Tufa ampitheatre, a photo from Viterbo, Lazio

Photographer's Note

Whilst in Italy we went looking for the Etruscans and whilst we found some wonderful necropoli (at Tarquinia and Cerveteri)the only relic of the living as opposed to dead Etruscans we could find was this ampitheatre carved from the volcanic tufa about 3500 years ago.
Tech: shot in B&W mode with red green split filter held over the lens to darken the sky and blow the grass.
In PS I cropped to get rid of my thumb holding the filter and 1 edge where the 180 deg had clipped the filter edge. adjusted curves slightly and sharpened

Catli, umbrellaphotos, Igel, Bogdan, Hanssie has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Catli (550) 2004-09-16 12:30

Impressive view. Great shot!

umbrellaphotos (1901) 2004-09-16 13:08

an interesting image. Would have been fun to explore the ampitheatre.

jocke71 (566) 2004-09-16 17:07

Great tonal range in the photo. It evokes my imagination, what would it be like going into that hole in the wall? I like the perspective too, with the sweeping sky. Good one Richard.

weiphoto (353) 2004-09-17 1:10

Richard, I like your composition and the blacks/midtones. I don't understand why you wanted to blow out the grass. Some texture would have made this great. Were you trying to get an IR effect?

[2] +

eleparc (24063) 2004-09-17 5:52

i am impressed by the quality of your b&w shots! you are capable of rendering the skys so luminous and give them a life of their own.. congrats richard!

piozac (2065) 2004-09-17 8:12

Well, I'll give you two points Richard! I'd give you even more for that shot. TOnal range is incredible here.. And I also like this blown grass.
Great shot!

wilkinsonsg (8662) 2004-09-17 12:51

I like the whole effect you have produced here - a great B&W image :)

Bogdan (205) 2004-09-22 11:23

good choice of b&w(even if i would have liked the colours that 'Gladiator', like most of Ridley Scott's film have), and a great point of view, very original.
I have learnt from this,
Bogdan.

Carma (2440) 2004-09-27 11:12

You have a beautifull album. Sometimes I cant imagine photo without colours. Seems that I can't say what I wanted. But this one (and all of them) is full of space, light and important shadows.
Great!

xentrixus (38) 2004-09-29 1:41

Great composition,Great view,Well done!

Hanssie (11022) 2004-10-03 13:58

A "black hole"...
Again, the combination with the theatre and the clouds is wonderful, you always use clouds if possible and that's more interesting for B/W.
Nice shot, as always !!

dsidwell (9783) 2004-11-21 18:44

The blown out area on the left seems to find its function by balancing out that dark entrance, so I think it works very well. The point of view is effective at creating some leading lines. All in all, another fine image, Richard!