Just for fun I thought I'd post a quick comment on how I processed an image I took at Rodin's Atelier in Meudon.
Image -
... and here's what I did to it:
- Let the in-camera meter do its best
- Ricoh 55mm wide open at f/2.2
- *click* the shutter
- Opened RAW image in RawTherapee
- Applied my 0EV Digital Zone System curve
- Adjusted the ends of the curves for pure white and pure black
- Opened the image in the Gimp
- Back in RawTherapee, processed the sky for tonality and contrast
- Opened the sky processed image in the Gimp as a layer over the first image
- Gimp selected the sky of the first image
- Added a black mask to the second layered image
- Filled the selection area in the mask with pure white
- Adjusted the mask "sharpness" to Gauss soften with a 10 pixel radius
- Flattened the image and saved
Done. That's it. That's all it took to get these the way I wanted.
The trick, of course, was protecting the whites/highlights, then applying a correct Zone 3 thru 7 1EV step curve, and stripping in the sky.
