Otto Berkeley
Follow the Light
Hidden away in the south corner of the Canada Place Shopping Mall beneath Canary Wharf is this corridor. It doesn't lead anywhere remarkable -- to a payphone, a parking payment point, a baby changing room and a public toilet -- but its elegance and simplicity were so appealing that, from the moment I saw it, I knew I wanted to photograph it.
The artificial light from behind the light box looks deceptively like sunlight, but the image was shot late at night, when the corridor was empty and when the shopping centre's security were more inclined to overlook the use of a tripod. I captured the corridor from several angles and heights, but settled on a mid-level vantage point looking directly towards the door in the distance, with the overhead lights and floor tiles providing a series of leading lines.
Although I knew I would be pushing for a bright and minimal finish, it was important to me to capture the detail inside the light box and along the floor, where the bright ceiling lights were reflecting on the marble surface. For this reason I bracketed several exposures, later blending darker exposures with brighter exposures in Photoshop using luminosity masks. Post-processing beyond this involved Pen Tool selections to isolate the light box, floor and ceiling, allowing me to selectively edit each portion of the image and control the amount of light being lifted from the brighter exposures. Setting these exposures to the Screen blend mode to enhance the intensity of their brightness, I then used gradient masks to gently raise the exposure along the floor and walls without affecting the light box or the lights overhead.
With the exposures blended, a combination of Hue/Saturation, Selective Colour and Colour Balance adjustments were used to reduce the yellow tones within the midtones and shadows and to lower the amount of cyan in the walls, shifting the image towards a more consistent and subtle light blue. A low-opacity Colour Lookup set to Bleach Bypass was then targeted to the ceiling to enhance its contrast, as well as luminosity masks for the light box, where Curves and Levels adjustments were used to enhance the contrast between the outline of the pattern and the intensity of the light.
Dipping into Silver Efex Pro and setting this to the Luminosity blend mode, I lowered the midtone structure along the walkway to smoothen its texture, as well as amplifying the Whites across the image. Finally, Colour Efex Pro's High Key filter was gently applied, which allowed me to preserve the highlights and textures while giving the image a soft, airy finish. The only real liberty I took at the end of the editing process was to remove a CCTV camera and a few water sprinklers in the ceiling, which I felt distracted from the image's clean geometry. The unglamorous nature of the corridor notwithstanding, the final result hopefully conveys the dreamy quality of what struck me as a hidden architectural gem.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
Follow the Light
Hidden away in the south corner of the Canada Place Shopping Mall beneath Canary Wharf is this corridor. It doesn't lead anywhere remarkable -- to a payphone, a parking payment point, a baby changing room and a public toilet -- but its elegance and simplicity were so appealing that, from the moment I saw it, I knew I wanted to photograph it.
The artificial light from behind the light box looks deceptively like sunlight, but the image was shot late at night, when the corridor was empty and when the shopping centre's security were more inclined to overlook the use of a tripod. I captured the corridor from several angles and heights, but settled on a mid-level vantage point looking directly towards the door in the distance, with the overhead lights and floor tiles providing a series of leading lines.
Although I knew I would be pushing for a bright and minimal finish, it was important to me to capture the detail inside the light box and along the floor, where the bright ceiling lights were reflecting on the marble surface. For this reason I bracketed several exposures, later blending darker exposures with brighter exposures in Photoshop using luminosity masks. Post-processing beyond this involved Pen Tool selections to isolate the light box, floor and ceiling, allowing me to selectively edit each portion of the image and control the amount of light being lifted from the brighter exposures. Setting these exposures to the Screen blend mode to enhance the intensity of their brightness, I then used gradient masks to gently raise the exposure along the floor and walls without affecting the light box or the lights overhead.
With the exposures blended, a combination of Hue/Saturation, Selective Colour and Colour Balance adjustments were used to reduce the yellow tones within the midtones and shadows and to lower the amount of cyan in the walls, shifting the image towards a more consistent and subtle light blue. A low-opacity Colour Lookup set to Bleach Bypass was then targeted to the ceiling to enhance its contrast, as well as luminosity masks for the light box, where Curves and Levels adjustments were used to enhance the contrast between the outline of the pattern and the intensity of the light.
Dipping into Silver Efex Pro and setting this to the Luminosity blend mode, I lowered the midtone structure along the walkway to smoothen its texture, as well as amplifying the Whites across the image. Finally, Colour Efex Pro's High Key filter was gently applied, which allowed me to preserve the highlights and textures while giving the image a soft, airy finish. The only real liberty I took at the end of the editing process was to remove a CCTV camera and a few water sprinklers in the ceiling, which I felt distracted from the image's clean geometry. The unglamorous nature of the corridor notwithstanding, the final result hopefully conveys the dreamy quality of what struck me as a hidden architectural gem.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.