St. Louis Basilica II

[John Storjohann]

Another HDR image from the Basilica; 24-105mm lens @ 24mm, f/11. Seven images blended in Photomatix Pro; blended layers of NIK Detail Extractor and Pro Contrast at low opacity. Slight crop from the left. One of the amazing things about the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica is that it houses what is generally considered the largest collection of mosaics in the world. In 1912, installation of mosaics in the interior began; the installation was completed in 1988. The interior mosaics (the ceiling, the domes, portions of the walls, etc.) collectively contain 41.5 million glass tesserae pieces in more than 7,000 colors; the mosaics cover 83,000 square feet. It is stunning to see in person.

[Dave Mills]

Hi John, I would love to photograph this basilica since I really enjoy shooting church interiors. Often these places look easier to shoot than they really are. Very often the question is where to crop. You selected a balanced comp and well handled it technically. Love the lighting,detail and color...

[denise ippolito]

John, I like the detail and the "old world" feel you have retained in the image. It is not over processed. I might be tempted to replace the top brightest window with one of the more detailed ones. Lovely!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Beautiful warm colors and details, John. This must be incredible in person - I can't believe it's got that much tesserae!

[John Storjohann]

Thank you for the comments; Denise, I agree...don't have a clue as to how to do that! I tried using the clone brush at a lowered opacity and brushing it in....not effective because of the different angles of the panes...I'll go back to the image and see what I can do.

[denise ippolito]

John, Try selecting it with the marquee tool then put it on it's own layer and then use the transform tool.

[nzmacro]

Oh my goodness, again I feel small. Just wonderful what humans can do when they try. Stunning place and wonderfully worked John. Perfect IMO once again. I love how you are working these images. Far better than most I've seen, excellent work mate.

All the best John, I still feel small

Danny.

[John Storjohann]

Danny, thank you for your comments...much appreciated! Denise, I did my homework...selected the window to the right, moved it over, used Transform and the rotate, perspective and skew tools...brushed areas of the cross atop the dome back in...then lowered the opacity on the layer to try to match the light.

[denise ippolito]

Great job John!

[Anita Bower]

Another wow image! You are doing a magnificent job of showing us this amazing church. Beautiful and careful work. It looks natural, not overworked.