Romania – Turda

Turda and the undulating surroundings

Near Turda in Romania, the urban area spreads out into a landscape surrounded by long hills. Cloud shadows create large dark areas between the lighter quarters. A wide section of the image relates the extent of the city and the relief of its surrounding area.

The city in front of the hills

In Turda the undulating terrain continues beyond the city. An overview with a larger piece of horizon also makes the flatter slopes in the built-up foreground understandable.

Two different narrative directions emerge along a valley and across it. The longitudinal view leads into the distance and shows what is arranged one behind the other. Looking sideways, the width of the valley floor and the rise on either side become clearer. Which view is convincing depends on the question asked of the image. For a description of the location, a lateral view is often productive. For a stretch along a route, the longitudinal view gives the viewer a direction to follow across multiple subjects.

What the roofs reveal about the floor plan

If you look at it at an angle, the houses not only show their roofs, but also their facades of different widths. This gives the motif more depth than in the pure top view. Even the change from a low neighboring building to a taller building reveals something about the gradation of the place. Such a view is particularly useful for a local chronicle if the caption indicates the starting point of the view. Readers can then follow the rows of houses themselves to the edge of the picture.

What role does visibility play?

When haze or clouds weaken the distance, the closer landscape stands out all the more. Colors and contrasts change with distance. For a calm landscape portrait, this may be exactly what you want. When it comes to the spatial assignment of a specific motif, at least one prominent point should remain clearly recognizable. A caption can indicate the visibility conditions. It makes it understandable why part of the landscape is only hinted at and where the view can begin.

The distribution of blue tones

Among the 19 photos in the gallery, shot 6 and shot 15 provide a good starting point for the comparison. In the first excerpt, shades of blue play a smaller role. In the second shot, blue areas take up more space. Blue can extend over a large contiguous area or only appear in individual parts. What also counts for the effect is whether these areas extend to the edge of the picture or surround the main subject.

The camera captured July 12, 2020 for shot 1 and shot 19. The time interval between these two views is approximately 10 minutes. The exposure time was 1/200 second for the first of the images mentioned and 1/640 second for the second.

A moving view is also available. Under Aerial Videos you can find the clip “The city of Turda in Romania from the air”. The linked preview leads to inclusion in the aerial photographer's portfolio on Adobe Stock.

Select landforms for a landscape portrait

When publishing about a mountain range, the direction of view should be stated in the caption, as long as it can be determined with certainty. The same ridge can look very different from one valley than from the other side. For the aerial photographer, the question arises when planning whether the location in the foreground or the shape in the distance should be the deciding factor. If a close and a distant reference point is retained in the image, even readers without local knowledge can understand the gradation of the terrain.

More aerial photos for comparison

Two further articles invite comparison. In the first, Romania – Cheile Turzii, a different detail is in the foreground. In the Cheile Turzii gorge in Romania, bright rock faces stand above a green valley floor. Then Bad Orb is a good option. In the series about Bad Orb, the distant houses are covered by a fine veil of mist.