An Ancient Japanese Temple – Tower of Yasaka

Dropping My Camera

In a narrow, dark Kyoto street I sat on the floor, composing an image. A noise behind me forced me to look over my should, to make sure there weren’t any cars coming towards me. As I did so, I heard a loud ‘Crack’. I turned to find my camera face down.

As I picked it up panic set in. The inbuilt lens hood on the Nikkor 14-24mm had broken and cracked. Pieces of it were scattered on the floor. There’s a slight tight spot on the focus ring at about 17mm, but other than that all seems well. I’ll send it in for a repair, just in case.

I shot this image moments after the incident without any difficulty. It’s not a nice feeling when you see your favourite piece of machinery fall to the floor…or get swept out to sea…or be stolen from you; all of which I’ve had the displeasure of experiencing – such is the life of a photographer!

An Ancient Japanese Temple – Tower of Yasaka

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 particularly fun image to process. In terms of shooting, I used an extremely small aperture in order to extend the shutter speed. Tourists were walking up and down the street and a 13 second exposure time was enough to ghost them out. The added benefit is the strong starburst on the street lamp, which I didn’t get at f/11 in a previous shot.

I used two darker exposures to recover information in the street lamps. Choosing Brights 5 luminosity masks, I blended each exposure in at 50%. I used one exposure 1 stop brighter to recover the shadows a touch. I purposefully kept this image extremely dark, to enhance mood, and with soft contrast to give a more magical feel. I even applied the Orton effect to the buildings on the right and left, to soften the image even more.

I chose a low-down shot because I love near foreground textures, and the road seemed ideal for that. However, the road was too bright, and lacked contrast, so I darkened it with a Curves layer.

I painted in a soft yellow glow around the nearest light using the technique I used in my last image to soften the light. You can see it here: Nature’s Skyscrapers – Kyoto Bamboo Forest

Thanks to Elia Locardi for the inspiration to go here. You can check out his image here: The Soul of Kyoto.