Critique St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

TimmyG

TimmyG

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Lacking a travel or "holiday snaps" section I figured these might be best placed here. Taken last weekend on a short trip to Rome, these are some shots I captured in and around the Basilica shortly before seeing the Pope.

It quickly became apparent I wouldn't be able to get shots without my fellow tourists (lacking a tripod and neutral density filter), so I thought I would try and incorporate them in the scene. Not sure how well I achieved this, but it was good fun keeping an eye on the people rather than the building and waiting for compositions to come together. I think they help add a sense of scale, so think I will try taking this style further on future expeditions.

All comments and advice welcome. The first is a quick pano, and I'm not overly happy with the sloping right hand side. I can spend more time processing it, but haven't the time at the moment so this was largely an experiment to see how well the new Lightroom functionality worked. If anyone has any tips or making sure I get the shots better aligned in future, please let me know!

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Probably better viewed on Flickr...


Quite pleased with this one. I think the guy taking a photo with his iPad makes it :)

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome by Tim Garlick, on Flickr
 
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Excellent set Tim....

Agree best viewed on Flickr... really like the Pano but do keep thinking to myself is the POV quite right? Could you have moved left and made the column central and had the floor lines lead to it. Guess that would ruin the beautiful building in the background.

#2 is the best internal shot IMHO.
 
I love St Peters and Rome.

1. Cool idea but the distortion ruins it. It looks twisted and contorted on the RHS.
2. Decent.
3. Cutting off the top feature and circle wasn't the best idea, a step or two back and it would have all fitted in the frame.
4. The obvious skew and congvernece, big no. Why not just isolate a few features and go for that.
5. Epic.
6. I know Ponte Umberto II. Why not go to the other side of the bridge and take the view there.

Here is my full Rome series, it can give you an idea of what can be done.

http://www.sftphotography.co.uk/rome/
 
The windows on the top of the basilica often shine a beam of light through into specific parts of the church. Makes for a nice touch of God.
I like the symmetry of the second. Not sure I'd have noticed the chap with the ipad if you hadn't said.
 
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Thanks guys!

Tintin124 said:
Excellent set Tim....

Agree best viewed on Flickr... really like the Pano but do keep thinking to myself is the POV quite right? Could you have moved left and made the column central and had the floor lines lead to it. Guess that would ruin the beautiful building in the background.

#2 is the best internal shot IMHO.
Click to expand...

Yeah I purposefully moved to the side so as not to cover the Basilica with the column. I think things get a bit boring if they are too symmetrical... and no one could accuse this pano of being too symmetrical :)

ST4 said:
I love St Peters and Rome.

1. Cool idea but the distortion ruins it. It looks twisted and contorted on the RHS.
2. Decent.
3. Cutting off the top feature and circle wasn't the best idea, a step or two back and it would have all fitted in the frame.
4. The obvious skew and congvernece, big no. Why not just isolate a few features and go for that.
5. Epic.
6. I know Ponte Umberto II. Why not go to the other side of the bridge and take the view there.

Here is my full Rome series, it can give you an idea of what can be done.

http://www.sftphotography.co.uk/rome/
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, you picked out the 2 that I thought were the best ones, so that's good to know. Yeah, I think i'll reprocess the pano shot at some point. I'm sure I can get that right side looking better (and I need to take a look at those clouds in places). I think I need to read up on the technique for panoramas; I'm sure i read there is a better way to step around them to keep everything aligned. As it was I just held the camera on the end of a monopod and twirled it round :confused:

For number 3 I agree. I have a similar one which doesn't clip the sides, but the layout of tourists was a messier so I went with this one. If I remember correctly, I was actually leaning back over a barrier so I don't think I could physically step further back. In hindsight I should probably have rejected this one outright.

#4 I don't really mind the converging lines and I'm not really sure how to capture the sense of space without them. I should probably study some images of the type of thing I was trying to capture and figure out how to do it properly.

#6 really was a snapshot, taken from a taxi window as we passed over the bridge. Again, one of the weaker ones of the set, and may have been better left out.

Looking at your images I wish now I had spent more time on and around the bridges. I was with a group though so the photography was secondary, and I wasn't necessarily given the time I would have liked to work on it. Great work though. Hopefully I will make it back to Rome (I managed to throw a coin in the Trevi fountain, even though it was all covered in scaffolding)!

Byker28i said:
The windows on the top of the basilica often shine a beam of light through into specific parts of the church. Makes for a nice touch of God.
I like the symmetry of the second. Not sure I'd have noticed the chap with the ipad if you hadn't said.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Yeah I was really hoping for some nice shafts of light. The light, although changing, was largely diffuse and I didn't manage to spot any. I was similarly disappointed at the Pantheon, but the building itself made up for it :)
 
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