I returned to the original image and saw that there the image had the full range of tones - 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 - and the contrast is better too, so something must have got lost in the conversion! The histogram would be unavoidably on the dark side as the veterans were wearing very dark clothing and they do occupy a significant part of the picture. Your thought about cropping is a good one and I'll look at that closely. However was the context of interest, because it was that drew my eye to select this particular image?
Howard
On 14 May 2012 14:38, Gregory Fraser <Gregory.Fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> http://people.rit.edu/andpph/gallery.html include:
REMEMBERING by Howard Leigh - I wonder if the all-caps title is on purpose but I suspect not. This image is tonally too flat for my liking. I was able to find a true black pixel (0,0,0) but no true white (255, 255,255) and the histogram is very heavy on the black end. I think some dodging and a curves layer or two would help a lot. As for composition, when I look at this the heads of the people appear crammed in the top third of the image. When I first look at the image my eye is drawn to the crest on the men's jackets and from there I move to the strong graphic intersection of pavement markings and legs. I understand you cropped to remove your finger and other things from the image but perhaps cloning would have worked better than cropping if it gave you more space above the people's heads.
