Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> I think Moose 2 is the most realistic looking version but has lost a bit of
> the drama of the darker sky of the layers/mask version. But I had not
> previously noted the diminished shadows of that version. Perhaps
> with the shadows restored to the building Moose 2 could get away with a
> somewhat darker sky.
>
Not without extensive hand work or the original to work with. The
problem is JPEG artifacts. As usually happens at higher compression
levels, with large areas of subtly differentiated tones, the sky and
clouds have been compressed into too few separate tonal values too allow
the range to be expanded without making the edges all too obvious. The
way JPEG compression works with blocks of four pixels just makes it more
blockily obvious what's happening. It may already be seen looking
closely at the sky in Moose 2. I went as far as I could without making
it seem intrusive to me.
I think the blockiness may have played to advantage in the temple, by
added some useful texture. Not sure about that, though. There's also the
problem of masking well on such a small image with sky through tree. I
ended up with some halos on tree branches. The web image is just too
small and compressed to do fine work on productively. So I just tried to
show an idea of what is possible, not create a finished product.
Moose
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