Cobbled Streets of Luxembourg City
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In November last year I was fortunate to have a few hours to spare in the City of Luxembourg. My flight had landed at about 8am but to be on the safe side I had not scheduled any meetings until after lunch, giving me a brief window to explore this historic city.
The weather, unfortunately, was not cooperative. Typical of this part of the world in November, there was a solid cloud cover with absolutely no definition in the light. The giant softbox that clouds can give is great for macro work but not necessarily for what I wished to photograph. As I walked through the historic cobbled streets admiring the wonderful architecture, it suddenly came to me – Monochrome! Luxembourg City’s history can be traced back to a fortified tower which guarded two Roman roads that met at the site of the city. I could not make my images look that old but I could, at least, give an impression of the history by making my shots look as timeless as possible.
Cobbled street, Luxembourg
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The three images here were first processed in Lightroom to bring out the contrast as much as possible. I also tried to hide any vestiges of modern life as much as possible. Some additional dodging and burning was applied using the adjustment brush. The images were them imported into Nik Silver Efex Pro where the final monochrome image came to life. Each has a different tonal finished based on the presets which come as standard. I find that the use of the color filters which copy the tonal changes that the original versions created when used with black and white film added the final touches.
Cobbled street, Luxembourg
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Twitter: JimiJones
| September 18, 2012
These are great images, Mark. Very nicely processed, both in LR and Nik. I love that last shot, although all are very good. That downhill vantage point and the narrow street make this very attractive.
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