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Venice church #2

Santa Maria della Salute at night, Venice, Italy

The story behind this image

it was deceptively difficult to get this image of the beautiful (and huge) basillica of Santa Maria della Salute at night in Venice.

Shot from across the entrance to the Grand Canal, the view was cluttered with restaurants, tourists and so on.

In the end I had to get right to the end of the canalside walkway and lean my fully extended tripod up against a ballustrade to frame this composition.

Two exposures were needed to capture the entire contrast range and a fair bit of cloning cleaned the overall view up to the point where the church became the main focus of attention.

It's funny how the human brain filters out distractions automatically, and just concentrates of the main subject in the field of view.

No such intelligence in a camera, which captures everything in the frame with equal vigour, whether it adds to the image or detracts. So it's up to the artistic interpretation of the phtographer to decide what to leave in and what to take out.

Image data


Filename - venice church 02.jpg

Camera - Canon 5D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 105mm

Exposure - 30secs @ f16, ISO100

Location - Venice, Italy

This image - 533x800px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2

Comments - Tripod, mirror lock up and cable release used to prevent camera movement.