Castillo de San Marcos

[Dennis Bishop]

We spent parts of two days at this old Spanish fort in St Augustine, Florida. For some reason, this space didn't catch my eye until the end of the second day. In fact, it was the last area of the fort I photographed. There were some other spots with dramatic natural light that I'll process eventually.





Nikon D3s, ISO 2500 (With all the people walking by or coming in, I didn't want any real long exposures.), f/22, nine-exposure HDR at 1 EV increments (only the seven shortest exposures used), zoom lens at 14mm

processing highlights

• After tone mapping, it was possible to see visitors outside the window, so I substituted the overexposed window from the -2 EV exposure
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
• Joel Olives texture -- Color Dodge blend mode
• photo filter adjustment layer -- Cooling 80 masked off doorway and window
• photo filter adjustment layer -- Deep Yellow, inverse of previous mask
• stamped the previous layer and applied at Soft Light with a gradient mask to give a dark vignette from the existing tones/colors
• Fractalius -- three saved black & white presets, Mutliply/Divide/Multiply
• Simplify -- saved black & white edges preset, Multiply
• Snap Art -- saved Line Art orange (instead of black) & white preset, Multiply

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Great composition, and I love the dark and light contrasts. It's all about the light and this one has it! Beautiful Dennis!

[Paul Lagasi]

The different light tones that were brought out using HDR make this image, nice textures. I'd love to see what this looked with only tone mapping. Well done

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I'd love to see what this looked with only tone mapping. . . .

Thanks for your comments, Jackie and Paul. Here it is with only tone mapping. I guess I was wrong about why I substituted the window from the -2 exposure.

[Mitch Carucci]

Great mood piece! Well thought out and executed.

[Nancy Bell]

Very dramatic with the lights and shadows. I like seeing the before and after as it helps me to "see" the processing. The echoing curves add to the great composition.

[Hazel Grant]

yes, seeing the before makes the after so much more dramatic. nice how the HDR made that overexposed window actually a valuable part of the whole image.