Back Creek / Low Tide

A gentle shot: water, sand, winter grass and trees. Sky and reflections. Zoomed in slightly for framing.

Sony DSC H50 at 60mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

In Lightroom, added Vibrance and Clarity. A touch of Fill Light and Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen Landscape preset.

It was too cold out for looking for images yesterday so I spent some time in LightZone, creating alternative renderings of a few images. LightZone is based on manipulating the traditional exposure Zones (as popularized by Ansel Adams in his work)…but, of course, harnessing the power of the computer, LightZone takes the process much further.

Here is an example of fairly extreme processing of the image above.

As you can see, Lightzone can extend the tonal range, and emphasize the detail in the image. I applied the Crisp look,  several layers of Relight (with various Shadow, Highlight, and Detail settings), Local Contrast, Vibrance, and Sharpening. To me the result approaches a painting of the scene more closely than it does a photograph, but it is clearly the same image as the first.

Not a question of better or worse so much as different.

From Around Home, Kennebunk ME.