b>The Shot
This is another image from the London Open House Weekend which I got round to processing.
City Hall is open to the Public in limited areas and more of the building is open for Open House, usually the 3rd weekend of September.
This shot was taken lying down on the Assembly Chamber floor (something you get to do on Open House Weekend) The view is looking up at the spiral staircase above the chamber.
City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA) which comprises the Mayor of London and London Assembly. It stands on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. Designed by Norman Foster, it opened in July 2002.
The building has an unusual bulbous shape, intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency. It derives its shape from a modified sphere.
A 500-metre (1,640 ft) helical walkway ascends the full height of the building rising in ever decreasing circles from the Council Chamber.
The picture was taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 wide angle zoom at 10mm. Taken handheld. 3 raw images 2EV spacing. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
Outputted in Photomatrix detail enhancer. Click the Camera name top right for Exif details and the settings used.
Photoshop
The 0EV original image was copied and pasted as a new layer with a black layer mask. A brush was then used to show the layer in some areas to even out the sky tones.
General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance.
Vibrance layer increase 55 points
Saturation Adjustment Layer, yellows used to increase saturation for general warming and to brighten the lights.
Second levels layer with black layer mask used to darken just the small triangle of sky top left.
Healing brush with content aware CS5 used to remove the back of a person top left as distracting in that location.
Brightness contrast layer for slight overall brightness increase.
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask a little sharpening low radius and higher amount.
Duplicate layer with mask to apply extra sharpening and contrast with low amount and high radius (Clarity Effect) except the highlights.
Resources
For Licensing and more pictures see
Edwin Jones Photography
