[Cuthbert]

My grandfather used to be a painter (on ceramic) and left me with many paintings of this ancient Roman bridge.

Alas, I don't have his skills, I try to be a decent photographer but taking a good picture of a complete bridge seems to be more complicated than what I expected:



So, this is the pic, probably it's slightly underexposed, I didn't have a lightmeter so I tried to "guess" the correct exposition of the subject, the curve of the river didn't allow me to get too close and take the entire bridge so I tried to "fill" the vacuum with a sort of landscape.

Still, the photo doesn't satisfy me, too much water, too much sky, should I have used another lens? Sometimes I think I should have used a long focus lenght but on the other side the height/wide ratio of the bridge would have remained the same.

[johnyates]

In situations like this, where the composition is dictated by circumstances beyond your control, you need to rely more on what you can control. Try different times of day. Maybe twilight would be good. Visit your location in different weather, or different seasons. "Bad weather makes good pictures".

[yucatanPentax]

I agree - light at different times of the day may prove very useful. Light behind the bridge silhouetting it darkly, or light in front of the bridge, highlighting it against the background, can help.

The other thing you could play with would be depth-of-field, opening up the lens so that the bridge is in focus, but the background blurs.

You can crop out the water and sky a bit if you like, but the biggest improvement would likely come from photographing the same bridge at early morning or evening.

[yucatanPentax]

Took the liberty of cropping and adding some contrast for a slightly different view.

Attached Images

 

[Cuthbert]

Even if it's not clear, it was almost sunset when I took this picture, that's the reason why the left half is noticeably darker,and there was some haze that can be seen on the hill.

Would you consider it a bad pic exposure-wise?

[dadipentak]

I think yuk's crop helps. I also agree that time of day is an important factor.

[dms]

If the perspective is wrong there may be not much that can be done--except to move (e.g., onto a boat and/or much closer).

The major difficulty IMO is the background tends to merge w/ the bridge--and the tones/details are too close. Imagine being nearer the bridge and shooting up so above the bridge is sky. Or being very close (and maybe a telephoto as well) so the background is (very) out of focus.

The other question is what are you saying about the bridge? The photo suggests the bridge is not an important element--it's just there.

[PJ1]

As others have said, it needs different lighting. The light overcast gives you a very diffuse light that fails to pick out the bridge from its background because the tones in subject and background are too similar. Have another look at your grandfather's paintings and see how "bridge" and "background" are depicted in them. You may need a different time of day, different cloud, and possibly even a different season. Season will change the colours in the background. It also changes the angle of the light and I have found that the be very helpful in some architecture shots.

[yucatanPentax]

If that is sunset, the sky is remarkably white. I guess if that is sunset, the bridge runs east-west. In that case, the bridge might be better highlighted by the sun in mid-morning or mid-afternoon.

With the apparently overcast skies, I think that also reduced some contrast and shadows which might have helped you distinguish the bridge from the background. I'd try again at different times of the day and bracket your exposures to see what happens.

You might also try taking pics of the other side of the bridge.

[dms]

BTW this kind of shot is one where an incident light meter ("studio light meter") works well, and where a more usual reflected light meter is tough to use (which actually may be the majority of photographs if one is not using B&W negative film).