Otto Berkeley
1881
I last visited Leadenhall Market a little over a year ago to capture a vertorama of the covered arcade, but thought it might be fun to revisit the location on a late night this past December, this time setting up at the west entrance with the camera a few inches above the cobbled street.
As with many of London's decorations this December, there was subtlety in the display, with the trees above the shops feeling festive without being intrusive, and with the lights along the arcade complementing the glow along the roof rather than eclipsing it. This felt like an important balance for the image, as it was the intricate detail in Sir Horace Jones' 1881 Victorian cast-ironwork that drew me to the location.
The image was produced by combining seven exposures, blended together via luminosity masking to control the highlights while bringing out the nuances of the shop windows, the arcade roof and the texture along the cobbled street. Most of my effort in the post-processing workflow went into colour-grading the image, desaturating the brighter yellow and orange tones along the street in order to add prominence to the subtler creams and maroons. In order to emphasise the chilly late-night atmosphere, I also created a gentle gradient map to add some blue tones to the shadows, which I felt complemented the rich reds in the columns and the shop signs.
The final result is an image that I hoped would convey a sense of sparkling festive drama tinged with eerie late-night emptiness, and hopefully also one that draws attention to the location's magnificent architecture.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
1881
I last visited Leadenhall Market a little over a year ago to capture a vertorama of the covered arcade, but thought it might be fun to revisit the location on a late night this past December, this time setting up at the west entrance with the camera a few inches above the cobbled street.
As with many of London's decorations this December, there was subtlety in the display, with the trees above the shops feeling festive without being intrusive, and with the lights along the arcade complementing the glow along the roof rather than eclipsing it. This felt like an important balance for the image, as it was the intricate detail in Sir Horace Jones' 1881 Victorian cast-ironwork that drew me to the location.
The image was produced by combining seven exposures, blended together via luminosity masking to control the highlights while bringing out the nuances of the shop windows, the arcade roof and the texture along the cobbled street. Most of my effort in the post-processing workflow went into colour-grading the image, desaturating the brighter yellow and orange tones along the street in order to add prominence to the subtler creams and maroons. In order to emphasise the chilly late-night atmosphere, I also created a gentle gradient map to add some blue tones to the shadows, which I felt complemented the rich reds in the columns and the shop signs.
The final result is an image that I hoped would convey a sense of sparkling festive drama tinged with eerie late-night emptiness, and hopefully also one that draws attention to the location's magnificent architecture.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.