Background for a statue?

[Birma]

Near where I live in Worceter there is a ruined stately home, Witley Court, where English Heritage are restoring the grounds etc. It is a great place for pictures with formal gardens, woodland and of course the ruins. One of its most famous features is a large fountain featuring Perseus and Andromeda (and the sea monster!). They run the restored fountain in the summer but yesterday it was off which gave me the chance to concentrate on the centre piece. It was a grey day which meant the sky / background wasn't very interesting. I have left it almost white, and cloned out the odd branch that was in shot.

My question is, has anybody suggestions for the background?

Taken with the Sigma 70-300 at 90mm, 1/200, F6.3, ISO400.

(My camera reports this lens as 75-300 4.5-5.6, which I assume is a Sigma on a Sony thing?)

[aster]

Hi Birma,

I'm not sure what kind of 'look' you're after. Are we thinking along the lines of placing a sky photo as a new layer behind the 'cut-out' statue shot?

If so, then I think a very cloudy, dramatic sky may accentuate this scene if the necessary amount of colour corrections and adjustments are blended in through post-production. And I think that would look nice along the classical contours of the statue.


Yildiz

[Birma]

Hi Yildiz,

I feel some sort of background is required, and am open to all suggestions . I like the dramtic stormy sky idea, thank you.

(I forgot to mention in my original post that I converted the statue to B&W to try and emphasise the texture.)

[Winston]

I would pull a little detail out of the overcast sky to mute the stark back ground. For me, a dramatic sky would detract from the main subject and compete with it.

[aster]

Hi Yildiz,

I feel some sort of background is required, and am open to all suggestions . I like the dramtic stormy sky idea, thank you.

(I forgot to mention in my original post that I converted the statue to B&W to try and emphasise the texture.)

Hi Birma,

The statue is beautiful. I've been looking into the tiny carved details which seem to accomodate many subjects from mythological stories. Like the head-dressing on Persues' head which resembles a turtoise... The sea monster is neatly crafted, so much so that it reminds me of the Japanese dragon heads carved out of ivory.

By dramatic sky, I had something like Winston had in mind. Not to vivid and dark but something muted down which won't take the attention away from the statue's grandeur.

You have some great skies from your trips to the isles around Britain which may be appropriate or do as Winston suggests and pull some details out of the starkness as well...

Time to go all artsy for you!

Yildiz

[Birma]

I started again from scratch to try and improve the sky. I have learnt a lot about layers etc. this weekend in PSE7 so a useful exercise . None of the methods with smart brush etc. worked well for me so I ended up combining under and over exposed versions of the image using the erase tool. I also decided that a tree behind Andromeda is less distracting than a poor attempt at cloning it out. I useful lesson in looking all around the view finder before taking the shot .



The upside is that I will have to go back to photograph this fountain again .

[Dr. Harout]

I think the second one is more dramatic.