[Zig]

I'm presently processing some Italy shots from September that didn't make my main batch.
This one will hopefully whet Our Toad's appetite for his forthcoming Italy trip(totally tempted to join you for a day or two!): taken late afternoon from the heady towers of San Gimignano.
EXIF stuff: Canon 1Ds MkII + 70-200mm F4L(IS) + x1.4 converter; shot handheld at full stretch of 280mm, choosing f8, the lens' best aperture given the inclusion of the converter. As I pretty much always use aperture priority, this gave me a workable 1/320s at ISO 100..I did have the I.S. clanking away to help, of course.
Incidentally, I use these fonts now for all my printed work: rage italic for subject, tahoma for my name.
As regards pp, I converted as underexposed, using some of the darker colours as grads in CS2. My first grad(foreground to transparent) was layered in as "normal", though the next ones I layered in "soft light" and "overlay" modes with an opacity of 20-30% or so. I also used a soft brush in a colour from the image to block up some of the darker tones along the side. A bit of localised dodge and burn, and we were there.

[Toad]

Lovely - it does indeed whet my appetite. I like your colors and post proc. Maybe the dark in the sky feels a bit gradient mask to me, but it fits completely with the mood and spirit of the piece, and it needs some darkening up there to *enclose* the scene.

I agree with your philosophy re fonts. I have been using Staccato 222 for my "Will" signature for years...

[Irma]

You were there in a beautiful season of the year. Everything was green ... The light of the building works well. I like your composition.

Very clean presentation as well...

When I write my name in my website I also do it in lower case, I and W are too contrasting to have them in capital letters.

[Toad]

When I write my name in my website I also do it in lower case, I and W are too contrasting to have them in capital letters

It's not too bad in my case because the W, I, L, and L are all almost completely vertical (especially with lower case Ls) - so the signature looks like a series of vertical strokes. I agree that would work less well if the I and W were bounded by roundish letters like r and e.

[NT73]

Very artistic. Is that mist in the trees over the house on the L/H side, or a Zig special effect.

[Zig]

Yes, there was a haze which grew as it got later. Also, many of the olive and tomato farmers generally have a burn-up in the latter end of the afternoon, and it just hangs about in the warm air.
As an aside, I gather that the fields are crammed full of golden sunflowers in early summer.
Interesting factoid: Now, I know that in medieval times most of these fields were given over to the growing of crocuses. These were used to dye cloth yellow. In a wonderful bit of synchronicity, the most valuable yellow cloth was from the fleeces of sheep that came from where I live now:the Cotswolds. In Renaissance times my area was terrifically busy with sheep production, with by far most of the wool going to Tuscany and making Florentine, Pisan and Sienese merchants very, very rich.
How bizarre that Gloucestershire had such a role in kickstarting the Renaissance!

[Toad]

How bizarre that Gloucestershire had such a role in kickstarting the Renaissance!

What's really bizarre is that you guys pronounce Gloucestershire "Gloster".

[Zig]

Nowadays Toad, if I could abbreviate it even further, I would. .

[Irma]

Thanks for your history capsule...
This is what makes our forum so interesting and so multicultural...

When I was in Italy I saw so many tones of yellow. And the light in the afternoon makes them look so warm. Unfortunately I have never been to your country but the idea I have and the color I relate to is blue or kind of cyan desaturated. So fascinating to see how far and how close at the same time we are from the Renaissance.

Toad:
You are right! One solution to my name with capitals could be to use a thin typeface... but I don't feel my self too connected with thin letters.

[Kombisaurus]

Hey gang,
Sorry for the absense lately.

Great shot Zig. Love the composition and that you've left the detail of the town on the hill in the far background very subtle for the viewer to discover later on. I'm impressed that this was one of the "rejects" from your first round of shots.
Like NT though, I was also wondering about the slightly blurry blob on the left above the house.

Coincidently I just arrived in Florence last night. Well, in the early hours of this morning actually.
But unfortunately I managed to catch a cold on the ship from Barcelona to Livorno, so I doubt I'll be out seeing many sights for the next few days. I might have to shuffle my plans around a bit to extend my stay here.

[Irma]

Great to have news from you Kombi...

Hope you get well soon and enjoy the beauties Italy has to offer...

[shuttertalk]

Love it, Zig. The Tuscan countryside was probably the most memorable for me in terms of scenery on our Europe trip...

[Zig]

Aha...so looking forward to your Italy pics Ade,esp. Firenze.

Irma: you make a really neat point about light pertaining to a country. I'm of the opinion that it's not just a matter of the time of year or latitude, but of the degree of reflectivity from the ground or sea.
I say this, as I also found the earthy "siena" and "umber" tones in the Tuscan landscape...it seemed to me that the very earth pigment itself was either "drawn up" into the flora, or more likely the light reflecting off it. I guess we are doing the same with colour as those local artists of the past and present: they would mix their local earths and clays to create pigments, while we record the light bouncing off the pigments while they are still in the ground!

Again Irma, you mention not having been to the UK, and i wonder if I can offer an informed response here(I don't know if fellow UK-ers would concur here?)...
....We have the "classic" case of the light being "better" in the west somehow. I really feel that is because there are wide vistas of sea, sand and eroded hills...thus reflecting more light in general. I've noticed that in summer in the UK the colour temperature can be fairly cold and tinged almost blue: I've come across several landscape photographers in summer who use a warm-up filter if shooting in broad daylight. Also, much of central UK is intensively farmed...so intensivley that the natural tones of the earth beneath it are not seen...I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
One thing I most definitely have noticed is the "light" in, say, Wiltshire, is markedly different to us here in Gloucestershire: I thought it was my imagination at first but no...the foliage and buildings and hills in photographs of Wiltshire see more pastel-like and delicate, almost like a watercolour wash...yet in Gloucestershire more with an added warmth that seems almost yellowy sometimes.
Now, this makes perfect sense if one considers the geology of these 2 areas, though they are geographically very close: Here in Gloucestershire much of the natural rock is limestone, which round here has tinges of various yellows because of the presence of iron oxides. In fact, some local quarries produce a limestone so yellow as to be almost amber...hence it is seen as warm in shots of the Cotswolds. Trained locals can even identify form what quarry the stone came from to build the churches that were erected some 1000 years ago, even the Roman ruins of 1700+ years ago.
However, over in Wiltshire, and stretching further south out into Hampshire and as far as Kent(white cliffs of Dover), the underlying rock...and therefore the soil..is chalk: very pale and with a high reflectivity, so the light appears gentle, limpid and pastel-like.
I'm not sure how "scientific" my thoughts are, but I feel there may be something in it.

[Irma]

Beautiful reading your post Zig.

You made think about my pictures and the color temperature in the light where I live. I have a friend that lives in Goodrich. All his pictures of buildings look really great, they are warm as you said amber in some way. I like it very much because with the blue of the sky makes the perfect color contrast.

Here in the north of Germany most buildings are build with brick. The color and the strong repetition makes the buildings a bit cold. They are beautiful but very serious. The color contrast with a blue sky is very strong as well.

Thanks so much for taking the time to give this explanation.

[nia]

Dear Zig, Tuscany is a wonderful place but you did more than this with this photograph, I loved it so much, well done,

Thank you,
Have a nice day,
with my love,
nia

[Kombisaurus]

I'm 100% with you regarding the differences in quality of light in different parts of the world Zig.

I think there are many contributing factors... the colours of the ground, sea, buildings and other stuff that light bounces off... the air particles.. humidity.. season.. other atmospheric things such as the thickness of the ozone layer, etc..

But one thing is for sure, certain parts of the world absolutely do have their own unique light and atmosphere, and Tuscany is one of them (remote Northern Western Australia is another that springs to mind).
I'll post my Florence shots in a different thread, but here are a couple of shots that highlight the atmosphere. One from Florence, the other from the train somewhere between Florence and La Spezia.

[Toad]

Great light in both of these - #1 ties in very nicely with the tone of Z's thread...

[Zig]

Hey... you... get offa my thread :mad:

[Toad]

Hey... you... get offa my thread :mad:

Gosh - a Stones reference. Takes me back.