Night Canal, Bruges, Belgium, Dec. 20, 2006
For this image from my Bruges in December 2006 photoset (click image for larger view) I lightened and brought out detail in the dark areas using the following workflow:
1. duplicate background layer
2. desaturate new layer
3. invert desaturated layer
4. gausian blur new layer (a lot)
5. change blend mode to soft light
6. adjust levels, curves, hue/saturation
This is a wonderful trick for bringing out detail in the shadow areas of underexposed photos. (BTW, I set my camera to underexpose slightly because information can be pulled out of dark areas but areas that are burnt away are just gone.)
I also sharpened using my usual method:
1. duplicate background layer
2. set blend mode to overlay
3. adjust transparency to about 55%
4. apply high pass filter
This sharpens the image in a nondestructive way, and the image stays sharp when resized.
No flash or tripod was used. The image was taken after dark (at 9:33) with an f-stop of 3.5 and an exposure of 1/8.
By the way, my flickr site is very lonely. No one is making any comments. I guess it’s not getting any visitors. 
Posted: January 3rd, 2007 under photography, travel.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Arthur
Time: January 3, 2007, 10:34 pm
Groovy!
Comment from xensen
Time: January 4, 2007, 8:16 pm
At Anne X’s suggestion, I’ve posted the uncorrected image for comparison, here..
Pingback from blog.rightreading.com » Cenote X’Keken near Valladolid
Time: February 23, 2007, 4:52 am
[...] Night Canal, Bruges, Belgium, Dec. 20, 2006 [...]
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Time: April 25, 2007, 5:41 pm
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