While my wife and I were in Italy last November, we toured the Vatican. Beautiful granite pillars, perfect for black and white film photography. I made these images with a Hasselblad 501cm and Ilford Delta 3200, a film I haven’t used much, but love the film grain. Processed with Xtol.
What do you think of the figure in this first photograph? Does she add to the image? Would you rather her not be there? Leave a comment and let me know.
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I read somewhere that even when you take landscape or architectural photography it is nice to add a person now and then. And in this case I think the figure gives you great perspective on how massive those pillars are.
My vote is, I like the figure but would have liked a more fully resolved silhouette instead of the majority being juxtaposed by shadow. My eyes don’t lead to the figure naturally. I have more of a tendency to follow above and then to the right of the figure. If the lit column framed the figure better it would have given a nice visual pause to the otherwise grandeur of the columns. Both images are quite stunning and dramatic though. I like them both.
I’d have to agree - even more so after viewing the image on other monitors. The figure sort of gets a bit lost in the shadow.
Overall I like that she is there, she is the reason I took the photograph. I was resting and talking with my wife and looked over and saw this female figure leaning on these massive pillars, I had to make an exposure.