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The Gherkin
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The Gherkin



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cameraSONY ILCE-6000

settings Aperture 8/1 ISO 100 Shutter 30/1 Focal Length 160/10 

upload_dateDec, 2016

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Contest Finalist in Underexposure Photo Contest
Rode On-Camera Microphone
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Confalonieri billdoll lenwareverson JGMorlan richardeaton_9707 davidjprosser 0vertur3 +508
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Siyya marcobarone MoxPix TheChromeCrafter jimjim_1840 Daneoldershaw drwaynegrimm +17
Outstanding Creativity
brockheeney James-Evans floraambrosini katyakozo TSovchik Monkeymama jelanie +15
Superb Composition
gerardjansen_5295 sophieauffret Pammathieson Ryan_Turnbaugh staceyrenaepadgett felixrjack Oveone +13
Top Choice
ernievater melissaperone kk721068 asaljalaali cassandraverwey rfutrell79 dimitrikenchoshvili +5
Magnificent Capture
doubleplay mrmacca James_Hodges Alfredo_Jose andyjenkinsphoto SightsbyCF Basciano_Photography +1
Superior Skill
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3 Comments |
DreamCapturedImages
 
DreamCapturedImages April 10, 2018
Great shot!
farigiovanni
farigiovanni April 10, 2018
thanks
JM18Photography PRO+
 
JM18Photography April 21, 2018
Congratulations!
Yoyi Ultimate
 
Yoyi April 23, 2018
Espectacular

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#london #Gherkin #long exposure #black and white #fine art #architecture
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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in one of the iconic areas of London known as the "Square Mile" or the "City". It's definitely one of my favourite area for architecture, rich in modern corporate skyscrapers that sit just on top of the medieval alleyway in harmony. I love the blend of old and new you can find in here.

Time

This was taken around 4 pm at the end of November 2016 making the shoot quite challenging for the light condition.

Lighting

I've waited for this conditions for few weeks, sometimes busy, sometimes no clouds or not in the right area of the sky, until that day. The major problem was about light and the fact that at that time of the day and year the light goes down quickly. Had to play with settings and different ND filter to get the effect wanted with the clouds, but during the 2 minutes exposure, the light was already changed meaning the next trial was going to be with different filter setup and different settings. Every test was taking time, time that I didn't have if I wanted to keep a good contrast in the sky and to avoid to much light inside the building itself. Definitely, one of the most challenging shots ever taken from me and totally worth.

Equipment

I've used my previous camera, a Sony a6000 with the kit lens PZ 16-50 at 16mm f10. Tripod is a Manfrotto 055XPRO three section aluminium and Lee filters as ND, during the testing I've used different filters but for the final result of one minute exposure had to use the 2 stop.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this type of photography comes from two photographers that I really love, Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar, since I first saw their work, I fall in love. I find very interesting their work because they can often express so much which so little, converting to black and white to remove any form of distraction caused by vivid colours and focusing the attention to volumes, shapes and light, the fact that often are low-key and almost, if not entirely, minimal which again make you focus on the subject. After considering all these aspects I've started trying myself and has been quite challenging since I come from a past of HDR, the step for me was huge, going from a mindset where you look for colours and balanced exposure, to one where you go black and white and moody.

Editing

Definitely yes. I've started using Photoshop in '96 and I feel comfortable saying that I'm fast and straight in photoshop and yet this image took me a good 20 hours work. First I cropped and fixed the composition and the perspective of the building, then I had to clean up some distraction with the clone tool from the building in the lower corners, then had to remove all the light and reflection from the windows and just this took me a good 10 hours+. Next step was all the different selections for any major structure of the building, I've used these selections to increase the contrast between different parts of the building.

In my camera bag

The camera at the time of this picture was a Sony a6000 but now I own a Sony A7II, is quite new and didn't have the chance to get many lenses, native, I actually own just the 28-70 f3.5 but I also have always with me an adapter Minolta MD to Sony E and my two old Minolta Rokkor primes, a 35 f2.8 and a 50 f1.4. I usually take my Manfrotto 055pro tripod with me unless I go out for street-photography and keep always my Lee filters and remote controller with me to get more flexibility for bracketing, programmed bulb mode and time-lapses.

Feedback

First, you need to consider the subject, its shape and the way the light play with it in different time of the day. You really need to have the final picture already in your head or mostly, you need to consider what is taking your attention, is it the light condition? Reflections? Or the shape? Of course, often can be more than one reason or all of them but based on that, you need to be sure to get the shot right, the original raw need to give you already a sense of what you are looking for, you should really look for photos around to get inspired, search for black and white fine art architecture, there is many good photographer around and I advise you to look for the work of the two I've mentioned above. About post-processing, You have to be willing to go deep on it, You definitely need to have some skill in photoshop or similar because most of the selections are going to be tedious, shape based, not just brush stroke, and often you will have to zoom in and be very precise to avoid halos, sometimes you could be lucky and get a nice selection that you need just using the quick selection tool or luminosity mask, but many times you will have to select using the pen tool which scares many people at first. As I said before, the task can be quite tedious but the payback it's rewarding. Good luck.

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