Chateau Azay le Rideau

[Chataignier]

One of the finest of the chateaux of the Loire (it is counted as a Loire chateau, but it's actually on the banks of the river Indre).

VERY hard light at 3pm and 35°C so I took one exposure for the sky and another for the rest and this is an HDR blend of the two.

[Geoff F]

This is another of those cases which look much better in the alternative higher resolution Lightbox view where there is a lot more available detail than with the basic image.

[billtils]

What is "Lightbox"?

[Geoff F]

Click on any image and you will see a larger higher resolution alternative which often shows better definition and colour than the basic version which automatically appears with the thread.

For some unknown reason in the distant past this option became known as the Lightbox view although I don't think there was any serious reason for using this term.

[pschlute]

I love the image David, as I do a lot of your submissions, but in my view this needs a little more work.

The horizontal perspective is fine, but the image still looks like it is falling away from me.

Some vertical perspective adjustment would sort that.

[DanK]

An interesting image, but to my taste, the very bright sky distracts and makes the image harsh. I downloaded it into photoshop, and while I didn't find too much clipping, a lot of the sky has luminosity values of 98 or 99.

[billtils]

Thanks Geoff. Turns out I've been using it for ages

[Chataignier]

@peter : Yes, I agree that the vertical perspective is still a bit off, however, this is already quite heavily corrected and I chose to stop there because further correction meant losing still more of the foreground and I really liked the leading lines of the wall and plants. As so often the case it's a compromise and where to stop is a matter of taste. Thanks for the comment.

PS : If I ever go back I'll take a step ladder to get a higher pov !

PPS : I looked again at your adjusted version and there is almost no loss of foreground - that made me question my methods. I've been using the vertical perspective tool in LR. A quick test in PS has revealed that "transform-perspective" works differently and is much more satisfactory in this image, especially when combined with a quick vertical stretch after perspective correction to restore the sense of height of the towers. I've learned something new today. Thanks.

[pschlute]

Glad to be of help.