Plaça de Ramon Berenguer El Gran

My wife actually first noticed the reflection caused by the statue lighting in the Plaça de Ramon Berenguer El Gran in Barcelona. I had my V1 with us and tried to capture it. My question for critique is whether the bottom part of the image is too busy and if I should crop? I left it in because I think it provides context. Thanks in advance.

It looks like that it is looping leftside. And the flashligt reflection in the door rightside down is a bit to bright. It catches the eyes like a magnet so you find the focuspoint not easy

siamthai1 said:

It looks like that it is looping leftside. And the flashlight reflection in the door rightside down is a bit to bright. It catches the eyes like a magnet so you find the focuspoint not easy

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Excellent observation and along the same lines as my concerns. The other crop that I had made (below) is maybe too aggressive?

To me it looks good. Maybe the head of the statue a bit brighter.

You know, the first foto looks good too, cos of the lights on the right. Just left the tree is a bit disturbing.

Maybe try the left a bit smaller and the flasch light just darker and the photo is great.

And down only the white fram away

Eduard said:

Excellent observation and along the same lines as my concerns. The other crop that I had made (below) is maybe too aggressive?

View attachment 34487

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Eduard,
It was a bit busy on the bottom (but not that bad as the statue points me to the reflection and I never really saw the bottom. I found some of the lights more distracting.. I was going to suggest a crop is the one you just did and I like it. ALL distractions are gone for me..

NICE SHOT!!!

Pat in NH

What strikes me about your image is the interplay between the statue and the statue's shadow. So my preference on the editing would be to emphasizing the statue-shadow interaction which would probably benefit from isolating these elements away from the streetlights and other distractions. So besides cropping them out of the lower portion of the image, I would consider working on enhancing the shadow elements.

Just a little out of the box thinking here. I love the silhouette of the statue on the building. Maybe up the contrast a tad to bring it out more. Then, I think Dave makes a good point about the "interplay" between statue and shadow. Why not create even more mystery? If it were me, I would crop the bottom portion of the statue just below the knee of the horse's uplifted leg, which is very clear in the shadow. The horse's head is very distinct in the statue and not so clear in the shadow. So you have even more interplay. . . . and it will make people wonder "is it a statue, or?'

But that's me. I've become a little more daring in my own compositions.

​I like it both ways. I think it depends on what you want as the focus or center of interest. Nice capture, Eduard!

Dave_W said:

What strikes me about your image is the interplay between the statue and the statue's shadow. So my preference on the editing would be to emphasizing the statue-shadow interaction which would probably benefit from isolating these elements away from the streetlights and other distractions. So besides cropping them out of the lower portion of the image, I would consider working on enhancing the shadow elements.

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Great advice. . . I was trying to isolate too much. . . I think keeping the background a bit lighter accomplishes this better. I had another capture that was captured vertically and created this based on your (and Helene's) feedback. I like it!

ohkphoto said:

Just a little out of the box thinking here. I love the silhouette of the statue on the building. Maybe up the contrast a tad to bring it out more. Then, I think Dave makes a good point about the "interplay" between statue and shadow. Why not create even more mystery? If it were me, I would crop the bottom portion of the statue just below the knee of the horse's uplifted leg, which is very clear in the shadow. The horse's head is very distinct in the statue and not so clear in the shadow. So you have even more interplay. . . . and it will make people wonder "is it a statue, or?'

But that's me. I've become a little more daring in my own compositions.

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Wow that is waaay outside the box and something I would not have ever thought of. . . I tried it and also boosted the clarity to 100% to emphasize the texture of the statue and smoothness of the shadow. Thoughts?

Eduard said:

Great advice. . . I was trying to isolate too much. . . I think keeping the background a bit lighter accomplishes this better. I had another capture that was captured vertically and created this based on your (and Helene's) feedback. I like it!

View attachment 34508



Wow that is waaay outside the box and something I would not have ever thought of. . . I tried it and also boosted the clarity to 100% to emphasize the texture of the statue and smoothness of the shadow. Thoughts?

View attachment 34509

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That does it for me! It's like the shadow comes to life . . . and it's definitely different. I love it . . . but that's me and we all know how subjective and personal photography is.

In any case, you could essentially make 3-4 versions of the same photo . . . and this one is fun to play with!

ohkphoto said:

That does it for me! It's like the shadow comes to life . . . and it's definitely different. I love it . . . but that's me and we all know how subjective and personal photography is.

In any case, you could essentially make 3-4 versions of the same photo . . . and this one is fun to play with!

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Helene, between you and Dave (and of course Eduards Photo), this has been a very educational exercise for those of us following along!!!!

Thank you ALL!

Pat in NH

I really like all the suggestions and the two crops in post #8. I also like that you gave the horse more "forward space" to the right. With that I would apply the same clarity setting to both images. Excellent work!

ohkphoto said:

That does it for me! It's like the shadow comes to life . . . and it's definitely different. I love it . . . but that's me and we all know how subjective and personal photography is.

In any case, you could essentially make 3-4 versions of the same photo . . . and this one is fun to play with!

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The interesting sidebar to this exercise is that the original image was captured in RAW on a Nikon V1. I did have to use Nik DFINE to remove some noise after cropping, but it held up pretty well. The CX format isn't so bad.

Eduard said:

The interesting sidebar to this exercise is that the original image was captured in RAW on a Nikon V1. I did have to use Nik DFINE to remove some noise after cropping, but it held up pretty well. The CX format isn't so bad.

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More proof that "equipment does NOT the photographer make."