St Bavo

The cathedral at Ghent (or Gand in Walloon), Belgium which is dedicated to St Bavo.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3255/mg23471.jpg

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8193/mg23461.jpg

Hi Peter,

Probably took a bit of a wait to get these shots so clear of people :), worth the wait.

Two quite decent shots, although I think both would benefit from a bit of careful sharpening.

Here's my attempt on #1.
http://www.pbase.com/dhumphries/imag...8/original.jpg
What I did, both quite subtle as you've already done some PP;
USM for LCE: 15%, 30px, 0th
USM to sharpen: 100%, 0.3px, 5th EDIT, this may be overdone now :(
I didn't even try to do anything with colour temp because there is a huge mixture in there already and I 'm sure I'd only make it worse than your current balance ;)

EDIT2 So then I wondered what mono would look like;
http://www.pbase.com/dhumphries/imag...0/original.jpg
From your original, this was just remove colour and add some LCE for contrast as 25%, 90px, 1th.
No additional sharpening seemed to be necessary!
Well I have learnt from doing these this morning, so thanks for sharing the pics.

I hope it helps you/others too.

Cheers,

I spent summer 2006 working in Ghent.. a beautiful city, with STUNNING architecture. I remember the first week, I was walking in the streets and couldn't stop staring at all those 11-12th century miracles. Wish I could come back there..
Anyway, I like your shot. I'd just clone out all those tourists except one, and paint his/her clothes black to look like a monk.. Just kidding :D Seriously.. I'm not sure of the floor. I know you can't change the floor in a cathedral, but I find this contrasty black/white pattern distracting and it keeps my eyes away from the main subject. I guess I'd try to shoot to have as little of the floor in the frame as possible.

I think I agree with Dave about the sharpening. However I think they might be slightly out of focus and then over sharpened. I don't know its an odd effect. It is a beautiful location and you have captured the space nicely. I am afraid I would have been daunted with the people and concentrated on the architectural detail.

Steve