Smile Underground Exit FinalThis is the exit/entrance from Kings Cross Underground Station leading from the Victoria Line to Pentonville Road. The wording can be read going both ways though perhaps smiles might be more in evidence on reaching the exit especially at rush hour. The man dressed in black wearing a hoodie came along at just the right time. Thanks go to contact <b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/turnipfarmer/with/16146138449/
">Aaron Yeoman</a></b> for this location who got it from Dan Borg who got it from ……In the original colour image the lettering is in red yellow and blue with a dingy yellowish background. I decided it looked better in a high key mono though care was needed in the mono conversion to bring up the yellows in the lettering to avoid them fading out. See my Blog for the original.

The picture was taken handheld with a Sony A700 with a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens. 3 raw images 2EV spacing for HDR. Outputted in Photomatix using fusion Real Estate for a natural look.

More detail was brought in using Topaz Adjust Clarity and noise reduced using Topaz DeNoise.

I used a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and pushed up the brightness. The mono adjustment was done in Photoshop with a mono adjustment layer giving the chance to play with the sliders to get the look I wanted.

The picture was given more punch using a clarity effect using unsharp mask with settings of 49 amount and 49 radius with a layer mask to remove the effect from the lights.

This is the exit/entrance from Kings Cross Underground Station leading from the Victoria Line to Pentonville Road. The wording can be read going both ways though perhaps smiles might be more in evidence on reaching the exit especially at rush hour. The man dressed in black wearing a hoodie came along at just the right time. Thanks go to contact  Aaron Yeoman for this location who got it from Dan Borg who got it from ……In the original colour image the lettering is in red yellow and blue with a dingy yellowish background. I decided it looked better in a high key mono though care was needed in the mono conversion to bring up the yellows in the lettering to avoid them fading out. See below the original image.

Smile Underground Exit OriginalSmile Underground Exit

The picture was taken handheld  with a Sony A700 with a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens. 3 raw images 2EV spacing for HDR. Outputted in Photomatix using fusion Real Estate for a natural look.

More detail was brought in using Topaz Adjust Clarity and noise reduced using Topaz DeNoise.

 I used a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and pushed up the brightness. The mono adjustment was done in Photoshop with a mono adjustment layer giving the chance to play with the sliders to get the look I wanted.

The picture was given more punch using a clarity effect using unsharp mask with settings of 49 amount and 49 radius with a layer mask to remove the effect from the lights.

Edwin Jones