Our long hot summer continues. It was far too hot to do an extended walk at lunchtime, but I had planned for this shot anyway. The sharp lines of the buildings seem suited for the sharp harshness of summer. However many of these summer shots come off as being excessively contrasty since the distinction between highlight and shadow in Sydney summer is severe.

Consequently I did a five exposure bracket for this shot and merged it to HDR. This allowed greater detail in the shadows of the building on the right to be incorporated without losing any of the feeling of the intensity of the light. The most pronounced difference is in the sky, however, where a standard shot shows a greatly diminished colour; almost muddy blue. The HDR, on the other hand, pulls the colour of the sky back out. The effect on the far building in particular is acute, almost making it look like an architectural drawing rather than a photograph. However, that is the effect that I was going for anyway. As I have often observed, Jeffrey Smart rocks. Or did when he was still alive.

This was taken with the 9 to 18 mm lens, which I'm still building some familiarity with.