Monday 2 October 2017

Statue in Igreja de Sao Francisco, Porto

Snapped in Porto, in one of the big churches that abound there.  This was in the museum part of the Igreja de Sao Francisco if I remember correctly.  I was taken by the child, almost hidden behind the main figure, whoever he was:

Nikon, 50mm lens, HP5+, Ilford Warmtone paper, sepia tone

Perhaps he was St Francis himself, I can't remember.  He was pretty ornate, as is the style in that part of the world - there was lots of gold in the church, I recall.  You can get an idea by clicking here.

When the print came out of the wash I was thinking should I lighten the child's face a little, but decided against it.  The child was meant to be almost invisible, I reckon, positioned as it was, hidden in the folds of the cloak - so I left it as it was.

3 comments:

  1. Another one great print from your darkroom, Michael.
    Oh, and I think it was the right decision to leave the child's face as is. You can still clearly see it easy enough if you take your time to look around inside the picture frames... as we do, of course :)
    It's very interesting, by the way, to be able to change a picture inside the darkroom to highlight this or that and in this way totally change the way most people will look at the final result.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Roy, appreciate the comment.

      As you know yourself, the darkroom provides a lot of possibilities for mucking about with the thing, I agree. I don't feel I ever do enough burning in - you know the kind of thing, to focus the viewer's attention in a particular place - but I do enjoy mucking about with the contrast, choosing a particular developer&paper and toning. The toning is a whole other thing in itself, of course - endless possibilities there alone!

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    2. Looking at this print, for instance, I really should have burned in a bit along the top half of the right edge. I knew that at the time the print came out of the wash but didn't reckon it would ever 'be on the wall' so I didn't bother. Your comment has made me look at it again though and perhaps I was too hasty to judge it! I find that a lot, actually - leave a print lying around for a few weeks and you begin to notice things about it that you didn't first time around...

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