Welcome back! It has been a whirlwind weekend of exploring the beauty of Italy and I have hundreds of photos to get through. I apologize for the lack of posting, but just know it was a good investment, as I have tons of new material to share with all of you!
We begin today with a photo I took from the spiral staircase at the exit of the Vatican Museum in Vatican City (Rome), Italy. After braving the loud tourists, never-ending lines, and snap-happy Asian tourists, we finally reached the exit staircase, my favorite part of the museum. It is a truly beautiful work of art and fairly difficult to capture unless you have a wide enough lens. I went ultra-wide, taking this photo a third of the way down, and was able to come away with a pretty neat view. The huge viewing angle of the Nikon 14-24 mm wide-angle lens is something you need to see to believe. Here I was able to capture the entire bottom of the staircase just up to the top of the spiral. You can see my other capture of this staircase below which I took quite some time ago with a kit lens, the 18-105mm, on my Nikon D90. Enjoy!!
This was edited in Nik’s Silver Efex Pro, my absolute favorite program for converting images to black and white. You can save 15% off your purchase by visiting their site here!
And here is my older shot of this staircase, taken from the top looking down. Which do you like better???
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I think if I just looked at the bottom one I would think wow! Then you see the new one and it just blows it out of the water, seeing the stairs above as well as below just gives it that sense of scale, fantastic shot Adam.
Love your point-of-view and framing. Such a wonderful subject..rendered abstract. Well seen!
The newer shot adds so much more depth to the image, and provides a more compelling perspective of the staircase. Great job man.
The newer shot seems sharper and the extra wide angle is fantastic, but the original shot still holds it’s own, even with the kit lens.
Sweet work man. Looks good!
I think the new is a far superior composition. It’s amazing just how much more you can get in the frame with only a few mm difference (14 v 18). I prefer the processing on the old image as it highlights the carvings much more.
Love these, Adam. Awesome motion shots.
I like the first one better. Excellent angle and beautifully processed Adam.
They are both good. The older image is stronger in respect of the contrast and that adds drama. The more recent image has compositional strength but loses out a little because it lacks the punch of the earlier image. Might be worth seeing if you could ‘up’ the contrast a bit more – just a thought for you.
What is really amazing is the detail that pops with the D800! Both photographs are beautiful and tell a different story!
I am usually not such a fun of spiral stairs photography, but I love the new one. The spiral with its great relief really directs the eye downstairs, whereas the lines in the older photo are interupted. I also ussualy prefer dark and contrast high photos, but in this case I don’t. There’s already so much to see in the photo that I think it would be distracting. So great job on the new one!
Thanks Danny! That is a great comment and it means a lot to me!!