A little post processing

Reviewing the blog on another computer under different conditions I saw some improvements that could have been made to one of the shots.

This was the shot and looking at it again it's too dark in the bottom left corner.

First let's look at where the image began (the image below) this was "straight out of camera" - well to be precise it was the unprocessed raw file as processed by Lightroom the software I use.

I added some clarity, increased the exposure, increased contrast a little and decreased highlights it's a fairly standard workflow that I use.  The image above was the result.

Had I increased the exposure  of the whole frame to lighten the left hand portion I would have lost some of the feel and emotion of the light coming in into the igloo and completely destroyed the clouds and light of the morning.

Lightroom allows me to select parts of the image to adjust in the same way that darkroom workers used dodging and burning, only it allows it to be done quickly and whilst learning it allows it to be undone too.  I have a lot of respect for the pain and cost that the darkroom workers must have gone through to get a reasonable shot let alone "that shot".

So a little playing with the adjustment brush with a little exposure increase and some detail brought out of the shadows I opened up the dark area to get some detail.  I applied 3-4 overlapping in different areas rather than try to complete the task in one go.

I think the image is somewhat improved with this extra 15 minutes of effort.  Only wish I'd done it the first time.