


    steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. Craig StoneFebruary 16, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    Hi Steve,

    I think you did a great job hiding that highway. I can't see even a hint of one being there.

    I like your idea of having a person in the image. It always helps give an idea of how big the structure is you are looking at too.

    Cheers!
    Craig.

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