In this issue we continue our series of articles by Georgy Rozov on travel photography. These are prepared on the basis of materials published in the book “Live Photography” in the “How to Shoot” series. Three books of this series can be found in large bookstores in New York and St.Petersburg, and Ozon also sends them by mail to any part of the world.
ROME OCHRA
Color is the subject of the photo
Houses in old Rome are painted in warm, cheerful yellow and red-brown colors. Paint had been applied to the walls for years. Its layers were partly washed off, partly soiled, and new ones were applied on top. Because of this, the houses have become unusually thoroughbred, textured and very picturesque. The color of Rome became another theme for me. It is a great pleasure to bathe in its coloristic range, to study the everyday habits of Italians, comparing it to what one is used to at home
Here’s a photo, for instance. Everything in this shot is sweet: a beautiful icon in a white molded baguette frame, a drainpipe neatly painted to match the wall, an old cast-iron bracket of a street lamp, laundry just above the restaurant door, a pink handbag ready to drop onto the heads of the carefree visitors… I was overwhelmed with something special. Probably because a stone’s throw away was the majesty of the ancient Colosseum.
Photo 1
Nikon D2X camera
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR Lens
Focal length 105mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/9
Shutter speed 1/45 seconds
Center weighted metering
Auto Correction -0.7 EV
Shooting in RAW in aperture priority mode.
Photo 2
Nikon D2X camera
Focal Length 105mm
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter speed 1/250 sec
Center-weighted metering
Shooting in RAW in aperture priority mode.
Photo 2
Nikon D200 camera
Nikkor 17-55/2.8 lens
Focal length: 46mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter speed 1/320 s
Center-weighted
exposure metering
Shooting RAW images in aperture priority mode.
Photo 3
Nikon D200
Nikkor 17-55/2.8 lens
Focal length at 36mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/7.1
Exposure 1/15 s
Center-weighted metering
Exposure compensation -0.33 EV
Shooting in RAW mode with aperture priority.
The narrow streets in the center of Rome are empty even during the day. I had to wait a long time for a soul to grace the shot with its presence. Passers-by sooner or later make their appearance, but they move in short shifts, hiding in the shadows of the walls so as not to disturb the photographer. Respect for the person with the camera seems to be in the blood of the Romans, but this made my life difficult more than once.
I couldn’t guess at the trajectory the people would follow. The New York experience in Rome didn’t work. In this case, I chose the wide angle lens because I wanted to emphasize the height of the walls and the contrast of the light from the upper floors and the shadowed sidewalk. The gaps in shadows were solved by double-conversion of the original RAW file, and the verticals were parallelized by themselves after I brought the sidewalk under my feet into the frame. The camera was held completely vertically.
House 21 fascinated me with the combination of contrasting colors. The cobblestone sidewalk is not blue at all. When I was a child I used to draw a blue river, green grass, brown earth and tree trunks as a present. I realized after a while that the sky isn’t always blue, and that the color of the asphalt and cobblestones depends on the light they reflect. In this case the sidewalk was colored by blue sky. The walls of an old house are picturesque by themselves, but their warm colors contrast vividly with the cold sidewalk.
Color in the urban landscape is closely related to the direction, intensity, and color temperature of light. The same staircase mimicked like a chameleon in two pictures taken almost simultaneously from the same vantage point. This is because the first shot was taken from a narrow alleyway between two houses, into which a staircase is squeezed, and the lower steps are poorly lit. The light is shining on them from above on the right, with hardly any dispersion.
It’s a gray day, the sky is gray too, so the color of the steps isn’t affected by the drawing light. They are actually gray, just like in the picture. The graphic element of the picture dominates in this light. The glowing horizontals of the steps rise up to the only colored detail in the picture: the arch with the white figure of Our Lady in the depths of the grotto. The discreet yellow arch at the bottom of the frame is what gives it its color. No people in the shot, but it is hard to avoid the feeling of their presence because of the aged surfaces. Specially emphasized in the processing of the file, the texture of the walls and worn steps help humanize the picture.
The composition of the shot looks symmetrical at first glance. In this case, symmetry seemed to me to be the only right thing to do. When you moved the camera to the right or left, the vertical walls of the staircase gorge became the main characteristic of the image. Their texture is so aggressive, so attention-grabbing, that the statue I wanted to lead the viewer to is lost. But if that figure is the main thing in the frame, why not shoot it with a telephoto lens?
Because it would make the frame less multi-faceted. The glowing road to the target can be interpreted in many ways. For example, as a symbol of the work of the spirit on the long journey to God. The image of a solitary sculpture is much more difficult to incorporate into associative sequences. It is perceived unambiguously. Curiously enough, the symmetrical composition on closer inspection turns out not to be exactly the same: the graphical background on the left side of the image is almost exactly the same as on the right, but the lighting and color of the halves is very different.
After I finished shooting downstairs, I went up the stairs about two meters and found myself in a completely different environment. The upper light has been replaced by diffused light, still right, but within the space caught in the frame, this light has been repeatedly re-reflected. The light brings out the subtle colors. On the wall to my left there was a lot of blue, blue, yellow, red – I couldn’t call it gray. In the upper right corner a freshly painted building appeared.
It was painted with the same paint, but depending on the direction and strength of the light, as well as the color of the re-reflective surface, the paint looked yellow, orange, or a muddy red. The cool foreground combined with the warm background create a sense of rich color and depth in the composition, enhanced by the linear perspective of the steps. I think the color is more important in this shot than the pattern. Symmetry is conventional as in the first case, but this time it is destroyed by the bright upper right corner. The staircase is an extension of a small street in Rome. The city authorities spared no expense and decorated it with balloons. Lovingly made twisted handrail brackets. I am of the firm opinion that the Romans cannot build badly.
Photo 6
Nikon D200
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length 24mm
Sensitivity 320 ISO.
Aperture f/4
Shutter speed 1/40 sec
Center weighted metering
Exposure compensation -1 EV
RAW photography in aperture priority mode.
Photo 5
Nikon D200 camera
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length 18mm
320 ISO
Aperture f/5.6
Shutter speed 1/90 sec
Center weighted metering
Exposure compensation -1 EV
Shooting in RAW with aperture priority mode in ambient light.
Photo 7
Nikon D2X camera
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length of 18 mm
Sensitivity 500 ISO
Aperture f/6.3
Shutter speed 1/80 sec
Center weighted exposure mode
Shooting in RAW in aperture priority mode.
There was a big black Mercedes in the little courtyard in front of the entrance to St. Sylvester’s. In my mind, this piece didn’t fit in with the museum world around it. But locals don’t seem to notice this glaring discrepancy. They walk down ancient streets, live in antique homes and enjoy all the benefits of modern technology.
The wall of a medieval building is decorated with an ancient Roman bas-relief or a piece of broken marble slab with a Latin inscription. Fragments of ancient broken columns are placed along the walls next to the giant palm pots. The yard was extremely interesting, but so small that I couldn’t find a point of view to shoot the whole thing. I had to shoot in fragments. First, a shot of a Mercedes and a white marking on the brick sidewalk.
Then close-up, a marble mask turned into a source of water for washing the yard. It was amusing to see modern plumbing inside an ancient wall.
To the right of the Mercedes is the entrance to the church with a brick bell tower overhanging it. There are many of them in Rome, all red bricks, almost twins. Funny thing is that depending on the light, their color varied noticeably. In this photo, taken before sunset and under diffuse lighting, the color of the bell tower is dim and pastel.
The bell tower, which is also typical in Rome, but under direct sunlight and taken by a TV lens, looks very different.
No photos are allowed inside St. Sylvester’s Church. When I entered it, there was a wedding ceremony for a police officer. I was struck by the color contrast in the transition from the red, warm courtyard to the cool blue of the temple interior. It was cool indeed, as if the air conditioning was on in the temple. But no technique was used. A feeling of purity and freshness is due to the artists who painted the vault of the cathedral. I set the sensitivity to maximum, pressed the camera to my foot to lock it in place and avoid shakiness, and pressed the shutter release.
You could easily pass by this little pizzeria, built in a brick building without windows, without even noticing any sign of its existence, if it were not for the owner’s design trick. He had the idea of luring in weary tourists with eight plastic chairs and his knowledge of color contrast perception theory. It’s hard to think of a more garish color combination than scarlet and white. I, like everyone else, involuntarily slowed down, smiled, took a picture, sat down to rest, and then looked inside for a cold beer.
You can see the marks of time everywhere in Rome. And on this old wall, they’re not hidden. The house was not demolished, as is often done in New York, but some old window apertures were carefully bricked up in order to make a new one in the wall. By the way, the window with colored glass is not only very picturesque, but apparently creates an atmosphere of fun and comfort inside.
The architecture of old Rome is not always grand and systematic. The townspeople sometimes built to their hearts’ content. First the one-story house, then the second floor was added on top of it. Then the neighbors put theirs against the wall and another one was attached to that one. Then they put a third floor on the first house. And so on, until the funny facade appears, as if taken from a child’s drawing. The differently sized roofs are complemented by the differently sized windows, bouncing around the overall façade like naughty children. Peeling paint in the usual ochre color of old Rome. The setting sun was like a theatrical spotlight shining on the mansard that protrudes over this most picturesque of all.
Photo 8
Nikon D200 camera
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens
Focal length 153mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/3.2
Shutter speed 1/40 sec
Center weighted metering mode
Exposure compensation -0.3 EV
Capturing RAW images in aperture priority mode.
Photo 10
Nikon D2X
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens
Focal length is 360 mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/4.5
Shutter speed 1/250 sec
Center-weighted metering mode
Shooting in RAW in aperture priority mode.
Photo 9
Nikon D2X camera
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length 18mm
Sensitivity 500 ISO
Aperture f/6.3
Shutter speed 1/200 sec
Center weighted exposure mode
RAW image shot in aperture priority mode.
Photo 11
Nikon D200
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length 18 mm
Sensitivity 1600 ISO
Aperture f/4
Shutter speed 1/45 sec
Center weighted metering
Exposure compensation -0.3 EV
Shooting RAW in aperture priority mode.
Walking along the Tiber promenade, I reached the place where the river divides into two arms to enclose the small island of Isola Tiberina in my arms. There’s a house on the island. I don’t know who lives there, but I found the wall picturesque. I didn’t hesitate to pick out a piece of Roman reality and run along. Now I have nowhere to hurry, and I have time to analyze the fruits of my Roman hunt without hurry. The picture, as they say, is laid back. A lot of things don’t seem as interesting as they did at first, but this picture hasn’t faded away. Probably because it successfully combined the contrasting colors of the reddish-yellow wall and ultramarine of the curtains. Graphically the picture is almost symmetrical: in the center there is the figure of Archangel Michael with a spear, below there are two semicircles of window arches, and above – two windows. The symmetry is slightly broken by the left window with the bright blue curtains, and that’s what makes this shot live. Note the white lacey stains from the salt that have come out of the plaster: without them, the picture would have lost a lot.
I caught a glimpse of a winged Pegasus on the last day before heading for the airport, just as I was putting down my gear. His appearance was a reminder that our brother photographers should never relax. How many times in my life I have missed a shot because of my own laziness because I did not have my camera in hand when I needed it. However, when I travel, I am lucky. Lucky this time too. While I was poking around in my camera case the owner of Pegasus showed up through the window, which was quite convenient, wasn’t it??
Photo 14
Nikon D2X camera
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens
Focal length 247mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/4.5
Shutter speed 1/160 sec
Center weighted metering mode
Exposure compensation -0.3 EV
Shooting in RAW format in aperture priority mode.
Photo 15
Nikon D2X camera
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens with teleconverter
Focal length 270 mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/4.5
Shutter speed 1/100th of a second
Center weighted metering mode
Exposure compensation -0.3 EV
Shooting RAW in aperture priority mode.
Photo 16
Nikon D200 Camera
Nikkor 17-55/2.8 lens
Focal length is 82mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/5
Shutter speed 1/80 seconds
Center-weighted metering
Shooting in RAW format with aperture priority mode.
Photo 12
Nikon D200 camera
Nikkor 12-24/4 lens
Focal length of 18 mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/4.5
Shutter speed 1/180 seconds
Center weighted metering mode
Exposure compensation -0.3 EV
Shooting RAW in aperture priority mode.
Photo 13
Nikon D200 Camera
Nikkor 70-210/2.8 VR lens
Focal length 210mm
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter speed 1/350 sec
Center-weighted exposure metering mode
Shooting in RAW mode with aperture priority.
