Romania – Sighisoara

Sighisoara between wooded hills and town

In Sighisoara, the Romanian town of Sighișoara, wooded heights are right in the middle of the buildings. The elevated position of the historic districts can be clearly seen in the oblique image. A steeper view focuses attention on the close connection of towers, alleys and red roofs.

The old town on the heights

In Sighisoara, the relationship between city, hill and water is more interesting than a rooftop alone. If you keep all three in the picture, you give readers several options for orientation.

The gaps between the houses reveal how tightly built the place is. An inner courtyard opens up the roof structure, a treetop covers part of it, and a wide street separates two blocks. Anyone who looks at the photo can follow these gaps and get a clearer picture than if they tried to identify each building individually. A particularly suitable view for a city portrait is one in which the view from a clearly visible roof can move on to the neighboring streets.

The graduation of the mountain ranges

The silhouette of a mountain range is a good way to start looking. First you notice the highest point, then the succession of saddles and flatter sections. In an oblique shot, this profile connects with the shapes in the foreground. A steeper perspective takes more interest in the surface of the slope. A direct comparison makes it understandable why a location can change significantly when the viewing angle changes, even though the recognizable heights in the background remain the same.

Follow the watercourse in the picture

At the river it is worth taking a second look at both edges of the picture. Sometimes a road ends there and continues along the water in the next section. In another place, a line of trees frames a stretch of bank. Such clues connect the place with its river valley. For a double page spread, you can choose an overview showing the course and juxtapose it with a close-up view of the shore. It helps if at least one bend in the bank or a building can be found in both motifs.

Warm tones within the series

For a direct image comparison, use shot 1 and shot 7 from the gallery with 21 aerial photos. In the second view, warm reds and browns have more weight than in the first. Red-brown and yellowish areas are particularly noticeable next to cooler surfaces. What is interesting when comparing is whether they are concentrated on a single object or appear spread out across the entire view.

According to camera data, Shot 1 and Shot 21 were taken on July 13, 2020. There is a gap of around 12 minutes between the two images. The exposure time was 1/500 second for the first of the images mentioned and 1/1250 second for the second.

In the Aerial Videos section there are 6 clips for this article. An example is “Sighisoara in Romania from the air”. Its preview leads directly to the video in the aerial photographer's Adobe Stock portfolio.

Prepare a cityscape for readers

A local person will often recognize a street by a single roof. Anyone who sees the city for the first time needs more clues. For a city guide, a short caption can best start at a visible intersection and lead the eye from there to the actual subject. The aerial photographer sees the surroundings outside the section while taking the picture. Readers will later only see the published area. Especially when cropping later, it is worth checking whether the connection described can still be seen in the final image.

Related motifs in the aerial photo archive

The article Romania – Turda offers another perspective. Near Turda in Romania, the urban area spreads out into a landscape surrounded by long hills. In the gallery Romania – Transalpina there is a different focus. On the Transalpina, a narrow, bright road line relates the wide mountain slopes.