Loaded into Lightroom my photo looked like this, without any adjustments (and this is a great example of the myth that shooting in RAW doesn't magically endow your photo with image quality without any additional work!):

You might be tempted to discard this frame, but wait...

After a bit of massaging of the Develop controls within Lightroom - hey-presto! The highlight control slider was maxed and I also used the adjustment brush to dodge (darken) the other highlights - in particular the second floor windows. No shadow-lifting was done apart from again using the adjustment brush to burn (lighten) the pillared facade on the left. The extreme levels adjustment caused a shift in the blue sky (too much yellow) so I reduced the yellow saturation carefully without draining the spectacular hue of the gold embellishments too much. I personally feel the sky is still not quite right, but it will do.
And, finally:

The verticals have been corrected. I've left a natural-looking residual lean to avoid an artificially perfect perspective.
Oh - this was taken at the Palace - or as they say in France, 'Chateau' (castle) - of Versailles, near Paris.
Ian
You might be tempted to discard this frame, but wait...
After a bit of massaging of the Develop controls within Lightroom - hey-presto! The highlight control slider was maxed and I also used the adjustment brush to dodge (darken) the other highlights - in particular the second floor windows. No shadow-lifting was done apart from again using the adjustment brush to burn (lighten) the pillared facade on the left. The extreme levels adjustment caused a shift in the blue sky (too much yellow) so I reduced the yellow saturation carefully without draining the spectacular hue of the gold embellishments too much. I personally feel the sky is still not quite right, but it will do.
And, finally:
The verticals have been corrected. I've left a natural-looking residual lean to avoid an artificially perfect perspective.
Oh - this was taken at the Palace - or as they say in France, 'Chateau' (castle) - of Versailles, near Paris.
Ian
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