Weekly Digital Photography CompositionDanish Church SteepleNothing like a clear, deep blue sky and an unusual angle to enhance your photography composition
If you view the Copenhagen Sunrise photo, you'll see this church (Vor Frelsers Kirche) in profile, silhouetted against an early dawn sky. On the same day I took that photograph, I was on tour of Copenhagen and able to get this closer look. My only regret was that I was not able to get inside the church and up the spiral stair that you see surrounding the steeple.
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Photo Critique |
I could not have asked for better light. This photograph required no exposure adjustment before publishing, as it already had rich, well-balanced color and strong contrast. Another benefit of the light was being able to shoot with f/16 at 1/400 second. This was essential for achieving the depth of field and sharpness necessary for a successful shot at this steep angle. (Of course, vibration reduction also helped on the sharpness front). The only edit to this photograph was a crop to achieve a golden rectangle aspect ratio that also put the neck of the flag bearer at the top-right third-point of the image. |
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This photography composition works well, and I like the mystery induced by the steep angle (would you have known this was a church steeple had I not told you). But, I can't help wondering what I could have done with more focal length. A longer focal length would have allowed me step further back from the steeple to see more of the flag bearer while still getting closer and showing less of the steeple below. As you can imagine, that would have been a much different picture. It might have been more interesting because of the detail it revealed in the flag bearer, but at the cost of being a less balanced composition - it would be mostly gold and blue, with less of the contrasting rich brown to provide an anchor to the composition. |
