[Stagnant]

Pentax K-3 II, Sigma 18-35 mm F1.8 Art @ 18mm, F6.3 1/640.

Ruins of a fortress. June 2017.


The final version of the image. Processed in DxO Photolab.
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Processed in DxO Optics Pro 10 in 2017, before I upgraded to the PhotoLab.
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Processed in DxO Photolab. The only corrections are lens distortion, volume deformation and purple fringing.

The original image was deliberately underexposed, to preserve the highlights. In my experience RAW files from K-3 / II retain a lot of information in the shadows and in DxO software it is possible to process images so that both shadows and highlights look good. In case with this very file, the contrast between the bright and dark parts was too big. As seen in the version from 2017, I did manage to equalise exposure across the image, but it ended up looking flat.
Not long ago, I was experimenting with the auto mask feature in DxO Photolab and decided to find some challenging (in terms of post processing) images, that I could re-work. I chose this image, because I remember having spent a lot of time trying to "fix" it. Using auto mask I selected the sky and then I increased the overall exposure by 3 EV. As was expected I ended up with an overexposed sky, so I selected the mask I created earlier and reduced exposure by 2 EV. I added some contrast, made slight adjustments to the levels and smart lighting. The resulting image can be seen above.

To sum it up : K- 3 (II) and PhotoLab work really well together.

[Stagnant]

Pentax K-3 II, Sigma 18-35 mm Art @ 35mm F1.8, 1/5000, ISO100.

- Before
- After

Belgium, Brussels, Rue Belliard

Traditionally the image was deliberately underexposed to keep the details in the highlights. During the post processing I increased the overall exposure by 1.75 EV and then selected sky, using the auto masking tool and reduced it's brightness by 1.15 EV. The images are slightly cropped and both have distortion corrected.

The main challenge was to make the lamp "stand out". The background is blurred, but the whole scene was in the shadow, so I had to play with the contrast and tone curves a bit.