This shot was captured in one of my favorite mountain locations. Dolomites is like a Paradise and a continuous source of inspiration. It was during the summer just above the alpine village of Falcade. From that natural panoramic terrace, looking to the east, one can see the most fascinating dolomitic “giants”: Mt. Civetta, Mt. Pelmo and Mt. Antelao.
The image was taken about 1 hour after sunset. It was a high pressure day with interesting cloudy formations on the summit of Mt. Civetta: the ideal conditions to realize an old project: to capture the image I had in mind since a long time. The knowledge of the location and the light conditions during the day are essential for a correct pre-visualization of the image. In my mind there was a strong and severe representation in black and white of the north-west face of Mt. Civetta (10565ft). The "most beautiful rocky wall of the Alps" as defined by the Italian writer Dino Buzzati. Over than 3200feet of pure verticality! The shot was not difficult and I looked for a simple and clean composition by shooting with a long exposure time, in order to emphasize the hat-shaped cloudy formation that partially covered the top of the mountain.
In post-processing I adjusted contrast and saturation with Digital Photo Professional 4. Afterwards, I converted the image in black and white with Silver Efex Pro2 suite and applied a red filter to emphasize the sky, in contrast to the mountain. Finally I selectively adjusted the contrast and the structure of the mountain as well as the cloud. This shot remains one of my favorite images. Few and essential graphic elements enclose in many emotions.
Canon 6d with Canon 70-200 F4 at 175mm, 80”, f/8, ISO50
