Distant Origin

I last photographed the Natural History Museum a little over a year ago. At the time, capturing the central hall from the first floor while the place was empty was partly down to heavy rain on the morning I visited, and partly down to sheer luck.

 

I’m still happy with the image I captured, but always wished I could shoot the hall from one of its upper corners; besides conveying the enormity of the museum’s scale, the perspective provides a better vantage point of the lower concourse, as well as a closer look at the incredible detail in the museum’s brickwork and the ornate architecture decorating the hall. I’d also always wished I could shoot on a sunnier day and capture a warmer tone inside the location.

 

I returned to the museum on a busy day, eager to tackle the challenge of removing crowds of people from an image. The technique involved continuous shooting over half an hour, and then applying script settings in Photoshop and comparing 60 shots to identify and retain only the consistent elements – the consistent elements essentially being the building itself.

 

I made the project trickier for myself because I was also eager to capture and blend multiple exposures – brighter exposures to ensure a sharp, clean finish to the detail in the shadows, and darker exposures to preserve as much detail as possible near the brightly lit windows – but the end result is almost exactly the image I’d had in my head: a crowded location made eerily empty in the middle of the day, leaving only the stunning 19th-century architecture of the building and the warm sunlight pouring through its windows.

 

* * *

 

You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.

Done