How was this picture exposed?

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johnnyrod

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http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2...eaks-europe-marseille-dubrovnik-bologna#img-6

In case the link doesn't quite work, it's the one under the "Girona" heading.

Is this HDR? Has it been heavily post-processed to get this? The electric lights seem quite confined to the patches they light up, there is some highlighting from the left on the people at the cafe, but the main grey of the stonework and pavements seems to suggest that time just before dusk, however it's all well-exposed and very even. There are no heavy shadows.

What do you think?
 
It's not HDR, it's just a properly exposed shot made at dusk. I've made hundreds of them.

Here's a sample I did for a client about a year and a half ago just after sunset. The second was several years ago just prior to sunrise.
 

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It does seem like the contrast has been reduced. There is direct sunlight coming from the lower right and playing on the side of the stairs. The steps catch a little of it in patches, and the same thing happens on the stairs to the left. And the people seated at the tables seem to be catching a little bit of it as well. The underside of the arch seems to be lighted in a warm golden color, and I am guessing that is catching sunlight also. So you would think that the areas that are not so directly lighted would be darker than they are--that it should look more dramatic than it does.

I would guess it could be a combination of in-camera HDR plus a little fiddling in post. This could be done in Aperture, for example, by using the highlight recovery slider, the black point slider, and then probably the highlight and shadows sliders.
 
I'd say that the warm yellow colour is simply coming from the light bulbs, the daylight is bluey-grey and that's lighting up the walls higher up, sun has probably gone down or at least not shining directly on any of this. There are bulbs just outside the field of view too, casting their light in places.

I would have guessed maybe a long exposure shot - which will exaggerate the lighting of course; in which case reality was a fairly dim scene, little daylight and mainly lit by lightbulbs.
 
Yeah, I'm reading a bit of pulled shadows and recovered highlights, but mostly it seems like a good capture at the right time of day, with enough natural light left to capture details outside the illuminated places. It's a good picture.
 
I'm getting all eye twitchy that the photographer didn't take a step forward to avoid having half a light on the left and half a person on the right though.
 
X-ray - what settings have you used for yours? They do look good but not the same kind of balance as the one I posted.

Thanks for the replies - I couldn't put my finger on it, but it didn't look natural (enough). I don't do any post-processing.
 
I've just taken it into Lightroom to have a play with it, my thoughts on it are in no way forensic, I'm just thinking what I'd do, and seeing the changes when I play with it.

I think it was shot to the left to preserve the highlights, and then lightened in post, because pulling the exposure slider down maintains the highlight detail all the way to -4, but they're blowing out by 1.25 stops.

I also think they've also lowered the contrast, which has the effect of lightening the stonework, if you increase it slightly the picture takes on a gloomier feel, closer to what you'd expect in twilight shots.

I think it's also had a visit from the Fill Light slider too, rather than flash.

I may be mistaken, but that's what I'm thinking after a quick play with it.
 
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