Otto Berkeley
Ascendance
I was fortunate enough to be among the first group of photographers to capture the interior to St Paul's Cathedral a little over two years ago, when St Paul's organised its first photography evening. Despite three hours inside the building, the architecture is so vast and so stunning that the time vanishes, and it wasn't until recently, during one of several of the Cathedral's late-night events, that I was finally able to visit and photograph the Dean's Staircase in the southwest tower.
Sir Christopher Wren's spiral staircase was completed in 1705 and is made from 88 steps of Portland stone, with each step set 150mm into the wall and carefully shaped to rest on the step directly beneath it. The staircase leads from the Cathedral floor to the Triforium, where the the dean and chapter's library is located, and although the steps leading down to the crypt were roped off, I was able to sneak down to the end of the staircase and capture a look-up of the 50-foot tower in which Wren's sweeping and geometrically flawless staircase ascends.
This image is a blend of eight exposures, combined in Photoshop using luminosity masks to control the highlights and to bring out the detail in the shadows. In the end I still opted for a darker finish towards the end of the staircase, as I felt this added to the moody tone I was aiming for, as well as allowing me to emphasise some of the lovely early-evening light as the sun was going down. The main challenge was the bright light coming through the window on the immediate left. I was able to rein much of this in with highlights from darker exposures, but the light was also leaking into the midtones along the window's grate and edges, and creating a small amount of lens flare along the steps directly below the window. To overcome this, I had to refine a luminosity mask and blend in light from my darkest exposure (which was -4 stops), and then incorporate the grate from the second-to-darkest exposure and the steps from my third-to-darkest exposure, using radial gradient masks to ensure each of these exposures would seamlessly combine with the surrounding walls and steps for a balanced finish.
The other challenge was how much of the building's texture to retain. While the Cathedral floor is one of the most pristine interiors I've ever photographed, the walls surrounding the Dean's Staircase have a wonderfully gritty and high-contrast texture. I very much wanted to keep as much of this original detail as possible, but felt it would distract from the pattern of the staircase and the drama of the warm light falling against the walls. To tone this down, I isolated the walls using the Pen Tool and used Nik's Silver Efex Pro to gently lower their midtone and shadow structure. Inside Nik's Colour Efex Pro, I then applied the Pro Contrast filter to the steps to emphasise the light along their edges, as well as small amounts of the Glamour Glow and Sunlight filters to play up the soft, dreamy light streaming through the windows.
The final editing adjustments were minor clean-up for cracks and imperfections at the end of the staircase, brightening of the ceiling, and lastly three low-opacity Colour Lookups set to Soft Light and using the Foggy Night preset targeted to the Shadows, Candlelight for the Midtones, and Edgy Amber for the Highlights. This helped to bring out the warmth of the sunlight throughout the tower and a cold, muted finish in the shadows. While the workflow was extensive, the end result hopefully conveys the elegance and simplicity of the architecture and the drama of the fading evening light, which made this staircase an absolute joy to photograph.
You can also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, 500px and Google+.
Ascendance
I was fortunate enough to be among the first group of photographers to capture the interior to St Paul's Cathedral a little over two years ago, when St Paul's organised its first photography evening. Despite three hours inside the building, the architecture is so vast and so stunning that the time vanishes, and it wasn't until recently, during one of several of the Cathedral's late-night events, that I was finally able to visit and photograph the Dean's Staircase in the southwest tower.
Sir Christopher Wren's spiral staircase was completed in 1705 and is made from 88 steps of Portland stone, with each step set 150mm into the wall and carefully shaped to rest on the step directly beneath it. The staircase leads from the Cathedral floor to the Triforium, where the the dean and chapter's library is located, and although the steps leading down to the crypt were roped off, I was able to sneak down to the end of the staircase and capture a look-up of the 50-foot tower in which Wren's sweeping and geometrically flawless staircase ascends.
This image is a blend of eight exposures, combined in Photoshop using luminosity masks to control the highlights and to bring out the detail in the shadows. In the end I still opted for a darker finish towards the end of the staircase, as I felt this added to the moody tone I was aiming for, as well as allowing me to emphasise some of the lovely early-evening light as the sun was going down. The main challenge was the bright light coming through the window on the immediate left. I was able to rein much of this in with highlights from darker exposures, but the light was also leaking into the midtones along the window's grate and edges, and creating a small amount of lens flare along the steps directly below the window. To overcome this, I had to refine a luminosity mask and blend in light from my darkest exposure (which was -4 stops), and then incorporate the grate from the second-to-darkest exposure and the steps from my third-to-darkest exposure, using radial gradient masks to ensure each of these exposures would seamlessly combine with the surrounding walls and steps for a balanced finish.
The other challenge was how much of the building's texture to retain. While the Cathedral floor is one of the most pristine interiors I've ever photographed, the walls surrounding the Dean's Staircase have a wonderfully gritty and high-contrast texture. I very much wanted to keep as much of this original detail as possible, but felt it would distract from the pattern of the staircase and the drama of the warm light falling against the walls. To tone this down, I isolated the walls using the Pen Tool and used Nik's Silver Efex Pro to gently lower their midtone and shadow structure. Inside Nik's Colour Efex Pro, I then applied the Pro Contrast filter to the steps to emphasise the light along their edges, as well as small amounts of the Glamour Glow and Sunlight filters to play up the soft, dreamy light streaming through the windows.
The final editing adjustments were minor clean-up for cracks and imperfections at the end of the staircase, brightening of the ceiling, and lastly three low-opacity Colour Lookups set to Soft Light and using the Foggy Night preset targeted to the Shadows, Candlelight for the Midtones, and Edgy Amber for the Highlights. This helped to bring out the warmth of the sunlight throughout the tower and a cold, muted finish in the shadows. While the workflow was extensive, the end result hopefully conveys the elegance and simplicity of the architecture and the drama of the fading evening light, which made this staircase an absolute joy to photograph.
You can also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, 500px and Google+.