The Pietà

[John Storjohann]

This is one of two life sized replicas of Michelangelo's Pietá currently being shown in North America. It is on loan to the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica from the owners, Legacy Sculptures and Renaissance Sculptures, LLC. The bronze replica is one of twelve bronzes cast by the Marinelli foundry from plaster molds taken directly from the pristine original marble in the Vatican in 1932. This particular piece was cast in 1982. This image is a nine shot HDR, blended and tone-mapped using Photomatix Pro, some perspective correction down in PS, and layers of NIK Detail Extractor, NIK Pro Contrast and Topaz BuzzSim on separate layers; the BuzzSim layer was added in the color blend mode with lowered opacity. 17-40mm lens@17mm, f/11. Comments and suggestions always welcomed.

[Judy Howle]

Very nice HDR work and filtering. I like the composition too.

[Maureen Allen]

John, you're making me about nuts with these images. I love to photograph churches and most that are close to me are not particularly um, beautiful.

Your processing and comp in this image, as well as the numerous others I've seen on FB, are beautifully done.

I want to visit this church!

[denise ippolito]

John, another lovely piece. I might be tempted to tone down the bright spot on the left wall. You have been doing some nice HDR work!

[Anita Bower]

I think this is the least successful of the cathedral images you've shared. The lighting on the Pieta makes it very difficult to successfully photograph--harsh lights and dark shadows. Too bad. The setting makes the sculpture look small, yet I think of it as rather large (but I haven't seen it in real life), so this creates some dissonance for me.