It Had to be Done...

I was gobsmacked when my Salisbury Cathedral blip of yesterday hit the top Spotlight spot (albeit briefly), as well as the previous day's... and so, yes, it had to be done, I had to do the standard Salisbury snapper thing of photographing the floodlit Cathedral, close up.

The local camera club (when I was a member, a few years ago now) used to have practical sessions around, everyone with a huge array of tripods (and cameras!) and it always was said how bad the lighting was.

Of course, it looks amazing to the eye, taking in the whole magnificent structure, lit-up but the increased contrast of digital photography is not as forgiving. It also comes out slightly greeny-yellow. Some bits burn out and others are in quite deep shadow.

Yet again, it looks like a rainy day on Friday but a reasonable night and really quite warm (no gloves needed!). I had already done quite a long walk this afternoon, travelling light with just two lenses, getting the last of the quite bright daylight.

So, I pulled out the old and big FX D700 and equally big and heavy Sigma EX 24-70mm f2.8 and went round to the cathedral Close. As I said yesterday, the floodlights are turned off at about midnight but also, the closed-community of the Close is locked at 11pm. The gate was still open and I know that once inside, one can let oneself out after, so you are not locked in overnight.

Cloud moved over the half moon and so I really wanted to include this, to make it more spectral, special.

Once in Photoshop, I did lots - reducing the contrast a great deal, which has produced an almost pearl-like luminosity to the stonework. The moon was barely visible, so that was emphasised. There was no detail in the sky, just black, so that had to be selectively lightened, but not by too much. It had to look natural and without added noise or image break-up. Then I corrected the colour.

I didn't even attempt to correct the sweeping perspective - this is as you see it, after all - the moderate wideangle (but not TOO wide) allowing enough angle of view but not too much distortion. The dark area to the left is under scaffolding and so is not lit. Therefore, it makes it look better at night than the day.

So, yes, some efforts to make the most out of it - but let's face it, it really is a glorious Cathedral and so is definitely worth it!

There's tons of natural sharpness from this lovely lens - look in LARGE