David J Taylor wrote:

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
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I'd bet it's blue sky burned white. Done similar with similar
results. I agree it could have been exposed lower and then boost the
FG, otoh as an example, I was shooting old steam locomotives (black)
and to get detail in those blacks boosting after the fact would have
been very noisy and muddy looking.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6172566&size=lg
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6172415&size=lg

You can even see the greenery here is a bit washed out. In those
shots of this series where the sky is showing it is very pale blue to
white and difficult to bring out the blue in PS w/o it having a very
artificial look to it.

Thanks for pointing to those, Alan.

These shots look a little "artificial" and "processed" to me. The
blacks should be just a little blacker.

Nothing "artificial or processed" about them other than the slightly
high exposure. I have seen photos of the same trains where they are
grey looking, not black.

eg: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/7485937.jpg (by John
Flint). There is another photo I've seen where the trains are near
silver-grey looking.

Looking at the images I posted above there is quite a range of black to
grey ... that's what the camera recorded.

[additional note: when I was there it was every bit as over run with
tourists as you see in the photo by John Flint above ... however I
worked extra hard to eliminate other people (other than the engineer),
wires, modern cars, etc.]


http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6172554&size=lg

That's "blue sky" back there... (okay, this one was exposed about
another stop more than the the ones outside).

But if I saw blue sky there, I would think it quite strange. Having
blue sky clipped to white is correct and natural to me, for such a shot.
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That depends on what "correctly exposed" means for that image. If the
scene dynamic is beyond the sensor then the use of grads or multiple
exposures needs to be done if possible.

No, not "needs", but "is an option you might consider".

I have a video/slide-film background, so I may have a different view of
what's the best on-screen representation of an image. I rarely do prints.

Well printing really makes you get all the light you can so that you can
then compress it into the range of the printer. Dead black is passable
on a print - dead white skies really kill an image.