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Sony Forums Challenges | all galleries >> Challenge 112: Give another look on buildings around you (hosted by Stéphane Bouchard) >> Challenge 112: Eligible > edit image
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22-FEB-2006 Denise

9th Place
Conservatory of Flowers
by Denise

Golden Gate Park
San Francisco

My all time favorite building....inside and out!!!!! It opened to the public in 1879.
Building detail can be seen at: http://www.pbase.com/dchip/conservatory__the_building

Sony DSC-H1
1/1000s f/5.6 at 6.2mm iso64 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Katherine Stanback's Photos28-Feb-2006 17:32
Nice shot - beautiful building and I like the dark blue sky!
Denise28-Feb-2006 17:17
Frank, I posted "parts" of the building on PBase so you can see the detail:http://www.pbase.com/dchip/conservatory__the_building

Bottles, I tried your suggestions and need more practice to perfect these techniques!! Just got home from 3 days away, so I haven't had the time to spend. Also, on the original, I don't see the Luminance noise..I can see it in the lightened demo version however. I will work on this but not in time for this challenge ;-)) Thanks for your help and suggestions!!

One more thing, the sky is really THAT blue and I do tend to prefer a darker sky...more dramatic.
Frank 25-Feb-2006 17:20
Just beautiful! It has so many details, I would love to see a bigger resolution.
Jerry Curtis25-Feb-2006 01:55
Great find, Denise, and an excellent job at photographing it. WOW!
bottles 25-Feb-2006 00:40
Oops, the "Guest" was me!
Guest 25-Feb-2006 00:39
Denise, this is a great shot of a really beautiful building, it makes me want to be there! I like your symmetrical composition - very nicely done. * Normally I might not want the sky to be that dark, but with this image I think it looks good (probably due to the beautiful contrast with the white building). The only slight fault I find with the sky is that it contains what appears to be luminance noise. If you don't have a noise removing program (such as "Neat Image") you could simply select the sky with the Magic Wand and use Gaussian Blur to remove the noise. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur (radius as needed) and hit the OK button. I normally use Neat Image, but I did use the Gaussian Blur method here to reduce the noise in your image. I have posted a slightly enlarged example of the results in the Demo folder. I used one pixel for the radius, but if you use a higher resolution image, you'll need more than that.
As for making the image lighter, my preference (and that's all it is) would be to exclude the sky completely and lighten only the rest of the image (and then only slightly).
Link to Demo Folder... http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/challenge_112_demo
Denise24-Feb-2006 18:03
Thanks for your kind comments. You should see the inside! Plants from all over the world and a special exhibit every 3 months. Fabulous.

*Per Stephane's comments, I lightened the image with the Shadow/Highlights option in PSE3. I have no idea how to blend 2 photos....yet ;-)) Link to lighter version:http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/56468223 Comments please on which you prefer, I know my preference ;-)) Thanks!!
stephane bouchard24-Feb-2006 17:12
The building is splendid and your capture is excellent. Why? Because the splendor of the building is magnify by its environment. It is a living building in a living world. There are many people in your pictures to complete the living touch. Also, the deep blue sky increases the whiteness of the building. Great shot!

* I’m not sure if there is something you could change. Maybe the exposure to retrieve more trees details (by blending two pictures with two different exposure parameters).
-Stéphane