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While HDR is most likely the preferred approach for squeezing the last bit of stunning detail and tonal gradation from highlights and shadows, if you havenít prepared your captures for HDR post-processing not all may be lost. There can be an astonishing amount of information hidden in your raw files just waiting to be revealed by the right treatment in Lightroom 2.x or Camera Raw 5.x.

Cityscapes on bright, overcast days can be a classic case in point, as I found from working on this image (and others) I shot in Tonghai (Yunnan Province, China) last October. Figure 1 shows the "really raw" image in Lightroom 2.4 portrayed according to all my default settings (White Balance "as Shot" and everything else "0", tone curve linear).

Figure 1 – No Adjustments YetThe sky looks completely blown, hence featureless, and the shadows under the buildingís fancy eaves are muddy, suppressing the gorgeous carved detail which exists there.

Lightroom makes it very easy t...

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Mark Segal
Mark Segal
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Mark has been making photographs for the past six decades and started adopting a digital workflow in 1999 first with scanning film, then going fully digital in 2004. He has worked with a considerable range of software, equipment and techniques over the years, accumulated substantial experience as an author, educator and communicator in several fields and is a frequent contributor to the Luminous-Landscape website. Mark developed a particular interest in film scanning and authored the ebook “Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop” available on the SilverFast website. In his “other life” (the one that pays for the photography), Mark is a retiree from the World Bank Group and now a consultant in electric power development.
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