Otto Berkeley
Distant Lights
Following on from a recent image looking towards the towering spectacle of the Shard, I thought it might be fun to come back to the view from the top of the Shard, this time looking east beyond Tower Bridge and towards the Docklands. Having used my annual pass to photograph sunsets and evenings in every other direction from the Shard's viewing gallery, this was the final view I wanted to capture, and in some ways the one that resonated the most with me, as the route from Tower Bridge, both north of the Thames towards Canary Wharf and south of the river towards Rotherhithe, is the one that sparked my interest in photographing cityscapes.
As with another recent capture from the top of the Shard, this was taken with my camera perched precariously on top of my satchel, adhering to the building's no-tripod policy while allowing me to extend the shooting time and shutter speed. My aim with this image was to capture a hint of the dusk light striking the buildings as the sun went down, as well as the vibrant lights across the city during blue hour and into the early evening. Nine bracketed exposures were captured in short succession a few minutes after the sun had gone down, with an additional nine about half an hour later. Tower Bridge is conspicuously derelict while it's closed for maintenance works, but one of London's City Cruisers sped beneath the bridge while I was capturing my second batch of exposures, and it seemed to add a nice sense of momentum to the final image, guiding the eye along the sinuous path of the Thames and towards the Docklands in the distance.
The two batches of exposures were separately blended in Photoshop using luminosity masks, then selectively merged using a combination of Lighten, Soft Light and Overlay blend modes. This allowed me to preserve the brightest and cleanest possible finish in the shadows between the buildings, as well as providing a high level of control over the intensity of the city lights. This was beneficial for toning down the highlights in two particular areas of the image: the busy A1203 road north of St Katharine Docks, where the longer exposures were producing light trails, and the lights at the tip of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers.
Colour-grading was fairly straightforward: using Apply Image to target and mask separate portions of the image, I used Colour Balance, Curves and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, as well as two low-opacity Colour Lookups set to Soft Light -- Night from Day, and Futuristic Bleak -- to enhance the chilly futuristic ambience. After this, I used Silver Efex Pro to selectively lower the midtone and shadow structure within the Thames -- smoothing out its texture -- and a sparing amount of the Pro Contrast filter in Colour Efex Pro to add some definition to the image.
The final adjustments were to bring out the intricate detail within the cityscape. The D800 does a remarkable job of capturing every nuance, even through the Shard's glass windows, but I added a minimal amount of Colour Efex Pro's Detail Extractor to the buildings, as well as adjusting the tone and radius of the Shadow detail using a Highlights/Shadows adjustment in Photoshop. The final result hopefully brings to life the spectacular view from the top of the Shard, but it was also a fun image to shoot and edit considering how many of the buildings in this view I've photographed from a ground-level view.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
Distant Lights
Following on from a recent image looking towards the towering spectacle of the Shard, I thought it might be fun to come back to the view from the top of the Shard, this time looking east beyond Tower Bridge and towards the Docklands. Having used my annual pass to photograph sunsets and evenings in every other direction from the Shard's viewing gallery, this was the final view I wanted to capture, and in some ways the one that resonated the most with me, as the route from Tower Bridge, both north of the Thames towards Canary Wharf and south of the river towards Rotherhithe, is the one that sparked my interest in photographing cityscapes.
As with another recent capture from the top of the Shard, this was taken with my camera perched precariously on top of my satchel, adhering to the building's no-tripod policy while allowing me to extend the shooting time and shutter speed. My aim with this image was to capture a hint of the dusk light striking the buildings as the sun went down, as well as the vibrant lights across the city during blue hour and into the early evening. Nine bracketed exposures were captured in short succession a few minutes after the sun had gone down, with an additional nine about half an hour later. Tower Bridge is conspicuously derelict while it's closed for maintenance works, but one of London's City Cruisers sped beneath the bridge while I was capturing my second batch of exposures, and it seemed to add a nice sense of momentum to the final image, guiding the eye along the sinuous path of the Thames and towards the Docklands in the distance.
The two batches of exposures were separately blended in Photoshop using luminosity masks, then selectively merged using a combination of Lighten, Soft Light and Overlay blend modes. This allowed me to preserve the brightest and cleanest possible finish in the shadows between the buildings, as well as providing a high level of control over the intensity of the city lights. This was beneficial for toning down the highlights in two particular areas of the image: the busy A1203 road north of St Katharine Docks, where the longer exposures were producing light trails, and the lights at the tip of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers.
Colour-grading was fairly straightforward: using Apply Image to target and mask separate portions of the image, I used Colour Balance, Curves and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, as well as two low-opacity Colour Lookups set to Soft Light -- Night from Day, and Futuristic Bleak -- to enhance the chilly futuristic ambience. After this, I used Silver Efex Pro to selectively lower the midtone and shadow structure within the Thames -- smoothing out its texture -- and a sparing amount of the Pro Contrast filter in Colour Efex Pro to add some definition to the image.
The final adjustments were to bring out the intricate detail within the cityscape. The D800 does a remarkable job of capturing every nuance, even through the Shard's glass windows, but I added a minimal amount of Colour Efex Pro's Detail Extractor to the buildings, as well as adjusting the tone and radius of the Shadow detail using a Highlights/Shadows adjustment in Photoshop. The final result hopefully brings to life the spectacular view from the top of the Shard, but it was also a fun image to shoot and edit considering how many of the buildings in this view I've photographed from a ground-level view.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.