Peter Curcio
December 2025 - Temple at Dusk
About the Image(s)
I returned to the Hindu Temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, to capture infrared images. A small group of us arrived late in the afternoon. Although our primary objective was infrared photography, we were fortunate enough to witness a breathtaking sunset, which ultimately became the highlight of our trip. This image was taken at 4:50 p.m. on November 5 using a Nikon Z7II camera. The 24-70mm lens was set to f/4, ISO of 560 at 1/50s. Occasionally, you encounter such fortunate moments that require minimal post-processing. In this case, the image involved very little editing, which was done in DXO Photolab.
4 comments posted
A beautiful image Peter. Wow, a world traveller I thought before reading your description. I like your composition and colors and the sunset is clearly a big bonus. I have to admit to knowing nothing about the DXO products so I did a 2 minute extremely short review. I see vs 9+ promotes being the best end to end Raw processor. I'm making assumption that with that nice camera that you made the shot using Raw? Please don't be offended, I'm only trying to help. If you were using Lightroom, I'd suggest having LrC select the sky and invert to select the architecture. What I'm seeing Peter is a lighter area of the sky around the outside of the Temple. LrC can select these automatically making a layer that can be edited naturally without the lighter colors that go around the temple where it merges with the sky in your image. Virtually everyone previously had this issue because of the difficulty of selecting something like the Temple as it would naturally be in shadow and you or your software by lightening the Temple and having some of that merge into the sky. I would be surprised if DxO didn't have that ability or try Trial of Lightroom. Please get back to me because you have a great photo here that could benefit from a 5-10 minute edit. Posted: 12/06/2025 20:45:20
HI Peter
This is truly a beautiful building and makes me want to return to my home state of NJ!
The colors in the sky compliment the colors in the building really nicely. So here's what I noticed when I zoomed in to the image -- it's got noise and isn't sharp. You don't say at what length your lens was set when you took the picture, so if your shutter speed was too slow, you would have movement. I would try taking the image into Denoise and Sharpen and see if that improves it. Also I would crop a bit off the top. Can you clone out the dark spot in the sky at left in the sky? I know, picky, picky. Posted: 12/11/2025 03:28:39
This is truly a beautiful building and makes me want to return to my home state of NJ!
The colors in the sky compliment the colors in the building really nicely. So here's what I noticed when I zoomed in to the image -- it's got noise and isn't sharp. You don't say at what length your lens was set when you took the picture, so if your shutter speed was too slow, you would have movement. I would try taking the image into Denoise and Sharpen and see if that improves it. Also I would crop a bit off the top. Can you clone out the dark spot in the sky at left in the sky? I know, picky, picky. Posted: 12/11/2025 03:28:39
Thanks for your comments Donna. Removing the dark spot in the sky does make a difference, however further sharpen and denoise skews the sky. I plan to use the image in print competitions so zooming in will not be an option. Posted: 12/12/2025 20:08:32
What a glorious temple Peter. And to have it capped off with a divine sunset while you were there is a real bonus.
It is soft as others have mentioned but as you have presented it as a building in the glow of sunset light, then the entire image presents as very glow-y.
I too, find the dark spot in the sky distracting so removal of that would be worthwhile considering.
All the best with your print competitions. Posted: 12/14/2025 18:25:33
It is soft as others have mentioned but as you have presented it as a building in the glow of sunset light, then the entire image presents as very glow-y.
I too, find the dark spot in the sky distracting so removal of that would be worthwhile considering.
All the best with your print competitions. Posted: 12/14/2025 18:25:33