Shel and Godders- Thanks for taking the time to show me some alternative solutions. I like both of your different takes, I also like that you were able to brighten the whole thing up without losing the cloud detail. I fiddled around for a while this evening, but was not able to duplicate our results. I can brighten it up some, but by the time I start to lose cloud detail the water in the lake is still too dark. But that may be the price I have to pay for using free software :) So I will have to mess around with this some more again tomorrow evening and see what I can come up with. Thanks again.
Russ On 4/2/07, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Your original was rendered extremely dark, Russell. It's a simple > landscape scene ... rendered up with a bit bit of balancing between > water and sky, you get this rather nice, rather serene feel out of > it. I took the liberty of doing a couple of edits to give you an idea > where I'd go with it... It includes your original so you can see the > differences easily. > > http://homepage.mac.com/godders/rk2882/ > > This is a case where if I was using Lightroom I could likely do most > of what I did with its tools, and presuming I had the RAW file to > work with, but with just an 8bit image file to work with Photoshop > allows the kind of gentle, selective editing required to bring this up. > > 1- Don't underexpose. Determine where the brightest elements are that > you want to retain detail in and expose correctly for that ... > Placing exposure properly like that takes a little time to figure out > and if you're not sure you should bracket exposure around it. The > histogram shows you an approximation based on values in the JPEG > preview that is rendered for every file, but if you're capturing in > RAW you can work with what looks like a little bit of highlight > overexposures on the histogram. It's not rigorously calibrated, you > have to work with it to understand what you're seeing. > > 2- Yes, this is a problem. Your screen looks overly bright compared > to the ambient light and that's tricking your eye. Better to > calibrate and profile the screen in modest, normal room light and > work that way so that your eyes and the screen are at proper > luminance values. I calibrate my screen for 140 lumens, gamma 1.8 and > 5500K white point in normal, indirect room illumination. Move any > light that glares on the screen to a different position so that's not > a problem. This will make a huge difference in how your photos come out. > > Godfrey > > > On Apr 2, 2007, at 12:04 PM, Russell Kerstetter wrote: > > > Thanks Bruce, PJ, Paul, Markus Shel and Brian for being honest. When > > I look at it objectively, I agree that it is mostly an uninteresting > > picture. Maybe next time I will try the 'Auto Compose' function on my > > DL. > > > > I have been told several times, that my pictures are too dark. To be > > clear, we are talking a few stops dark, but not black or anything like > > that, right? > > > > I think there are two issues here (if anyone cares to comment > > further): > > > > 1) Foremost, I think I have a tendency to underexpose, specifically > > on shots like this. I really like detail in the clouds and am afraid > > of losing it even when the clouds are not the most important aspect of > > the picture. IIRC the histogram for this shot had the highlights > > touching the first bar from the right (which is a half-stop right?) > > but I think that what you are seeing on your screen is probably darker > > than just a half-stop. > > > > 2) I usually work in a dark room because I hate glare off the screen. > > I have been running my mac on gamma 1.8 instead of 2.2, but from what > > I am hearing I think that is a negligible part of my problem. > > > > Russ > > (here to learn) > > > > On 4/1/07, Russell Kerstetter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> This is a reservoir/lake near my mother-in-law's house. Also this is > >> the first photo I have processed with iPhoto. I was using Lightroom > >> beta, iPhoto definately has less features and some irritating > >> limitations, but it does have the 'touch-up' tool, which is pretty > >> handy. > >> > >> http://www.avocadohead.com/piclinks/IMGP2882.html > >> > >> Honest comments please, thanks for looking. > >> > >> Russ > >> > >> -- > >> Legacy Air, Inc. > >> 11900 Airport Way > >> Broomfield Colorado 80021 > >> (303) 404-0277 > >> fax (303) 404-0280 > >> www.legacy-air.com > >> > > > > > > -- > > Legacy Air, Inc. > > 11900 Airport Way > > Broomfield Colorado 80021 > > (303) 404-0277 > > fax (303) 404-0280 > > www.legacy-air.com > > > > -- > > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > > PDML@pdml.net > > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > -- Legacy Air, Inc. 11900 Airport Way Broomfield Colorado 80021 (303) 404-0277 fax (303) 404-0280 www.legacy-air.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
