Critique Welcomed Street Photography - Underneath the Arches

[Lesley Jones]

I'm getting old. I know I prepared this post and I thought I pressed the submit button, but I can't find it anywhere. I'll do it again and apologies if the other one turns up somewhere.

These are supposed to be the very arches in the song by Flanagan and Allen.

 

[Pete Askew]

Great composition and perfect timing again Lesley. And the lighting works so well both adding to the texture and sheen to the paving and the halo in her hair. Nicely balanced with the view beyond the arch.

Interesting side story too. Where in London is it?

 

[Lesley Jones]

It's just down the hill between Charing Cross station and the Embankment. There is a Price, Waterhouse, Cooper building on the right as you head towards the Thames and the arches are just up a bit. The last time I was there the place was full of scaffolding and most of the South Bank was covered in plastic barriers. I think they are sprucing the place up for the Olympics.

 

[adrian jordin]

I was thinking I knew this place vaguely.
I used to live in London many years ago and I remember wandering down the street on the other side of Charing Cross.

Looks like somewhere to go back to sometime...

Great photo, BTW...

 

[Lesley Jones]

I used to work in London, but that was a long time ago!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

What lovely light Lesley - did you have to do much work to balance the well lit street, and the less well lit area underneath the arches?

 

[Hamish Gill]

great lighting here Lesley!
Im finding it very hard to find any fault in your images ...
The only comment I would make on this one is that I would perhaps have taken it with the lady somewhere on the steps ...
It does as chris says, look like you have paid quite a lot of attention to balancing the light here!
there looks to be very little lost to shadow or highlight?!

 

[Lesley Jones]

Ah yes - balancing the light. Obviously the buildings outside were blown. I took another RAW exposure and blended the two at varying percentages. It was then converted with Silver Efex and finished off in Color Efex - mostly darken/lighten and selected tonal contrast. I'm a bit of a stickler regarding blocked and blown bits, although I may drag in the sliders on levels at the very end if I'm doing an image for the web. The details are always recoverable though

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Ah ha - very nice technique - I need to think this way more rather than just making top with a general exposure in tricky situations

 

[Paul Lange]

I was wondering what it was that made this image different, there's no blown highlights. HDR done properly!

 

[Lesley Jones]

I can't do HDR to save my life! I do have Photomatix, but after a couple of years I still haven't produced a single image. In reply to Chris - I shoot so little that I can afford to spend time on the handful from one outing

 

[Paul Lange]

Lesley, I might be alone on this but I think HDR done well is when you blend more than one exposure to get a higher dynamic range just as you have. Very nicely done too.

 

[Hamish Gill]

It's the shadow detail that struck me to be honest ... Over the lack of highlights I mean