Grand Foyer Opera Garnier Paris

May 03, 2012

Grand Foyer Opera Garnier ParisGrand Foyer Opera Garnier Paris Done

This was my third location of my first full day in Paris. With heavy rain starting in the morning and continuing in the afternoon an inside destination was required. This is the Magnificent Foyer of the Garnier Opera House. The décor includes large amount of gold. Usually the room is full of Tourists and Tour groups. I was there as closing time came and an Official came round to tell everybody to head for the exits. When everybody was clear I got some quick shots

As usual in this sort of building Tripods are not allowed, The picture was taken handheld at ISO 1600 for a fast enough shutter speed. Taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 wide angle zoom at 10mm. 3 raw images 2EV spacing for HDR. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.

Photomatix

Outputted in Photomatix to detail enhancer. I used Photomatix to output to a second file using Fusion settings for use in darkening areas such as the window later in Photoshop. For the Photomatix Settings click the Camera name in the top right of this image on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwinjones/6995124826/

Photoshop

The Detail enhancer file was used as the base layer and then the fusion file was copied in as a layer. A layer mask was used to apply this to reduce noise in some foreground areas and produce better detail in the window

Detail brought back in with Topaz adjust with Vibrant presets, Detail 1 settings with adjustments.

General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance with layer masks to exclude highlight areas.

Saturation adjustment layer yellows used to decrease the overall yellows a little.

Vibrance increased 57 points.

The plus 2 EV image added as a new layer with a mask to bring more colour into the central panel of the ceiling.

Layers flattened before going on to sharpening.

First duplicate layer Noiseware Pro and a little sharpening

Second duplicate layer with mask to apply extra sharpening and contrast with low amount and high radius using Unsharp mask (Clarity Effect) The settings were 55 amount and 55 radius.

Filter Lens Correction – Custom used to partly correct verticals and crop.

 

BEFORE AND AFTER

Below are the Before and After images. First the middle of the 3 exposures. Then the tonemapped image and then the final result.

 

 Original at 0EV

Grand Foyer Opera Garnier ParisGrand Foyer process2

 Tonemapped image Detail Enhancer

Grand Foyer Opera Garnier ParisGrand Foyer_tonemapped

 Final Image

Grand Foyer Opera Garnier ParisGrand Foyer Opera Garnier Paris Done

Tip of the Day

When photographing buildings especially with a wide angle lens you will get the problem of converging verticals. The best way to deal with this in Photoshop is to go to Filter- Lens Correction and then choose the custom tab. Use the Transform Area and use the Vertical Perspective slider to correct. Bear in mind you will loose some of the bottom and sides of the picture and you may need to keep some of the convergence depending on what is essential to keep in the picture.

 

Edwin Jones

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