Wandering the Snowy Streets of Como
Show Notes
The day after the heavens opened and snow fell through the city, I decided to head out in the early morning, to wander the snowy streets and do some photography in the beautiful city of Como.
I went out long before sunrise, walking through the old town in the dark blue hour, looking for images as I made my way to the lake.
As I walked some subjects and images came to mind. The street lights and illuminations were creating a wonderful contrast of light and dark shadows.
I could tell that some of the architectural features I was wandering past would make amazing chiaroscuro black and white images. High contrast thanks to the very directional light found throughout the city.
After grabbing a couple of images of this dramatic light, I continued walking along the lake shore. Lake Como has been built up to the shore line, so there isn’t a lot of available objects to act as foreground interest. Luckily I had scoped a location that I thought would make a good image.
I made it to the end of my walk and snapped away a couple of different images of this viewpoint. The mountains are covered in snow in the background and the very Italian houses act as a great subject. I tried to take a panorama but it didn’t work out for reasons I explain in the video.
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Onto the Images
The streets were very gloomy through the city centre, it wasn’t too early, about 7 o’clock but there was hardly anyone else wandering in the gloom. The stark lights of the street-lamps created these strong dark shadows that was an obvious subject for black and white photography.
I mention this idea of Chiaroscuro, which is a drawing technique but can be applied to high contrast photography as well. Any directional light is perfect for this style of black and white photography but it needs to work with the architectural features as well.
Luckily the Cathedral was an obliging subject with these characteristic arches of counter-coloured marble. This scene really only works in black and white because of the orange light cast by the lamps. I ended up cropping slightly from what I shot to reduce the distractions on the edge of the frame. I also had to clone out some of the distracting snow piles, and lastly I added a bit of grain to the image to make it feel like film…
The windows of this hotel really stood out to me, they almost have a middle eastern flare to the design of them and the way that the small up-lights are illuminating the windows was a perfect subject for a black and white image. The line below the window just helps to give the subject context.
This was where I wanted to be and at the time that I wanted to be there. I had timed my walk perfectly to arrive at this viewpoint on Lake Como. There wasn’t a lot of colour at sunrise and in the moment I didn’t notice the colours in the clouds, they became more apparent during processing.
The boat acts as a great foreground subject, the houses are a perfect representation of Italian architecture sitting on the lake and the mountains in the distance are beautiful and I wish I could explore them, hopefully one day soon…
I took a couple of panoramas that morning as the snow dusting the mountains was very beautiful, combined with the cloud that rolled in, it was a perfect storm for a panorama image. In the moment, I levelled my tripod like I normally do and I went through the sweep and everything looked good.
But when I got it on the computer the panoramas had a lot of trouble stitching together, everything was a bit lopsided and it would not work at all. This was the only one that came out as an ok image, but there is a big problem with the houses.
The houses are all leaning and are distorted rather than straight. Definitely a big issue with the levelling of my tripod. Luckily I took a back up shot…
This was a back up image, I shot it very wide and I ended up cropping in post. There was a railing in the foreground that looked ugly, so I always knew that I was going to crop this image to be a panorama in dimension. I was lucky to have had the foresight to grab this image because the panoramas really didn’t work and at least with this one there’s no worry of distortion to the houses proportions.
In fact this is more or less the same image as the panorama, the only problem is there are less pixels. That means I can’t print this at large sizes but it is perfect on its own.
I was planning on making a video about panorama photography but with this experience I’m not sure whether or not to do the video. There will be some more panorama images coming up anyway because Lake Como is the perfect subject for landscape panoramas.
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About the Film
Just a little information about the film and how I made it, as well as some links to equipment.
I edited the film using the Free Version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly powerful piece of software that I am still trying to understand and will possibly write an article about in the future.
The tracks featured in today’s film were licensed via a subscription with Epidemic Sound. (By following that link, if you purchase a subscription then I will be gifted with a month free for referring you to their services)
Big Sky by Gavin Luke
The Departure by Gavin Luke
A Whisper in the Dark by Gavin Luke
Lydian Tide by Rand Aldo
A short Kit List
These are affiliate links, which means if you follow them and make a purchase I will earn a small commission for referring you to Amazon UK. You can find out more about affiliate links here.
Main Vlog Camera is a simple Panasonic G80 with the kit lens, its a great little mirrorless camera that I got for the sole purpose of creating YouTube videos. It’s capable of filming in 4k and seems to do everything that I want it to.
Rode Mic, I got this little microphone to boost the audio quality from the inbuilt microphone.
Action Camera, I use this to film myself when walking. It’s a simple DJI Pocket Osmo camera that has a motorised 3 axis gimbal head, which means that I stay in focus and static while the landscape around me moves. It’s also capable of filming in 4k and the audio quality is quite good.
Voice Recorder, to boost the audio quality when it’s windy or I’m using the action camera I use this handy little voice recorder with a lapellier microphone to record audio.
For a complete Landscape Photography Kit List you can read through what equipment I take with me when I go out here.
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Written by Daniel Long
Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.
