Church, Poshtova Square

The Poshtova Square (Ukrainian: Поштова площа, translit.: Poshtova Ploscha, literally: Postal Square) in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is one of the oldest historic squares of the city.

Archeological finds are dated back to the 4th century A.D.

A crossing of several historic streets such as Volodymyrsky Descent, Borychiv Descent and Sahaydachny Street, the square is located at the Dnieper riverfront right next to the Kiev River Port.

The square is served by the metro (the Poshtova Ploshcha station), the funicular, trams, and buses.

The square received its name from Podil post station that was opened there in 1846. The square was also known under an alternative name as Rizdvo (Christmas) Square, derived from Rizdvo Church built in 1810-1814 and destroyed in 1930s. The square underwent a significant reconstruction in 1970s when the Kurenivsko-Chervonoarmiyska Metro Line was in construction and only the post station was saved. Currently, the post station is used as a small art gallery.

Poshtova Square

Processing Notes:

Photo taken with Sigma 10-20 mm lens, setting 14mm. As often happens with this lens, unless the camera is horizontal, or nearly so, buildings will often have the "falling backwards" look. But you often have to point the camera up, ever so slightly, to capture the whole building.

Fixing the "Falling Backwards" look. Plus other processing adjustments...

1) Go to the lens correction function of Photoshop * Filter > Distort > Lens Correction. Set Vertical Perspective to -27. OK.

2) Use Photoshop Crop tool to make the photo square again.

3) The Lens Correction tool will often distort the original ratios in the photo. With a -27 Vertical Perspective, the top of the building will look too big vertically, and the bottom will look too small. Use Free Transform * Edit > Free Transform. Pulled the center point on the bottom of the photo down to lengthen the bottom dimensions of the building.

4) Used Topaz Adjust (not included with Photoshop), Filter > Topaz Labs > Topaz Adjust. Used the "Enhance Contrast" Preset, then boosted Brightness to 0.8.

5) Save back into Lightroom.

6) Used the Crop tool in Lightroom to make the aspect ratio of the corrected photo as close to the aspect ratio of the original as possible.