Otto Berkeley
Brave New World
This was my fourth year visiting London's City Hall, and of all the buildings I've visited during the Open House weekend over the years, this remains one of the most inspiring. Despite the political upheaval across the UK over the past several months, there's a prevailing sense of serenity inside the building, and although it's now more than a decade since it was built, it still feels like one of the most futuristic in London.
I was fortunate enough last year to capture the helical walkway with only a single individual, at a moment late in the afternoon when, for a few seconds, the crowds thinned out. Unsure about whether a similar moment would present itself but hopeful that I could capture lightning in a bottle again during this year's Open House weekend, I had a different composition in mind, again at the top of the spiral, but this time closer to the centre and with a clear view of the 10-storey drop through the building. This was more challenging to capture empty because of the wider visibility of the walkway, but once again I found a brief moment when the influx of visitors briefly slowed to a standstill, and a young woman walked along the steps into the centre of the frame, pausing for a few seconds at the centre of the spiral, taking in the view of the city in front of her and the immense scale and height of the building around her.
This brief moment was enough for me to capture the image I wanted, with the individual staying still long enough for me to bracket seven exposures with her sharp and in-focus in all of them. From there, the exposures were blended in Photoshop using luminosity masks, with the midtones and shadows weighted heavily towards the brighter exposures for a high-key finish that would bring out the pristine white in the building's structure and panelling. After this, I used the Pen Tool to isolate the staircase, the steps themselves, and the surrounding steel frame and windows, which were then used alongside luminosity masking to blend in the brighter exposures using the Soft Light, Screen and Linear Light blend modes. This was a painstaking process, but it allowed me to achieve the brightest, cleanest and most accurate possible finish despite shooting handheld at a high ISO, and it also made it possible to emphasise the bright and airy interior of the building without compromising exposure on the view outside of the building, where the Walkie Talkie, the Gherkin and the neighbouring high-rise buildings could be glimpsed. Striking this balance and controlling the highlights in the external view were important to me because I wanted to convey what had captivated this woman's attention while she was standing at the top of the staircase.
With the exposures blended and selections created, the post-processing on the image was straightforward. I tried to bring out the airy and surreal atmosphere inside the building by pushing towards a gentle blue hue using Colour Balance, Curves and Gradient Map adjustments, as well as desaturating some of the yellow tones in the lights and the green hue of the plants inside the offices, which seemed to distract from the centre of the image. The contrast was kept low for a softer finish, but I dipped into Colour Efex Pro and selectively applied just enough of the Pro Contrast and Tonal Contrast filters to give the building's steel structure some definition, which I felt emphasised its geometry.
The final image is a result of one of the most exhaustive workflows of any image I've worked on, but it was also one of the most rewarding.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
Brave New World
This was my fourth year visiting London's City Hall, and of all the buildings I've visited during the Open House weekend over the years, this remains one of the most inspiring. Despite the political upheaval across the UK over the past several months, there's a prevailing sense of serenity inside the building, and although it's now more than a decade since it was built, it still feels like one of the most futuristic in London.
I was fortunate enough last year to capture the helical walkway with only a single individual, at a moment late in the afternoon when, for a few seconds, the crowds thinned out. Unsure about whether a similar moment would present itself but hopeful that I could capture lightning in a bottle again during this year's Open House weekend, I had a different composition in mind, again at the top of the spiral, but this time closer to the centre and with a clear view of the 10-storey drop through the building. This was more challenging to capture empty because of the wider visibility of the walkway, but once again I found a brief moment when the influx of visitors briefly slowed to a standstill, and a young woman walked along the steps into the centre of the frame, pausing for a few seconds at the centre of the spiral, taking in the view of the city in front of her and the immense scale and height of the building around her.
This brief moment was enough for me to capture the image I wanted, with the individual staying still long enough for me to bracket seven exposures with her sharp and in-focus in all of them. From there, the exposures were blended in Photoshop using luminosity masks, with the midtones and shadows weighted heavily towards the brighter exposures for a high-key finish that would bring out the pristine white in the building's structure and panelling. After this, I used the Pen Tool to isolate the staircase, the steps themselves, and the surrounding steel frame and windows, which were then used alongside luminosity masking to blend in the brighter exposures using the Soft Light, Screen and Linear Light blend modes. This was a painstaking process, but it allowed me to achieve the brightest, cleanest and most accurate possible finish despite shooting handheld at a high ISO, and it also made it possible to emphasise the bright and airy interior of the building without compromising exposure on the view outside of the building, where the Walkie Talkie, the Gherkin and the neighbouring high-rise buildings could be glimpsed. Striking this balance and controlling the highlights in the external view were important to me because I wanted to convey what had captivated this woman's attention while she was standing at the top of the staircase.
With the exposures blended and selections created, the post-processing on the image was straightforward. I tried to bring out the airy and surreal atmosphere inside the building by pushing towards a gentle blue hue using Colour Balance, Curves and Gradient Map adjustments, as well as desaturating some of the yellow tones in the lights and the green hue of the plants inside the offices, which seemed to distract from the centre of the image. The contrast was kept low for a softer finish, but I dipped into Colour Efex Pro and selectively applied just enough of the Pro Contrast and Tonal Contrast filters to give the building's steel structure some definition, which I felt emphasised its geometry.
The final image is a result of one of the most exhaustive workflows of any image I've worked on, but it was also one of the most rewarding.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.