Charles Bartolotta
August 2026 - Basilica of Fourviere
Original
About the Image(s)
My wife and I recently returned from our first river cruise in southeast France along the Rhone River. When we were in Lyon, France, where we initially embarked the ship, we visited the Basilica of Fourviere located atop the town of Lyon. I took a series of hand-held bracketed images of the amazing interior. My editing of this image consisted of optimizing the color and saturation in Photoshop, de-noise in Topaz, and Aurora HDR at the default settings. I converted to mono in NIK Silver Efex adding a bit of contrast, structure and Selenium toning. Final sharpening in Topaz. I placed a slight vignette on the image using Photoshop’s lens correction filter.
Camrea: Nikon Z8 with 24-120 lens at ISO 2500, f/5.6, 1/60 second.
8 comments posted
Hi Charles: An amazing picture in all ways! Your perfectly done centered composition worked just excellent for this scene, the well worn rule of thirds would not have worked here.
Your monochrome conversion is perfectly done and creates high impact in this scene, the original color version with its blending of colors is also a very pleasant scene to view.
It is amazing to me you could capture the intricate details in this interior shooting hand held at just 1/60 second, did you have your vibration reduction turned on? I do not have Topaz sharpening, however it seems to work very well here.
Excellent camera craftsmanship and post processing skills demonstrated in this image.
Posted: 08/09/2026 14:12:25
Your monochrome conversion is perfectly done and creates high impact in this scene, the original color version with its blending of colors is also a very pleasant scene to view.
It is amazing to me you could capture the intricate details in this interior shooting hand held at just 1/60 second, did you have your vibration reduction turned on? I do not have Topaz sharpening, however it seems to work very well here.
Excellent camera craftsmanship and post processing skills demonstrated in this image.
Posted: 08/09/2026 14:12:25
Hi Murphy: Thanks for the compliments.Yes, vibration reduction was on. What I failed to mention is that I also used continuous shooting at 15 frames per second. That really helps when not using a tripod. Posted: 08/09/2026 15:51:38
Hey Charles. Yes Murphy took the words out of my mouth-1/60th shutter speed? Well done sir for a very tricky shooting situation. The processing and detail is mind blowing! Congrats! Posted: 08/09/2026 20:28:12
Thanks, Ed. Much appreciated. Posted: 08/09/2026 22:04:18
Beautiful interior with amazing detail. Its interesting for me to compare the color image with the monochrome. In the color image, the center vertical section is brighter than the left and right. The first painting on the ceiling within the circle (the one where you can see the entire circle) is also more prominent than the others providing a subject/focal point. Some of that is lost in the mono conversion. Posted: 08/17/2026 19:45:33
Thanks for the comments,Sheldon. I'm not sure how that difference occured. Posted: 08/17/2026 22:49:05
Wow, to take this picture with these parameters, respect! Normally the inside of churches is very dark, so you need more time to pick up every detail. This one is very exact even in the dark parts. Wonderful work, Charles! Posted: 08/17/2026 20:42:50
Thanks, Peter. I had to blend a couple of exposures to bring the window detail in. Posted: 08/17/2026 22:50:14