[Leica] Re. We had company (combining 2 RAW developments)

[philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)]

The problem that I have with extending dynamic range is that everything
becomes pretty neutral qua exposure, thus leading the eye a lot less into
the important parts of the image.
Personally I like the + 1.2 stop development because it let's you discover
the image: you see a girl's face, then something strange around it, then you
discover what that is, all adding up to one beautiful piece of photography.
IMO ofcourse.


> From: Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:57:29 -0700
> To: <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] Re. We had company (combining 2 RAW developments)
> 
> Oliver's suggestion motivated me to do further work on my "little girl with
> wave sculpture," picture. I combined two different RAW developments with a
> mask.  I'm essentially doing the same thing Tina did with a high-contrast
> picture a while back (though I use Picture Window Pro, not Photoshop).
> 
> Here's the image I posted yesterday, which was done by a levels adjust to
> bring up the face a little:
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/E1/P7231089KarolinaWaveCrop2Sm.jpg
> 
> Here's the original picture as shot, (low quality jpeg, just to show the
> levels).
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/E1/P7231089AsShot.jpg
> 
> Here's an alternative RAW "development," plus 1.2 stops to bring the face
> to a natural level, about what the eye perceived.  Of course the rest of
> the picture is totally blown.  Again, a low-quality JPEG:
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/E1/P7231089Plus1pt2.jpg
> 
> And here's the final product, the two images "stacked" through a mask,
> essentially combining the properly "developed" face with the rest of the
> first image, and cropped to eliminate the, er, extraneous elements on the
> right.
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/E1/P7231089KarWave3Sm.jpg
> 
> The two RAW files combined are truer in color than the single 16-bit
> TIFF.  Interestingly, I could get similar but not identical results working
> on the 16-bit TIFF and boosting the face through the mask.  BUT, the face
> ended up quite oversaturated.  I could then drop the saturation a bit and
> get things almost the same as the combined RAW picture.  But after all
> that, I ended up with a bit of toothcombing in the histogram.
> 
> Combining two RAW developments is easier and the results are better.  Tina,
> you were right!
> 
> --Peter
> 
> 
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