St. Louis Baislica

Overwhelming! It is the world's largest indoor continuous mosaic at around 14 million tiles. I hope this image gives you just a glimpse of what I saw. It is one of four different Italian Artisan designed chapels that flank the main hall of the Basilica. Each Chapel different and each a work of art.

7-stitch HDR processed through HDRExpress. The result was a bit clinical so I ran it through Simplify, a pinch of Diffusion and Tonal Contrast. Several layers of luminous adjustments to even out the lighting to taste. Some work in Transform to try and get lens distortion out of it............. I hope you like it. BTW, I have yet to remove that speaker on the middle column...............:S3:

Jay,
Very cool!
I have a couple of questions. How large was the file when you finished but before you resized and converted to .jpg
How long did you work on the image?
Thanks,
James

Very well done! The colors and tones look very natural. It is a beautiful chapel.

Looks like you're having fun with HDR. I like this one a lot. It's nicely composed, it looks very natural, and those reflections off the pews are just dynamite. I might've gone with nine exposures, which would've lightened up the foreground and lowered the intensity of the lights a bit, but I really like your version. It probably gives a better sense of what you saw. That gives me something to think about the next time I set up for a scene like this.

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Originally Posted by James Shadle

Jay,
Very cool!
I have a couple of questions. How large was the file when you finished but before you resized and converted to .jpg
How long did you work on the image?
Thanks,
James

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James, actually, I'm in the process re-building my computer. I was at a loss on why my monitor color was way different, from what I saw on BPN posting. So the colors in the post or more peachy than I would like. Anyway, I'm remembering the file was about 140 mg, or so. I worked on the image about 30 minutes or less (seven layers of light, curve and color work) before starting with the TOPAZ filters. I couldn't get a decent image with NIK HDR Efex Pro so I changed to HDR Express, which did the trick ( I used 5 of seven frames, each +/- 1 ev). About an hour or so in TOPAZ and NIK filters to get the effect I wanted, all in Nikon's Capture NX2, which I find much faster then CS5 for most of the stuff I do. Hope that covers your questions. Thanks, Jay

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Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop

Looks like you're having fun with HDR. I like this one a lot. It's nicely composed, it looks very natural, and those reflections off the pews are just dynamite. I might've gone with nine exposures, which would've lightened up the foreground and lowered the intensity of the lights a bit, but I really like your version. It probably gives a better sense of what you saw. That gives me something to think about the next time I set up for a scene like this.

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Dennis the HDR image from HDR Express was much brighter, I went for the effect I remembered at the Cathedral. Leaving the foreground brighter to reduce contrast with the light in the Chapel was an option, it was visually easier, but didn't tell the story the way I saw it. Different strokes.........:S3:. I may reconsider at some point when I have more experience with HDR, but for now I'm having a blast with it. Next time I may go to 11 or even 13 exposures and see what that does, in conditions of extreme tonal variance.

This is quite dynamic and your HDR work is impressive! I have not yet dipped my toe into that pool but images like this are exciting and motivating. You achieved a lovely glow. Are you tempted to remove the 3 bright lights?

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Originally Posted by Nancy Bell

This is quite dynamic and your HDR work is impressive! I have not yet dipped my toe into that pool but images like this are exciting and motivating. You achieved a lovely glow. Are you tempted to remove the 3 bright lights?

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The lights were the big challenge to the image..............getting them to look realistic without clipping was the challenge. The will stay......could be toned though.:S3: HDR is way fun, mostly!

Finally fixed my color management issues.............hopefully for good! Here is a repost with the corrected colors.........

Yikes. That really made a difference. It's a good demonstration of the need for monitor calibration.

Jay, When I first saw the OP I thought it looked a little muddy. But seeing your repost and looking at it for awhile I don't think it does. Did you take an exposure for the lights? I think your filtering tweaks look very good. Very ornate and beautiful. Nicely done.

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Originally Posted by denise ippolito

Jay, When I first saw the OP I thought it looked a little muddy. But seeing your repost and looking at it for awhile I don't think it does. Did you take an exposure for the lights? I think your filtering tweaks look very good. Very ornate and beautiful. Nicely done.

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Denise, thanks. Yes, I have an exposure for the lights..........I'm getting the feeling I should tone them down? :S3: The plaster arches and column crowns were the most difficult to get without looking muddy. The only thing I can think to experiment with is to try to layer in one of the better exposures and blend that part in, but I've never done that in photoshop before.........

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Originally Posted by Jay Sheinfield

Denise, thanks. Yes, I have an exposure for the lights..........I'm getting the feeling I should tone them down? :S3: The plaster arches and column crowns were the most difficult to get without looking muddy. The only thing I can think to experiment with is to try to layer in one of the better exposures and blend that part in, but I've never done that in photoshop before.........

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There's an easier way if you have Viveza. Just add a cursor to cut down the brightness of one of the lights, then put duplicates on the other two. If you want to be conservative, cut back farther than you think you should and use a blending mode with the Viveza layer. That way is easier than trying to blend a whole new exposure because -- if you've added don't-change-this control points in Viveza -- the only thing that changes when you blend will be the lights.

Jay, the repost is really beautiful. This must be amazing in person.:S3:

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Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop

There's an easier way if you have Viveza. Just add a cursor to cut down the brightness of one of the lights, then put duplicates on the other two. If you want to be conservative, cut back farther than you think you should and use a blending mode with the Viveza layer. That way is easier than trying to blend a whole new exposure because -- if you've added don't-change-this control points in Viveza -- the only thing that changes when you blend will be the lights.

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Don't have Viveza, but I think I can still do it in another way. Thanks...........

Jay, I would tone them down if it were mine. :S3: