----- Original Message ----- From:"Emily L. Ferguson" : So we have the classic deep woods with a huge range of brightness : where the sun sneaks through the tree cover. : : What tricks do you use to deal with that ecosystem? Flash? Multiple : exposures at different apertures and superimpose the results? Dodge : and burn in PS? Do you use the curves adjustment to balance the : brights and darks? Accentuate the contrast and ignore the original : situation, which is basically even light with bright spots? the film technique is to increase exposure and reduce development to capture the range, basing the exposure/development on the known traits of the film used and the luminance ranges involved. Then when the print is made, local bleaching would be employed to lift highlight values in shadowy areas. Digital can't quite seem to achieve the same capture of luminance rages so as has been suggested, a series of shots could be captured, the curves adjusted in each and the various images merged together. final dodging/burning can be used to finish off the shot EasyHDR is freeware and will do the task nicely if you want a standalone program, or apparently PSCS has something if you want to work exclusively within a single program. Karl
