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When Colour Helps Composition
This photo I took during a reportage of Miseria e nobiltà – a classic of the Neapolitan comedy by Eduardo Scarpetta – in the mise en scene of Lello Arena e Luciano Melchionna gives a lot of insights on how composition works. The triangle designed by the two actors on the sides and the taller actress in the centre is reinforced by the colours of the costumes: black in the centre, white in the sides. Finally, the purple background behind the black figure enhances the eye-driving effect toward the centre.
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On “timing the moment”
This photo I took during an assignment for a reportage on the theatre drama called “Le Signorine” with Giuliana De Sio and Isa Danieli is an excellent example of the “Timing the moment” concept. “Timing the moment” is a skill any event-based photographer should develop (or hone, if he’s gifted enough to have been born with the gift.) Especially in sport – but too in concerts and theatre’s show if you did not attend the rehearsal – you don’t know in advance what is going to happen. A unique mixture of intuition, reflex and decision (what the Japanese would call 決め – kime) allows capturing an unforeseen – and excellent…
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Deadly Bored
Once again, the meaning of this picture is counter intuitive and “made up” by the composition. The scene is seen from the perspective of the mannequin: at the end of a hard day spent sitting on the street-front, it (or he?) looks deadly bored and tries to kill the time before the shop closes by casually looking at the next passerby. The directional effect (from the mannequin to the passerby) is achieved by the diagonal connecting the tip of the hat, the feet of the mannequin and the cast of the shadow. Taken as a whole, these elements drive the eye from the mannequin to the persons and not vice-versa.
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A Virtual Glance Dance
The essence of this photo is all in the glances of the protagonists. The man looks at the woman, the woman looks at the luxury car. The essence of this photo is all in the glances of the protagonists. The man looks at the woman, and the woman looks at the luxury car. It is this subtle game of glances that tells a story and turns the photography from a casual picture into something worth seeing. Once again, it is not relevant whether the people portrayed are actually involved in the “glance dance”, as what matters is the image to convey the meaning created by the overall result. This confirms…
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The Power of Underexposing
Properly mastering underexposure helps to obtain pleasant results in challenging light conditions. I took this picture of a soprano by lowering the camera exposure by two stops, thus preserving skin tones burning, and “fading” the background to black. A proper in-camera under-exposure has the advantage of requiring lesser work in post to toggle clarity, temperature and black point.
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When Tilted Photos Work
Tilted photos are very challenging to take. It is easy to break the composition, lose an essential part of the scene, or take a bad picture. Furthermore, making sense out of a diagonal orientation with a ratio that is not square (Hasselblad people, I can hear you loud and clear!) adds layers of difficulties. As counterintuitive as it might look, this photo taken in a “normal” orientation would have lost all its visual impact.
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Good Plan, Poor Execution
The idea behind the composition is entirely correct. The mannequins and the girl form a triangle, as does the direction of the stares, conveying both a sense of symmetry and counterposing the liveness of a human being to the puppets’ lack of. A poor execution, though, led to the mannequins’ head cut, turning a visually appealing photography into a meaningless shot.
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Light as Meaning Shifter
The original idea behind this picture was to match the emptiness of the shop with the facelessness of the mannequin posing as a store clerk, to convey a general feeling of depersonalization. Unfortunately, the big lightblot represented by the poster close to the mannequin catches the observer’s attention and reduce the effectiveness of the composition. Instead of connecting the mannequin with the internal part of the store thus making sense of the whole picture, the eye just “sees” an ad poster.
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Photopanning in Rome
Photo panning is an art in itself and – when adequately practised – is able to deliver a stunning visual experience. In this picture (that has not been altered but for contrast and clarity) the overall experience reminds the Impressionism aesthetics.
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A Weird Fujifilm Battery Issue for X-series cameras
A defective battery can cause a Fujifilm X-series camera to start rattling and displaying blue, white or purple-striped screen in the LCD viewfinder. After three months of troubleshooting, having the camera traveling back and fro between my studio and Fujifilm Italy tech support, they have been able to identify the issue: a defective battery didn’t send enough power to the camera, thus jeopardizing its operation. Here is a Youtube video I made that shows the issue
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Keep Out!
This photo conveys a message of “rejection”: first, a security guard who blocks access to the jewellery and then a signal of a prohibition of access reinforces the concept, thanks to a composition that guides the eye to a diagonal that goes from the bottom to the top, from left to right. Obviously, there is nothing “true” about all this because the overall result is the result of the organization of the spaces and the management of the perspective that allow connecting semantically elements that, in reality, have no relationship between them. It would have been enough to shoot from a different angle – or not juxtapose the security guard…
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Evolution in Red
This is another example of how purely visual (the color red) and factual (a stroller on the far left, and an adult on the far right) elements create in the mind of the observer a semantic connection (in this case: the transition from childhood to adulthood) that does not exist in reality.
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Will The iPhone Kill Traditional Cameras? Not Very
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Becoming a Human Tripod
An often forgotten topic in the photography schools and courses is the physical (I would say, physiological) side of the game. True, a Leica Noctilux and a Leica M can deliver exceptionally sharp images, but if your hands tremble or your body wobbles, no gear, no matter the cost, can save your shot from being shaken. Ideally, a perfectly steady shot would require a tripod. Yes you can tweak the ISOs and/or the aperture but this is a trade off with image quality , so we’re back to the opening statement: a steady shot needs a tripod. But the truth is that none of us – pros included – can…
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A Bad Experiment
I had to cover “in emergency” a date of the musical Notre-Dame de Paris and found myself “unarmed” (no camera available whatsoever), so I have been forced to fall back on my mobile. While, at the end of the day and with great difficulty, I have been able to shoot something vaguely useful, this experience blew away any possible plan to use a mobile’s camera to handle an assignment. Simply put, mobile’s cameras suck, unless you go for (very)close or cheap shots. This should have been pretty obvious without the need of looking for hard evidence. Nevertheless, out of necessity, I have been able to test and learn on my…
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Daniele Silvestri – Live@Cinema teatro Massimo – Pescara
Be Canon, Nikon or whatever, when the assignment is demanding, there is no substitute for a DSLR. I kept taking with me a Fuji (mainly, an X-E2 with the 18-55 and sometimes an X100s) as a wide-angle camera. The results are very good but, in a scenario like a theater, can’t possibly match the versatility of a 5D Mk III with the mighty Canon EF 100-400. Enjoy the pictures!
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Gigi Cifarelli Guitar Solo (feat. Michele Di Toro) – Live@Florian Espace Pescara
This the reportage I did on behalf of Rockol.it with a Canon 5d Mk III and the venerable Canon EF 70-200/2,8. The theater was small and few were the angles to be exploited. Thus I’ve decided to focus on close-ups and american shots.
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Action! (beware of Fuji X-Pro 2)
I’ve shot this picture with a Fujifilm X-E2 and a Zeiss C Sonnar T* 1,5/50 ZM. The split-image manual focus confirmation worked properly (though with a strong light it’s more difficult to handle it) and the resulting file in term of size and quality is fairly satisfying. Enter the X-Pro2 with a bigger resolution and new RAW format. While a 24 Megapixel APS-C sensor creates file that can be handled by most of the computer currently in place, the new RAW format will require the latest Photoshop CC/Lightroom update. So, if you chose not to enter into the mud of a subscription-based software licensing model, all of a sudden you…
