Hi Jack, With PESO or PAW postings, it goes without saying that comments are most welcome. While my description of the conversion process may sound complicated, it's really quite simple and doesn't require a lot of skill. I'm sure you can do it. In regard to aesthetic goals vs. a technical exercise, I would say that I rarely ignore one in favor of the other. I have kept this somewhat subdued in terms of overall brightness and saturation. I didn't want it to be night turned into day, and I didn't want to misrepresent the actual scene. But other interpretations are possible and may be more appealing to some viewers. Thanks for commenting. Paul
> I note that you did not invite comments and if I'm > violating an rule of etiquette, please forgive me. > You manipulated this image with the a skill and > aptitude that I will never posses. I'm envious!. > If I may say so, the image lacks the natural glow I > would expect of such a scene. It has, for me, a rather > drab subdued feel. I suspect, however, this was more a > technical rather than esthetic challenge. > > Jack > > --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Last Friday while shooting on the street at night, I > > grabbed a pic of the Birmingham theater marquis. > > Right off the bat I could see it was a problem. The > > billboard part of the marquis was extremely bright > > while the colored lights were quite dim. Of course > > the unlit parts of the building and marquis were in > > deep night shadow with only a touch of illumination > > from the street lights and marquis lights. Overall, > > it was at least ten stops variation. For capture I > > shot RAW overexposing the highlights by about a 1 > > 1/2 stops. Normally, I bring the highlights within > > range, but I knew I'd lose a lot of shadow if I did > > that. The RAW converter can recover some highlight > > detail, so I was counting on that. When converting, > > I pulled the exposure back down about a stop and > > turned the brightness all the way up. I also > > decreased the shadow depth. I'm at work now, but I > > can get the exact numbers later if someone is > > interested. Finally, after conversion, I used the > > shadow/highlight tool to ligh! > > ten the shadows a bit more, tame the highlights and > > increase midrange contrast. I sharpened after > > conversion with USM. I'm quite pleased with the > > result. It's here: > > http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3421449 > > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > Discover Yahoo! > Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! > http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html >
