Pinaki Sarkar
October 2025 - San Francisco de Asis Church (or St. Francis Church), at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. (the Back)
About the Image(s)
Technical:
F11,1/100,ISO 90,14mm, Processed through Lightroom and Nik Collection . Shot Handheld
Background:
It is an 18th-century adobe church and a classic landmark.
Some people say it is the most photographed and painted church in United States.
I do have a color version but it seemed to me the B&W looked better because of balanced proportional simplicity of the architecture.
3 comments posted
Kenneth Taylor
Intersting! I never would have guessed that this was a church! I would adjust the soil contrast so that it sepertes the church and make it stand out.   Posted: 10/08/2025 14:46:23
Hello Pinaki . . . One advantage of Black and White Photography is the ability to enhance the sense of depth . . . especially with respect to textures. One option would be for you to increase the contrast on the building facade to enhance the "grittiness" of the wall surfaces. Another consideration would be to enhance the "Architectural" aspect of the church. In part, this has to do with portraying the building as it would be interpreted by human vision. This includes portraying the geometry of the scene accurately. It appears you tilted your camera upwards slightly creating converging "vertical" edges. By maintaining the vertical edges of the structures to the very right and left of your scene, the more ideal result would emerge. This would require you to either back up or use a wider angle lens or turn you camera to a "portrait" position, or a combination of those three options. Another option would be to correct the geometry in software.   Posted: 10/08/2025 15:47:32
It looks like the image was taken during mid-day as the light seems to be quite harsh. Technically the image has been taken using appropriate specs. It might work to use the transform tool in photoshop to correct the perspective as you can see the lamp post on the left of the image is leaning inwards. A human element would also enhance the image. Try black and white instead of sephia and compare both to see which one looks better.   Posted: 10/08/2025 16:55:08