Square One Distillery

Supposedly a former speakeasy and house of ill repute, this establishment, near downtown St. Louis, has a great bar, some unique and splendid spirits (the cherrywood smoked whiskey is amazing) good foods, and some really good beers.

My favorite place to stop in St. Louis.

Interesting shot. I think I might make a bracket for EF, HDR, or hand blending specifically to bring those blown out lights under control. And I might also try for a more natural color.

Color in a night shot is an interesting photographic problem. The camera sees color just like in the daytime but we don't. The darker it gets the less saturation we see. And if it's lit the color will be either tungsten or sodium vapor. So deciding what to do with color in a night shot is a critical decision.

I try to make images look the way I remember things. That's very much the way it looked to me, right down to the color cast on the building, and the pink/blue highlights on the street. There were several different light sources, including the one behind me, each with a different temperature.

It is HDR, of course. There would be no other way to get that much of the image without it.

I try to keep HDRs subtle. This is actually a bit more cooked than I normally like them.

The color doesn't bother me but those badly blown out street lights do. They overpower everything else and are so badly blown that they have bled into adjacent pixels and created flare spots. Look at almost any light and you will see detail. That's the only reason I suggested a merged version. Humor me here. Take a look at your brackets (how many do you have and what spread?) and see if you can get a version with a hint of detail in the lights. The see if you don't like it better.