On Nov 29, 2005, at 7:11 AM, Peter Lacus wrote:
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.
Well, no ... as I said, the composite was very crude because the
computer I'm working with is too slow to do this with finesse and a
laptop screen has its limitations. What I'm looking for is tonal
separation in the foreground, which is lacking in both your color and
B&W renderings.
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).
Some of the problem is certainly there. PLEASE please please, always
convert JPEG versions to sRGB and embed the sRGB profile you are
using in the process. Without that, there's no way to predict what
the image will look like on someone else's system and screen.
What I see in your photos comes down to excellent composition but
poor quality rendering. The foregrounds appear muddy with poorly
differentiated tonal values and apparent lack of sharpness. Adjusting
the black point and revising the curves as I did helps bring them up
to a better point, within the limits of a crude editing system and
the capabilities of a low-rez JPEG original.
Godfrey
