Rodney Campbell's Blog

Once we had finally reached the top of Brunelleschi’s Dome the view over the city of Firenze was spectacular.

We’d arrived at the top at 4:55PM – a few minutes after sunset and probably 20 minutes after I’d hoped. It was very crowded up here so there wasn’t a lot of room to move. There was time for a quick circumnavigation of the viewing area at the top before settling on this view west towards Giotto’s Campanile and the setting sun.

Firenze Sunset

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/20 sec at f/7.1, ISO 100 x 30 Frames

Normally with intense light variation like this (very bright sky and city in shadow) I’d be shooting with grad filters on a tripod. Alas tripods are not allowed (plus we were way cramped in up here, and being jostled by the masses).

Instead I opted to shoot handheld HDR panoramas. This panorama is six vertical frames wide with each frame composed of five (1EV) bracketed exposures for a total of 30 frames.

The view you see is approximately 250° with the Basilica of Santa Croce the church on the very far left of the pano and the Accademia gallery on the right. Just down there two to three blocks to the left of the bell tower is where our apartment is.

In my early panoramas I shot in Aperture priority and let ISO fluctuate (via Auto ISO) to maintain shutter speed. I opened the aperture as it got darker to aim to stop the ISO from going to insane.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

A view east away from sunset.

Twilight over Florence

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/15 sec at f/7.1, ISO 125 x 15 Frames

This panorama is five horizontal frames wide with each frame composed of three (1EV) bracketed exposures for a total of 15 frames.

Firenze Fire

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 1/20 sec at f/5, ISO 220 x 15 Frames

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