Empire State - Redux

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of the Empire State Building from our recent visit to New York City. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the processing on the image and decided to take another stab at it, using a slightly different approach.

Empire State Building, New York In the first version, as I added contrast to the building (using Google’s Nik Color Efex Pro, before converting to B&W in Silver Efex Pro), it seems to have induced a halo around the building. Initially I didn’t notice it, and thought it was from the lighter clouds near the top of the building, extending down behind it.

When I went back to the original raw file, however, the halo wasn’t there. This time I added the contrast in Photoshop CC, and carefully worked the contrast to avoid the halo.

I like this version much better. I hope you do, too!