Piazza S.Marco is the only true square in Venice (the others open areas are campi Glossary). St.Mark's Square was called "the drawing room of the world" by Musset. It has been the scene of some of the most important religious and political activities of the Serenissima as well as the center of Venetian social life for almost a millennium. At first the Square was limited to the parvis of the Basilica, because of the presence of a canal, "Rio GlossaryBatario", which divided the present Square in two parts. The part of the Square now between the Procuratie, was once the vegetable garden of S.Zaccaria monastery with S.Geminiano church in the middle. The present shape of the Square was established in the XII century, for the meeting of Pope Alexander III and the Emperor Barbarossa by filling in Rio Batario and the dock. A small new Square was built with the columns of S.Marco and S.Todaro, the city's patron saints, overlooking St. Mark's Basin. The alteration of the Square was all done over the course of one century, adapting to the growing power and wealth of Venice. The present form reflects the works of many famous architects such as Sansovino, Longhena, Scamozzi, Rizzo and Tirani.
Hello Kamran, just checking in to see how your night photos are coming out. I can see you're on the right path.
A couple of things:
It appears a little soft/out of focus overall. I am assuming u were using a tripod? If so, then I would ask secondly if you were using the shutter release by hand?
If that's the case, that might be why it appears a little soft. I would try using the camera's self timer or a cable/remote shutter release.
Also, the softness could be due to limited DOF. Where you shooting wide open for this? I'm going to guess this was a relatively quick exposure, as the people aren't too blurred, which would make me think you were probably shooting at a large aperature...which would cause limited DOF. I probably would have gone for f/8 or smaller for this scene.
The exposure is nice and even except for the one hot spot to the left hand side. You could have zoomed in a bit or panned the camera slightly to the right to remove this white spot of the photo.
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{K:37420} 3/19/2006
