Three stages in the development of this photo

[Ian]

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

[Garry]

The end result looks very good. Good processing. Really want to go there !

[Caz]

I've been there - twice - both times I've been unable to go in: once I arrived late at night to the local hotel (and it was chucking it down with rain) and an early start was required to get the ferry the following day. The second time I was visiting friends who lived quite close by and I had an hour to explore the exterior whilst my friend went shopping. One day I'll get inside...

Loved the explanation, it's always interesting to hear how other people have edited a shot. I think I shared something similar a long time ago about what I have to do to edit concert photography shots but I've come on a long way since then so might repost if it might be interesting?

[Ian]

I've been there - twice - both times I've been unable to go in: once I arrived late at night to the local hotel (and it was chucking it down with rain) and an early start was required to get the ferry the following day. The second time I was visiting friends who lived quite close by and I had an hour to explore the exterior whilst my friend went shopping. One day I'll get inside...

Loved the explanation, it's always interesting to hear how other people have edited a shot. I think I shared something similar a long time ago about what I have to do to edit concert photography shots but I've come on a long way since then so might repost if it might be interesting?

It's well worth a return, Caz - I believe it's free to visit the gardens but the interior is fascinating - I'll post some more photos separately.

Ian

[Garry]

I think I shared something similar a long time ago about what I have to do to edit concert photography shots but I've come on a long way since then so might repost if it might be interesting?

It would be interesting, Caz. Please do.

[Ian]

I've moved this thread to the 'Before and after - show your editing prowess' board.

Also - more Versailles shots can be found here:

https://www.dpnow.com/forum2/forum/photo-story/eye-of-the-camera/153120-palace-of-versailles

Ian