Sunday Lunch

29Aug10

Walking into a village in Catalonia around lunch time in summer sometimes seems like re-enacting a Clint Eastwood film: the streets are completely empty …

The attractive Catalonian village of Monells has a thirteenth century square which these days is set out for that attractive southern European habit of having family Sunday lunches.  Not being stupid, the tables are all set out in the shade or under the arcades.  This is a great way to spend a leisurely couple of hours, watching people as they parade past.

The square is very pretty, but the harsh sunlight really made it difficult to cope with both the highlights and the shadows.  After trying pseudo HDR (blending under and over exposed versions of the same frame), I opted for development from Raw using the excellent RPP programme.  Here are views from either end of the square:

What a difference the direction of the sun makes!

Both images were developed from raw in RPP and required considerable care in bringing out the shadows while recovering the highlights.  Brought into Aperture, both images had considerable Definition added, to bring out the detail in the stonework, and contrast raised through a s-curve.

Filed under: Aperture, Buildings, Colour, Landscape, Raw Photo Processor, Travel   |  1 Comment
Tags: Aperture, Architecture, Colour, Culture, Food, GX200, History, Landscape, Raw Photo Processor, Ricoh, Ricoh GX200, Tradition, Travel