‘The Cube’ – 5th Avenue Apple Store

Posted on Jun.01, 2012, under Architecture

(Nikon D800, 16-35mm at 24mm, Exposure 1/15th sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400)

The image above shows the Apple Store located on 5th Avenue in New York City. The store is somewhat iconic in that the actual store is underground and only this glass cube projects above the surface to entice shoppers to enter. I was in the area just after sunset and decided to get my own shot of this piece of architecture. When I was reviewing this shot later, it didn’t really thrill me, just sort of looked like a snapshot and so I passed it by. However, as I often do, I made another pass over some of my images and decided the image was worth experimenting with.

One of the things I’ve discovered using Lightroom 4 is the ability of the clarity slider to impart a tonemapped look to certain images without adding halos. It can certain be overdone, but for certain subjects I think it creates a really interesting look. I made some basic adjustments in Lightroom to control highlights/shadows but then I cranked the clarity to see what it would do. I really liked the effect it had on the stone and glass so I felt this was worth additional work. One thing the clarity slider did was to add some extra shadows around the gentlemen seen in the left edge of the frame. I didn’t like that look so I created a virtual copy of the image which didn’t add the clarity. I merged the two images in Photoshop and brought in the part of the image with the men which let me avoid the extra shadow/halo effect created by clarity. From there I took the image in to Color Efex Pro 4 and did some additional work, again focusing on getting more details. I used the Detail Extractor file in addition to a couple other filters to enhance the image further. Back in Photoshop I did some perspective correction to straighten the vertical lines. Back in Lightroom I finished up with a couple more steps. First, I use the Luminance noise reduction slider on 100 to give the image a somewhat plastic look. I finished things up by adding a bit of a vignette to focus more attention on the cube.

Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.

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9 Comments

Jim Denham says:

June 1, 2012 at 8:17 am

Really nice processing James! I like.
Jim Denham recently posted…X Marks The Spot

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John Barclay says:

June 1, 2012 at 10:13 am

James, love the image. One minor suggestion…. Not sure the grungy sidewalk works with the rest of the image. I’d like to see a version that has a smoother foreground…. just a thought. Still love what you’ve done so don’t get me wrong.

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Len Saltiel says:

June 1, 2012 at 12:39 pm

Excellent transformation James. Love the details and the mood of the image. They really made strides in LR4.
Len Saltiel recently posted…The Miraculous Staircase

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Edith levy says:

June 1, 2012 at 2:49 pm

Wow that’s great. Love the way you’ve processed the first image.
Edith levy recently posted…iPhone Friday – A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

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Mark Summerfield says:

June 4, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Amazing work, James! It’s amazing the mount of hidden detail there is in a single image. I would have assumed this was a standard three shot bracket if you had not told me.
Mark Summerfield recently posted…Nanjemoy Baptist Church, Charles County, Maryland

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- James Howe says:
  
  June 4, 2012 at 1:34 pm
  
  I have to believe that at least part of the reason things turned out so well was the amount of information contained in the large raw file generated by the D800. It would have been interesting to shoot the same subject with my D700 (which I didn’t have with me) to see if I could get the same result.
  
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Jimi Jones says:

June 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm

Great image and processing, James. Really like the finished product. The before and after looks are amazing. I haven’t played with that clarity slider very much but find the results here quite impressive.

I missed this “cube” during my last trip to NYC but will check it out next time around. Pretty cool marketing piece for Apple.
Jimi Jones recently posted…River Crossing

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A.Barlow says:

June 14, 2012 at 12:33 pm

I think that anything over 15 MP in a RAW file will give you pretty similar results. It works really good on my 18MP T2i.

Sweet shot here man. Looks good.
A.Barlow recently posted…In The Valley Of Shadows

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Andrew Graeme Gould says:

June 18, 2012 at 12:04 am

The treatmentof the image is very effective, and doesn’tlook at all overdone to me. On the contrary, you’ve brought out the lines and detail of the architecture very effectively with this approach. Perspective correction has played an important part in achieving this, too.
Andrew Graeme Gould recently posted…New York, USA: Museum of Modern Art

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