Posted on Apr.25, 2012, under New York

(Nikon D800, 28-300mm at 70mm, Exposure 1/15 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800)

Whenever I visit New York City I like to spend some time around Rockefeller Center. I love the Art Deco styling of the buildings and the sculptures. An impressive example of this is the statue of Atlas, which stands directly across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The statue shows Atlas holding up the world and was created by sculptor Lee Lawrie with help from Rene Paul Chambellan. The statue was installed in 1937. I’ve always admired this statue for it’s strong Art Deco style. When I was in New York this time, I wanted to make sure I got a close up of the statue. In close you can really appreciate the detail work that makes the statue so stunning.

Processing occurred mostly in Lightroom 4 with a conversion to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2. In the original image there were several hot spots on the statue caused by the lighting. With Lightroom 4 (and perhaps because of the D800), I was able to use the highlight slider to remove almost all of the hotspots. If you look at the part of the statue over Atlas’ right shoulder (left side of image) in the original, you will see that there is a big blown out highlight. In the finished image you can actually see detail in that area, all due to the ability to recapture detail from what appeared to be blown out highlights.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below.

Copyright ©2012 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

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