This was taken in the impressive Lincolm Memorial, a very attractive ancient temple that you would expect to house a statue of Zeus but instead has a bony faced lawyer cum President sitting in a marble chair. Well, good for him. First man to make America do the right thing.

I have included two stages below. At the bottom you see the individual photos placed more or less how I want them. The middle photo sees things shaping up with the major pillar being more coherent and with little boy Tom adding a fuzzy, human element.

What I did throughout the process was to ensure verticals were just that: vertical. As the central area became more white and marble-centric I moved more to the idea of having the closest pillar warm and glowing. This was achieved by adjusting the saturation and by incrementing the levels of red and yellow in the pillar area. As moving from background to foreground in graduated colour, tone and texture is a bit of a nightmare I gradually 'solved' the problem by darkening troublesome areas. Fortunately there is a logic to the darkness.

Initially I thought that the out of focus moving boy in the foreground wouldn't work but I got used to it and thought it a further emphasis of the division between the sharp and cold sepulchre feel of the interior. I think Lincoln deserves a visual effect to remind us of how passionate and committed he was - which the neo classical setting fails to do. An 'accident' of the process, I admit. But I am glad that the great heart and compassion of what he (and millions of his compatriots) achieved against ignorance and prejudice is given some place in the picture.