Bridge of Sighs, Venice, at night

Bridge of Sighs #1

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The story behind this image

Venice at night is a truly evocative location, with fascinating architecture tastefully lit, reflecting in the waters of the canals.

Only it was quite breezy when I took this series of exposures of the Bridge of Sighs, one of the most photographed landmarks in Venice, so no reflections for me.

Never mind though, as the bridge and surrounding buildings contain quite enough detail to keep the eye happy for quite a while.

Capturing all that gorgeous detail on silicon proved, as usual, to be less than straightforward, with the spotlit bridge proving to be several stops brighter than the surrounding buildings and canal.

Therefore I took five exposures of the same scene, each one stop of exposure apart, and blended them in Photomatix HDR Pro software to give me the overall tonality I needed to render all the details correctly.

I wouldn't even have attempted a photo like this in the 'good old days' of Velvia.

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Image data

Filename - venice bridge of sighs 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 5D

Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 29mm

Exposure - various @ f11, ISO100

Location - Venice, Italy

This image - 640x800px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2

Comments - Exposure blending used to accomodate tonal range.