Family Resemblance
Paris, France
2013
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence but you have to wonder what strange, mysterious connection there is between the Saint-Sulpice Catholic church and the robot C3PO from Star Wars. Or, maybe I’ve been too influenced by all the Saint-Sulpice myths generated by the novel The Da Vinci Code.
C3PO
I’m impressed by this image both artistically and technically. I really enjoy the composition, but I’m also curious about the amount of detail you are able to display at the extremes of the tonal range. I’ve never seen you discuss the technical aspects of your photography, but I am really curious about this particular image.
Do you possess a sensor with unusually wide dynamic range, or have you developed a technique of shooting and post processing that could inform others?
Thanks for the comments Russell. Nothing special about how this photo was taken or it’s processing in Photoshop, other than exercising a bit of care I suppose. It was shot with a standard Canon 7D camera–no special sensor or anything. At the expense of blowing out the highlights in the windows a bit, I adjusted the exposure to favor the shadows as much as possible. Then in Camera Raw and Photoshop I adjusted the white and black points to maximize the tonal range and added a curve to bring out some of the shadow details, although there is still some blocking of the shadows in the darkest areas. The last thing I did was to just dodge some of the sunlit stone to make them pop a bit more. That was about it aside from a bit of toning and sharpening of course.