Where Did You Get That Hat?

Where Did You Get That Hat? As I waited in the queue with my timed ticket for the fabulous interior of Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam – a day out on my 2012 visit to Berlin – a group of Japanese tourists was assembling in the courtyard. One of the ladies arrived late, and I couldn't help noticing her hat and long protective gloves. There was just time for one grab shot. I think the picture is made by the (slightly out of focus) expression on the face of the man I assume is their German guide. And I quite like that all the significant colours are, by chance, shades of green, apart from the man's jeans.

There was no time to compose the picture properly, so sadly I ended up with a rubbish bin in a rather critical place in the background – see the original on the right. A step to my left (if I'd thought of it and someone hadn't been standing there) would have hidden the bin behind my subject. But it gave me the chance later to practise my Photoshop cloning skills; it's not quite as easy as it looks as the base of the pillar had to be created from a part of another image, where it was a different size, angle and focus. The sunlight was very fierce, and I pushed a bit more light into the faces on the right, as well as rescuing some detail in both the hats: a good reason to shoot RAW rather than (or as well as) JPG.

There's more information about my visit to Sanssouci on my Grand Tour blog.

Technical: NIKON D300, f=200.0 mm, ISO400, 1/1600 sec @ f6.3

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