This was taken my last London trip a week ago. This included my second visit to Switch House the new extension of the Tate Modern, a modern art museum. The extension was opened in mid June. The extension is 10 floors high and has a viewing area all round the top floor. It is the only London viewing platform with all round open views without glass so ideal for night photography and free too. Unfortunately as with all such locations Tripods are not allowed. I needed ISO of 2000 and still only got a steady image thanks to being able to steady the camera on the flat topped railing

The original Tate Modern Building with the original Power Station Chimney is on the left. The Thames and London Bridge is also on the left. In the middle distance is the City of London and the Shard. In the far distance the Towers of Canary Wharf can be seen

The picture was taken on a handheld with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens at 11mm. 3 raw images 2EV spacing processed with Photomatix Fusion Real Estate setting for a natural look. At a high ISO Noise is a major issue with HDR because it is multiplied by combining the 3 images. I got round this by processing each image first in Nik Define. This has the advantage of being free and also a very effective auto setting so it is quick. After completing the HDR Nik Define was run again on the combined image to get rid of remaining noise. The lights in the roof of the Tate Modern were very bright and this was brought down by bringing in the minus 2 EV image with a layer mask to apply it only to the lights. I used the straighten tool in Photoshop and then Filter- Lens Correction – Custom and vertical Perspective to correct building verticals. Topaz Clarity was used for more detail and punch.