Otto Berkeley
The Light That Binds Us
This take on Tower Bridge was captured early on New Year's Eve, on a calm, clear and unusually peaceful morning while most of London slept in ahead of the evening's celebrations.
I had chosen this morning for the shoot because it was one of the few when the beautiful cobbled walkway in front of the Tower of London would be quiet, but also because of the sun's position at this time of year; from this vantage point in the middle of winter, it was possible to capture the sun rising behind Rotherhithe, just to the left of Tower Bridge's north tower. My aim was to frame the bridge using lamps along the riverside, and to then blend the city lights and chilly blue-hour tone with the golden glow on the horizon as the sun slowly appeared.
The image was straightforward to shoot but more challenging to edit: besides combining elements from exposures taken at dawn, golden hour and sunrise, the scene also required balancing intense highlights inside the lamps with deep shadows along the walkway. With this in mind, I'd captured multiple exposures over the course of nearly two hours, knowing I would later use brighter exposures for the cobblestone paving and the bridge, and darker exposures to preserve the detail in the lamps, sky and lighting in the bridge.
With these portions of the image merged in Photoshop using luminosity masks, I then focused on isolating the golden-hour light from exposures captured toward the end of the shoot and blended this with the blue-hour scene using a combination of Soft Light and Overlay blend modes, as well as Curves and Levels adjustments to ensure the exposures and tones blended seamlessly.
With the exposures combined, I used a Selective Colour adjustment to remove some of the yellow cast inside Tower Bridge, and then opened Color Efex Pro to apply selective contrast adjustments to the image, incorporating these into the walkway and the bridge but leaving the soft, moody sky unaffected. Finally, I used a Gradient Map set to low opacity to enhance the cold blue tones in the shadows while emphasising the warm light along the Thames and the cobblestones along the riverside.
The end result is essentially a blend of a couple of hours of changing light conditions, taking in the magic and romanticism of Tower Bridge's night lights at the same time as the vibrant warmth of a beautiful sunrise.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
The Light That Binds Us
This take on Tower Bridge was captured early on New Year's Eve, on a calm, clear and unusually peaceful morning while most of London slept in ahead of the evening's celebrations.
I had chosen this morning for the shoot because it was one of the few when the beautiful cobbled walkway in front of the Tower of London would be quiet, but also because of the sun's position at this time of year; from this vantage point in the middle of winter, it was possible to capture the sun rising behind Rotherhithe, just to the left of Tower Bridge's north tower. My aim was to frame the bridge using lamps along the riverside, and to then blend the city lights and chilly blue-hour tone with the golden glow on the horizon as the sun slowly appeared.
The image was straightforward to shoot but more challenging to edit: besides combining elements from exposures taken at dawn, golden hour and sunrise, the scene also required balancing intense highlights inside the lamps with deep shadows along the walkway. With this in mind, I'd captured multiple exposures over the course of nearly two hours, knowing I would later use brighter exposures for the cobblestone paving and the bridge, and darker exposures to preserve the detail in the lamps, sky and lighting in the bridge.
With these portions of the image merged in Photoshop using luminosity masks, I then focused on isolating the golden-hour light from exposures captured toward the end of the shoot and blended this with the blue-hour scene using a combination of Soft Light and Overlay blend modes, as well as Curves and Levels adjustments to ensure the exposures and tones blended seamlessly.
With the exposures combined, I used a Selective Colour adjustment to remove some of the yellow cast inside Tower Bridge, and then opened Color Efex Pro to apply selective contrast adjustments to the image, incorporating these into the walkway and the bridge but leaving the soft, moody sky unaffected. Finally, I used a Gradient Map set to low opacity to enhance the cold blue tones in the shadows while emphasising the warm light along the Thames and the cobblestones along the riverside.
The end result is essentially a blend of a couple of hours of changing light conditions, taking in the magic and romanticism of Tower Bridge's night lights at the same time as the vibrant warmth of a beautiful sunrise.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.