Art in the Olympic Park Spectrum Fence Final

Throughout the Olympic Park there are a variety of Art in the Park installations. Judging from the dearth of pictures of this one online it seems it was usually missed by the crowds.

The location is at the Head House in the north of the Olympic Park near the Velodrome. A narrow Path goes past it leading from Eton Manor Walk near the Velodrome to the Bandstand and The Riverside Arena.

The Head House provides access to two giant 6km tunnels that carry electricity cables underneath the Park. An internationally renowned artist, Carsten Nicolai, was commissioned to create an artwork for the fence around the top. The work is an alternative representation of the Olympic Emblem with the five Olympic Rings transformed into an image of a low-frequency oscillation sound wave. Using the colour spectrum of a sunset, the artwork was then digitally printed directly onto the fence.

To get a more dynamic look I tilted the camera so the fence came up from the bottom left. I was lucky with the sky and enhanced this in processing. The bank up to it was beautifully landscaped with mossy grasses.

The picture was taken handheld 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. Click the Camera name top right on Flickr for this image for Exif details and the settings used.

Photoshop

Detail was brought back in with Topaz adjust with Vibrance preset group, Boost Preset.

Contrast was increased.

Vibrance increased 34 points.

Hue Saturation blues used to reduce blue saturation a little in the sky, 12 points.

Hue Saturation reds and yellows increased a little to enhance the fence colours.

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 59 amount and 59 radius with a layer mask used to exclude highlights..

Clone tool used to tidy up the sky.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Below are the Before and After images. First the original, then the tonemapped image and then the final result.

Original at 0EV

Art in the Olympic Park Spectrum Fence Original

After Photomatix Detail Enhancer Tonemapped Method

Art in the Olympic Park Spectrum Fence Tonemapped

Final Image

Art in the Olympic Park Spectrum Fence Final

Note that as this image was taken on private property with strict restrictions on the professional use of images in the Ticket Conditions this image is not available for sale.

Edwin Jones