Obscura - a photo on Flickriver

Obscura

This shot of London's skyline was captured from the top of Primrose Hill on a mid-January morning.

Shooting at this time of year in the hope that I'd capture the winter sun rising next to St Paul's Cathedral, I'd ventured out to the north side of Regent's Park on a freezing morning after several weather apps predicted a partly clear sunrise. As sunrise drew near, though, there was barely a trace of light in the overcast sky, let alone a glimpse of the sun. It was only moments before I was about to pack up my camera that the sun emerged from behind the dense clouds, lighting the horizon with a warm glow for a few minutes before vanishing behind the clouds once again.

For me, the drama in the image came from the skyline's silhouette against the glow in the sky, so despite having brighter exposures to bring out the detail in the buildings and the bare trees leading up towards the hill summit, which I felt added some subtle visual interest to the foreground, I concentrated on the darker exposures during editing to convey how unusually moody this sunrise was. I then blended in a very moderate amount of the highlights and midtones from brighter exposures to restore the vibrance in the sun and the sparse warmth in the clouds above it, emphasising this with a couple of Curves and Levels adjustments, and finally adding a low-opacity Gradient Map to balance the rich tones of the sky with the chill of the dimly lit cityscape, hopefully capturing what the scene was like as the sun did its best to warm the early-morning chill across the city.

You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.

Taken on: January 21, 2016

Tags:

London

City

Architecture

Britain

England

Sunrise

Sun

Sky

Clouds

Overcast

Warm

Glow

Orange

PrimroseHill

Regent'sPark

View

Cityscape

Skyline

Buildings

Morning

Dawn

Chilly

Cold « less

Groups appears in: • in explore

Camera: Nikon D800, f/13.0, 8 sec, 70mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D800
Lens:	24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	8
Focal Length:	70mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	+3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.2 (Windows)
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