Great shot. There is one thing you might want to try different:
Shoot in the morning or late day when the sun isn't so bright. It tends to wash out the photo.
I really like the pretty blue sky and the tops of the buildings are interesting to look at. Is that one in the front crumbling? he better get that fixed.
It looks like the "perfect" spot from which to take that pic would have been 30 feet directly to your right, no doubt off a cliff! :D That way you might have been able to keep the vanishing perspective lines of the towers, and still get the far background and sky in an even better angle?
Sonifo, I agree with the morning-late afternoon thing, that makes sense. Thanks for the praise.
Ginger, I was thinking the same exact thing then I was up there, but this guard tower was probably 6 feet by 6 feet, and there was no way I was going to walk across the 3 inch thick 2 millenia year old wall for the shot. Thanks for the praise as well.
The shot is great - you had a much prettier day there than I had - we were worried about a storm opening up on us when I took the same shot, from the same tower. It sort of worked out, though - it makes for a good 'moody' shot. And I tend to agree with your composition - the two towers make for a good central focus, and the stuff on either side of them begged not to be shot.
Was there still a bunch of ugly, Orange retaining material below the towers, just out of sight of these shots? There was when I was there - this itself made it tough to compose the shot any other way.
Kavey that is alright. I did a djust the brightness so that it was a little darker to prevent the washed out look. That darker image is giong to be on Prints. I oppose the cropping, because I want the viewer to feel in the photo. Rich, I am so thrilled you got to Gimignano, and it is pretty coincidental that our shots are nearly identical. I like how you found that little tower at the outskirts of the city (great minds think alike). I'd love to see your other shots from the area and from around Italy (I have a plethora of those). I am sorry that your luck was not as good as mine with the weather, but I think that it is very interesting to see how the day can make such a difference in what the photo means. When were you there?
From my point of view the left hand section of the photo just doesn't add anything though - it's mostly bushes - it's not as dynamic as the right hand half. I was also looking to strengthen composition.
I did a very basic thing in Photoshop - I'm too impatient to use all the curves options so I just went into Image> Adjust> Brightness and Contrast and reduced brightness and nudged contrast.
Kavey that is alright. I did a djust the brightness so that it was a little darker to prevent the washed out look. That darker image is giong to be on Prints. I oppose the cropping, because I want the viewer to feel in the photo. Rich, I am so thrilled you got to Gimignano, and it is pretty coincidental that our shots are nearly identical. I like how you found that little tower at the outskirts of the city (great minds think alike). I'd love to see your other shots from the area and from around Italy (I have a plethora of those). I am sorry that your luck was not as good as mine with the weather, but I think that it is very interesting to see how the day can make such a difference in what the photo means. When were you there?
We were there in September of last year - we had phenomenally good weather, even that day at San Gimignano the rain never actually fell.
My original shot was wider than what I posted, and darker too - I cropped it to what I felt the photo's strenghts were, the two main towers, but I liked the way the smaller buildings on the left and right supported the picture.
We had the best time in Italy - I cannot wait to go back some day. I have some other shots from our trip there if you want to take a look:
Assisi was the most charming city of the lot - just beautiful, and quaint, expecially because no cars are allowed in the city, much like San Gimignano. But every town and city was great in one way or another.
Edit: I am a decent speller, but a horrible typist!
Are, first of all that was not Kavey, that was richterrell. He went to the sam eplace as I did and took a photo, but on a different day. I thought that he had just messed around with my photo before I took a good look at it and read his reply.
It's a little hard to believe, but it's just a coincidence!
