Tag: architecture

Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad

The Chowmahalla Palace or literally “4 palace” was the residence of the Nizams of Hyderabad. This palace complex served a ceremonial role including coronations and state banquets. The palace is said to be modeled after the palace of the Shah of Iran. This particular palace was built in 1750.

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Khilawat Mubarak or Grand Hall
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The grand hall, adorned with crystal chandeliers
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The long red carpet corridors above the grand hall
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A Belgian crystal glass chandelier in the grand hall (Khilawat Mubarak)
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A chandelier against a beautifully decorated door
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Details of the ceiling in the grand hall of Chowmahalla Palace

As a first time visitor to Chowmahalla, I was impressed by the grandeur of this palace, immaculately maintained grounds and buildings, and tremendous opportunities for photography. Needless to say I shall be visiting there again on my next trip to Hyderabad.

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A front view of the Khilawat Mubarak
Technical Details

All pictures from a Nikon D80 camera fitted with a Tamron 18-250mm f3.5/5.6 zoom lens. Photographs processed in Adobe Lightroom and NIK software suite. Larger versions of the photographs are available from my flickr page.

Check out my other posts on Chowmahalla Palace

The Royal Verandah

The term verandah has made its way to English via India and refers to an open roofed courtyard around a bungalow or terrace. According to Wikipedia, a verandah  “commonly refers to balconies on cruise ships and some hotel properties. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure.”. The following verandah is from the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad, India. Photographed as a single bracketed frame, this image was converted to black-and-white in Silver Efex Pro to add texture and tonal contrast.

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Pillared and beautifully decorated verandah at the Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad, India

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Doors to perception

Doors to Perception

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite – William Blake

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Infinite doors at Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad, India

Photographed at the Chowmahalla Palace, the seat of the Nizams of Hyderabad, India (January 2012).

 

Barcelona – By Night

Cities often look very different in the night. The effects of artificial lighting and spot lights often bring out features not usually appreciated during daytime. The following two pictures are of the Plaza de la Constitucion (Constitution Square) and Palau de la Generalitat.

Palau de la Generalitat is the seat of the government of Catalunya, and is one of very few medieval buildings of its kind still serving the purpose for which it was built.

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Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya
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Plaza de la Constitucion

Both pictures were taken using a high ISO as a long exposure was not practical given the number of people in the scene. The images were later processed using NIK software plugins Dfine and Viveza to cut ISO noise and enhance colour.

 

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Barcelona – Black and White

I have been away on vacation in the US for two weeks during which period I have over 600 pictures to process and sift through. It will be some time before those pictures make it to this blog. Therefore, here are some pictures from my trip to Barcelona 3 weeks ago.

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Detail on a wall opposite Barcelona cathedral
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A window in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona.

 Photographs using an iPhone 4S, post-processed in Lightroom and NIK Color Efex Pro.

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Barcelona Cathedral – Part 2

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A view of one of the sides of the Barcelona Cathedral
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Gothic quarter, Barcelona – Part 4

I have processed the following picture in both colour and black-and-white. I believe both iterations of the same picture are equally good and offer a different view of the same scene. The picture is of the building that houses the remains of the Roman columns of the Temple of Augustus. The building that surrounds the columns is a regular block of flats, which in itself is very surprising!

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Block of flats with balconies. Temple of Augustus, Barcelona
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Black-and-white treatment of the picture above. Processed with Silver Efex Pro.

These pictures are from my iPhone, processed in NIK Software (Color Efex Pro, and Silver Efex Pro).

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Under the highway – Part 2

I experimented with pictures I took of the M25/A30 Runnymead bridge over the Thames using black-and-white conversion. The first two pictures are roughly from the same viewpoint and one of these is an exact copy of the earlier post.

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A BW conversion from my earlier post of the Runnymead Bridge
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The spans of the bridge distribute load and prevent vibrations from damaging the older Edwin Lutyens built A30 bypass bridge
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The size of the arches are clearly evident in this image (my wife and son at the very top over the river)

Few places in the UK now seem free of people littering the place with graffiti and other detritus of modern living. The base of the bridge was littered with broken beer bottles and other unsavoury items, that destroyed an otherwise interesting scene of nature and modernity co-existing at this place. The Thames itself was tranquil and sedately flowed towards London en route to the sea towards the right of the pictures.

I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to process these images that came from my iPhone. I used the Black-and-White Strong Tonal Contrast Preset by Matt Kloskowski as a starting point before applying blue and green filter corrections to the images.

I hope you like the effects and I would love to hear your comments and suggestions..

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Gothic Quarter, Barcelona – Part 2

The gothic quarter of Barcelona (or Barri Gotic in Catalan) is the oldest part of Barcelona. It is a labyrinth of small alleys and winding streets offering excellent opportunities for photography. The gothic quarter dates back to the roman times and beyond and retains a charming character. I didn’t have anything else but my iPhone for this trip and these pictures are a result of post-processing in a custom workflow in NIK software.

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Rarity in the gothic quarter… A straight alleyway!

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Old and new! Video surveillance on a medieval street in the gothic quarter
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A path leading into the gothic quarter from the City Hall.

Please click on any of the above pictures to see a larger version on my flickr photostream.

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