Mercado Central – Valencia, Spain (HDR Vertorama)

Mercado Central - Valencia, Spain (HDR Vertorama)

Help

Buy prints

License photo

Before and after

Making-of

Pics to play with

You can create images like this too!

I will release a new eBook in May 2013: A Practical Guide to HDR Vertorama Photography. The book explains the technology, different shooting techniques and the entire post-processing workflow for creating stunning HDR Vertoramas. Visit the eBook page to get more details, examples and a glimpse of the contents. Subscribe to stay posted about this eBook. You will get exclusive early access and a 20% discount.

Featured in the April 2012 issue of Travel + Leisure

The Mercado Central (central market) of Valencia, Spain is one of the oldest running food markets in Europe. The most obvious feature of this art nouveau building (at least in my opinion) is the ceiling with its dome that floods the market with sun light. It was inaugurated in 1928.

Even though I had bracketed the shots, I decided to make this vertorama from pseudo HDRs. The reason was mainly the movement of the people that created problems for both the HDR creation and the vertorama sitching. On the other hand, I did not want to leave the lower part away as it adds to the overall impression.

Enjoy!

Take a look at my “HDR Cookbook”! It contains some more information on my techniques.

PS: I had to replace this shot because of a typo. Only 4 words and I manage to get one of them wrong! Duhhh!

How it was shot:
> Taken handheld (Read more about the technique!)
> 4 single RAW files
> Camera: Nikon D90
> Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3,5-5,6G ED VR
> Details can be found here

How it was stitched and tonemapped:
> Created 4 HDRs (32 bit) using Photomatix version 3.1
> Stitched the 4 HDRs using Photoshop saved in OpenEXR format
> Tonemapped resulting panorama HDR using Photomatix version 3.1 (Detail Enhancer)
> Saved as 16bit TIF
> Take a look here for a more detailed description.

How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise [details]
> Saturation layer on the wooden ceiling (master, reds)
> Photo filter and saturation layers on the different parts of the dome to enhance the colors individually
> Saturation layer on the white parts of the ceiling (slight desaturation)
> Levels layer on the windows (increasing brightness)
> Saturation layer on the reflections on the floor (master)
> Saturation layer on the people (decreased saturation to make skin tones more natural)
> Saturation layer on the stores (slight desaturation)
> Vignette effect using a masked fill layer [details]
> Sharpening using Smart Sharpen filter [details]

Any comments, feedback or criticisms are highly welcome! Thanks for viewing!

Posts you may also like:

Basilica of the Virgin – Valencia, Spain (HDR Vertorama) City of Arts and Sciences – Valencia, Spain (HDR Panorama) Consulate of the Sea – Valencia, Spain (HDR) Michelangelo’s Dome – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican (HDR Vertorama)