The Shard - B&W

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi All,

Went out to play with my 10 stop filter today and this is what I came up with. This is the Shard in London Bridge, Europe's newest and tallest skyscraper.

I processed the RAW files in ACR and then used SEP2 for the B&W conversion.

C&C most appreciated.

Nikon D90 | Nikon 18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 27mm | f/11 | 30 sec | ISO 200 | ND 10 Stop



Nikon D90 | Nikon 18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm | f/11 | 30 sec | ISO 200 | ND 10 Stop



Thanks for viewing

[ggt]

Way WOW! The sky works better for me in #2. Something abou the angle in #1, althought it lines-up nicely with the bridge. I don't know, maybe if the crop was square . . .. I can't put my finger on what doesn't work for me. Perhaps it's the shadow of the bridge . . .They are both lovely shots.

I know, the reflections in the water do not mimic the sky like they do in #2. Which I realize is really the reflections of the the buildings at that angle. Am I making sense, or just rambling? It's such a cool shot. The leaning buildings and all. There is a lot to see in #1.

The framing works very well too!

Thanks for posting.

[jamn4ex]

Those are stunning! Your post production compliments the architecture (with an in your face kinda feel) I really like the perspective of 1 with the bridge binging me back to center. I will leave the tech C&C to the experts. thanks for posting Tommy.

[arith]

I like #1 with the bridge and Southwark Cathedral. About the best I've seen of it so far and I wondered what it would look like from the George gate with a fisheye.

[Steve S]

Very nicely done tommy. Perhaps a play with the transform tool , to straighten some of the buildings, would improve it.

[jeeperman]

Two thumbs up Tommy. Rather than just repeat what's been said I will just +1 to Steve's post.

[Polar01]

That ten stop is way too much fun. Very nicely done Yommy.

Cheers:

Allan

[Donald]

Went out to play with my 10 stop filter today

That's the sort of image for which I think it works so well - clouds passing over a cityscape. And just the right amount of detail has been brought out in the B & W conversion.

EDIT - A very good place for Silver Efex Pro 2 users looking at long exposure work to go is this NIK Webinar

[dubaiphil]

Very good, Tommy.

When looking to correct the perspective distortion with transform you will notice, particularly with shot 1, that your reflections will still be skewed. After correcting everything that's 'the right way up', selecting the area of the photo where the reflection start and going downwards, then using the warp too, can then straighten your reflections.

I'm getting clouds over here in Dubai now - time to break out the 10 stop and 3 stop.

[RockNGoalStar]

Many thanks to all of you for your kind feedback and constructive comments.

I will look into the distortion but, in a way, I quite like it.

The 10-stop is great fun and every day I yearn for fast moving moody clouds with a bit of sunlight creeping through here and there!

[escaladieu]

My feeling is that the lens distortion is spoiling the shot. That, along with the blurred clouds gives one an uncomfortable feeling akin to dizziness ! Maybe you could have a go at removing the distortion in PS or LR ? You may however lose some of the bottom of the image if you do this - I've found that leaving space at the bottom of the image when composing to anticipate the effect of the "constrain crop" checkbox in LR is a good idea.

I'd also pull up the shadows a bit - the blacks are clipped & the overall effect is a bit gloomy - unless you were going for that effect ? I've certainly got some gloomy memories of the building on the right when I worked there briefly ...

I had a go at a roughly corrected crop of #2 ....



but I still feel a bit dizzy looking at it !

I think the image would have been better without the long exposure, but its a matter of taste of course.

Just my 2p

J

[Joerg]

It looks nice to me. I'm personally would stamp out the cranes. The distortion isn't a big issue, but you could use DxO8 as a pre-processor.

[Mike Buckley]

For me, the distortion and cloud patterns complement each other very nicely. Having said that, I wonder if I would like the cloud pattern more with a shorter exposure.