As you may recall from an earlier post, to my chagrin, Marie Reine du Monde does not have a public restroom. After inventing several very post-modern dance moves, I briskly walked to the nearby Marriott hotel. This also provided Lori the chance to ask directions to beautiful Notre Dame while I visited the little boys room (tee hee). Upon my return, she was still wrapped up in conversation with the concierge and, I took the opportunity to photograph this handsome staircase. It reminds me of the staircase in my future mansion that I’ll likely never buy, except this one doesn’t have a monocle wearing butler coming down it with a hot cappuccino. Ah well, nothing can be perfect right?
Grease Lightning Page Load Times!
As you may have noticed, this site now loads quite quickly. For such an image heavy site like The Unframed World, I feel it’s crucial to make sure you all don’t wait too long for content. So, this week the whole site was moved to new servers in the UK as well as got some pixy dust sprinkled into the code. To be precise, the homepage used to take up to 20 seconds to fully render, now the best time we’ve clocked is just over 600 milliseconds! It’s systematic, It’s hydromatic, Why it’s a grease lightning! (Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go)
How we improved page load time
To be honest, I have only a vague idea how “we” improved page load times. All credit goes to a good friend of mine named Louis (a.k.a. the Code Whisperer… not really, he’s too humble and would hate that nick-name). He did all the real work while I asked dumb questions and provided the dinero for the new server space. Louis is a seriously brilliant computer wiz that I met last year at a hostel in Baltimore. If you’re in need of web site help, send me an e-mail via the contact page and I’ll send your request to him.
Aside from moving the site to a dedicated server (rather than a shared one where several sites are all using the same bandwidth), I believe he stripped away a lot unnecessary code, set up some page caching and image crunching plug-ins, and expertly performed multiple backflips to invoke more speed. Again, this is all very far over my head (especially the backflips 
), but I know one thing, the site loads ridiculously fast now. I’m very grateful to be able to deliver content to you with less delays now. Thanks Louis!
Post Processing
This image was a pretty straight forward Photoshop edit. In Photomatix, I made sure to keep the luminosity slider as low as possible to avoid losing details to the classic HDR glowy look. Also, in the Photoshop Edit screenshot below, you’ll notice the “Yellow De-sat” which selects the white stone in the stairs in the ceiling. In this HSL adjustment layer I dropped the Yellow saturation about 10 points in order to create a stronger emphasis on these elements since they create the dramatic movement in the photo.
One of my goals was for the final image not to be overtly “HDR.” So how do you think I did? Any areas that stick out to you?
Photoshop Edit
Before and After Photos
Where’s the butler? The images really needs the butlers. The photos are so awesome. I am so fascinated on this wonderful home. I love this one.
It is very beautiful. You make me amazed.
Well done! It is such a beautiful picture! I also like the interesting perspective you’ve chosen by composing the shot! Great job, both the shooting and and the post-processing!
I actually walked by this staircase a few times before really noticing how cool it was. Thanks to my wide angle lens I was able to bring it life. Thanks for stopping by Anna!
Wonderful work. I just did a bit of maintenance as well, and think it had some effect. I would like a little makeover for my site, since it is still the same original construction (and I am a complete moron when it comes to computers, and most other things
Nice post today buddy!
Hey Adam, ya your site loads in under 3sec. No worries at all there. Keep up the quality posts!
I think the image would actually need several butlers, lol
You mean so I could have multiple cappuccinos? Great point,
Its beautiful…butler will surely add a lot to the image (and the house)
Ya, and one for the TV remote too ya?
Great work in the post. The details you have brought out, especially in the carpet, really makes this image pop.
I’m glad you like the carpet. I think it’s a nice, but a bit dated
Sweet shot and good job on the upgrade man!
Louis is a genius and gets all the credit
If you want to test your own site, I highly recommend tools.pingdom.com (I’m not affiliated with them at all btw). It gives an exact breakdown of how long things take to load.
Very nice look after processing. You can really see the difference in the wall and carpeting.
Love that staircase and the composition. Good stuff!
Ya, but it doesn’t have the painterly style that your do Jimi
Wow, quite a difference. Congrats!
Thanks Kris! I hope the added speed helps the experience.
Beautiful image Andrew. Well composed and processed. Nice info on your load times.
Ya, Louis did a great job improving the site’s speed. If you’re interested, I use tools.pingdom.com to benchmark my site speed. It’s really accurate and also breaks down exactly what corners can be cut.