Hi Godfrey,
A Curves adjustment applied with masking to leave the sky values alone
improves both. This is a very crude rendering attempt (my laptop is NOT
the best computer for this sort of work... ;-) that will give you an
idea of what I meant. The curves adjustment used is shown at the bottom
of the composite.
http://homepage.mac.com/godders/lacus-OP-curves-adjust.jpg
hmm, from what I see I think you prefer more contrasty rendering of
these pictures. It may be just coincidence but I think it has something
to do with different gamma settings between Mac and PC - these pictures
are not color managed (ICC profiles etc.) so they do look quite
different on Mac (less contrasty and lighter) and on Windows (more
contrasty and darker).
Actually, first picture (color) was made on my Mac (ColorSync enabled),
but when I saw in on my PC I thought it's too dark so I tweaked up gamma
(AKA "Levels" in Photoshop) to lighten it. Perhaps it was not the best
idea...
Bedo.
