Build complex toys and simple tools
by Tony Karp
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Here we are in Rome, at the Castel Sant'Angelo. Not as popular as the Vatican or St. Peter's basilica, but quite interesting in its history, which goes back quite a ways.Today's assignment is to find an angel (easy at the Castel Sant'Angelo, hence the name), take a picture of it, and then turn it into art. (Not so easy, given the zillions of tourists that have taken all of those pictures.)We'll start with the original angel, the one who stood at the top of the castle. He's retired now. He doesn't sit on the top of the castle anymore, but is stuck in one of the lower courtyards.
![]() Standard tourist photograph. A good view. Nice and sharp. Well exposed. Good color. Very dull. And note the poochy belly, This guy is seriously out of shape. Also, the wings look like something out of a school play. ![]() This is a little better. Note the lighting on the face. Only one wing in sight. Still a little dull. ![]() Now the statue is silhouetted against the sky. The poochy belly is hidden. The face looks stronger in profile. But we can only see one wing. ![]() Here we go. Good angle, shows the face in profile, over the shoulder. Shows both wings. Zoomed in for a tighter crop, getting rid of extraneous detail. ![]() Let's bump up the contrast to make things more dramatic. Note what happens to the face when we do this. And, as a bonus, we'll kill some more of the detail. What an unphotographic thing to do! But who cares about the detail in the garment -- we're not putting this thing up on Ebay, are we? ![]() First, we'll remove most of the detail from the wings, leaving them in silhouette. Then we'll add some color to the statue to make it look like it's lit with a very hot light source. Darken the sky up towards the upper right-hand corner to help focus the attention on the center of the picture. Turn the sky at the bottom of the picture yellow-orange to give it a fire-and-brimstone look. Then crop off a bit of the top to tighten things up a little. And now the angel comes alive, no longer a statue. Now he's standing on the border between heaven and hell, keeping an eye on things. A much more suitable setting for an angel than banished to a courtyard somewhere in Rome.
Copyright 1957-2023 Tony & Marilyn Karp
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