This was taken in Florence just before Christmas in 2013. We were standing outside a restaurant waiting for it to open. When it was slightly late in opening, the people at the front started knocking on the door and peering through the glass to see what was happening inside. I thought it was a shot too good to miss (see the original image below).
Post capture manipulation consisted of cropping to a square format and using Photoshop Transform to straighten everything up. Topaz Simplify was then applied to give it a slightly poster-like feeling. This was followed by a clone layer to remove minor distractions and Viveza to adjust the lighting. A texture of some cracked soil was addend and a layer mask used to remove the effect from the two people. Further layers consisted of Nik Darken / Lighten Centre, Hue /Saturation, Levels and Curves and Viveza to get the lighting and feel exactly how I wanted it. Finally, it was sharpened using the High-pass filter.
Nikon D800, 50mm Nikkor prime lens, ISO 2500, f/1.8, 1/200 sec
This image has had 13 international acceptances including the London Salon of Photography 2015 (England), 50th Sydney International Exhibition of Photography 2015 (Australia), 43rd Photographic Society of New York International Salon of Color Photography 2015 (USA) and 122nd Toronto International Salon of Photography 2015 (Canada).
