The Library of 20,000 Books

The Library of 20,000 books – Shiba Ryōtarō Library, Osaka, Japan

The first drops of rain from typhoon Vongfong have begun to fall in Osaka. Every room in our hotel had a warning sign stuck to it; ‘Please don’t open windows during typhoon, and go outside only if you need to,’ it said. With 100kmh winds battering Okinawa yesterday, it’s easy to understand why they’re being cautious.

The weather warnings have become less severe over the past few hours, with Vongfong seemingly losing strength. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting way to spend my birthday. I’m currently sheltered by the welcoming arms of Starbucks, catching up on work.

Yesterday Rachel and I accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a heated protest/march. Since most of the signs were in Japanese, we didn’t know what it was about. We were smiling at one camp, which we soon learned were promoting fascist ideals. We quickly retreated to the liberal camp and smiled at them instead.

On Saturday, armed with a GPS map on my iPad, we navigated the narrow streets of an Osakan suburb looking for the home of famous Japanese historical writer, Shiba Ryōtarō.

Being a scholar of the highest order, he is revered in Japan, with his home still preserved exactly as it was since his death. I’d seen images of a library built after his passing which housed 20,000 of his 80,000 books. The library not only looked beautiful, but unique in that it contained a large window which allowed a strong amount of light to enter into the room.

Photography is prohibited in the library, but I managed to gain permission to shoot briefly with the help of a press-pass. A kindly woman educated us on the library, and its 11-metre shelves.

With the intense politeness that we are coming to expect in Japan, she told us to take our time and enjoy the building, before leaving us to our own devices.

I would certainly recommend a visit to the museum, and if you have time, to wander around the beautiful neighbourhood in which its found.

In the meantime, we are going to wait the storm out with some delicious food and local drink.

Today’s Photo – Shiba Ryōtarō Library

To learn my post-processing techniques, feel free to check out my courses: The Art of Digital Blending & The Art of Cityscape Photography

This was a handheld shot taken in low light conditions. That is why I chose a wider aperture than normal and an ISO of 500. I bracketed 7 shots but in post I decided to only use 2.

I straightened the image and removed distortion in ACR. While this removed most of the barrel distortion, I chose not to completely correct it. I decided the slight distortion added to the grandiose feeling of the room.

Initially I restored most of the exterior in the windows. But I felt that this flattened the area too much. I loved this light source and wanted to exaggerate it rather than dampen it. Instead, I used luminosity masks to isolate the window and blend in an exposure 2 stops darker. This partially restored the foliage outside while still introducing powerful light, which illuminates the shelves and books.

Using Nik’s Analog Efex Pro, I chose the Classic Camera 7 preset and made some minor adjustments. This deepened the brown colour of the library, giving it a richer, older feel.

After some minor contrast adjustments I then desaturated the blues and reds in the image, which I felt were distracting. I then burned the gentleman’s shadow, to make it more pronounced. I also brightened the area where he is standing, to give the scene an extra subject to attend to.

Finally, I created a vignette with the Elliptical Marquee tool. It was vital that this was a strong vignette that smoothly stretched across the shelves. Without this vignette, the image is wide open, not guiding the viewer’s eye sufficiently to the window and then the man below it.