The Future

The Palace Theatre

The Palace Theatre is a disused theatre in Union Street, Plymouth, Devon in south west England. It opened in 1898 as a music hall but was damaged by fire only three months after opening, and was re-opened in 1899 as theNew Palace Theatre of Varieties. In 1961 it was converted to a bingo hall, but later reverted to being a theatre as the Palace Theatre until 1983, when it became The Academy disco and finally operated as the Dance Academy, before being closed after Class A drugs were found on the premises.

On the 23rd December 1898, a passing police officer spotted that there was a fire in the building. Although the fire brigade were called immediately, the rear of the building was well alight. By the time that the fire had been brought under control, the stage area, dressing rooms and the entire rear section of the building had been destroyed. As the safety curtain had not been lowered, the fire had spread into the auditorium and as a result most of the decorative features were also destroyed including the domed ceiling and the panels illustrating naval scenes.

Our photography group, were allowed to roam the majority of the theatre and create some amazing HDR images. HDR is something I have not ever done before and I am all for trying new techniques!

HDR Photography

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It is a post-processing task of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed.

An HDR image is commonly made by taking three photos of the same scene, each at different shutter speeds. The result is a bright, medium, and dark photo, based on the amount of light that got through the lens. A software process, such as Photoshop then combines all the photos to bring details to the shadows and highlights both. This helps to achieve the same task in the final photograph that the human eye can accomplish on the scene. For me, the HDR process makes my images look more evocative.

When in the Palace Theatre I took a photograph of the same thing, using three different exposures. One image which was correctly exposed, another underexposed and other overexposed. I used a tripod to make sure when my images are merged they fit perfectly together.

Creating a Manual HDR using Smart Object Layers

1. Open Raw File in Photoshop Raw plug-in

2. Open image whilst holding shift key down (opens as a smart object)

3. Create another smart object layer of same image (e.g By Selecting Layer>Smart Object>New Smart Object Via Layer)

4. Select an area you want to change on the top layer, using quick selection tool.

5. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection

6. Double click on the layer below to allow adjustments in Raw.

7.Adjust in Raw, change the exposure, contrast, clarity, in order to create a darker, more contrasty sky.

8. You will then see the changes affecting the bottom layer, through the top layer.

9. Save when happy with the outcome.

My Final Outcomes