
Low, early morning sun forming a natural chiaroscuro street scene in Florence with, prominent in the background, the city's cathedral: the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Duomo as it is ordinarily called.
Wikipedia on 'Chiaroscuro': "When discussing Italian art, the term is sometimes used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colours.....the term early broadened in meaning to cover all strong contrasts in illumination between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning."
Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog
For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to my website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.
@Ryan Hammond: Thanks Ryan!
@Hans ter Horst: Thanks Hans....Florence is a city where the light always seems to be beautiful, no matter what the time of day!
@Marie LC: Thanks Marie!
@Gérard Beullac: Thanks Gérard!...re the light and exposure method - I photographed in RAW using the histogram 'expose to the right' method and then in post processing I lightened the heavy shadows in the facade of the Duomo to give what you can see here. I could have lightened the shadow areas even futher but I didn't want to lose the feeling of that intense light.
It's the degree of darkness of the shadows that make the light areas seem as bright as they are and knowing how far to go in post processing is always the trickiest part.
NIKON D700
1/500 second
F/11.0
ISO 200
16 mm (35mm equiv.)