None of these are HDR (high dynamic range – multiple bracketed exposures blended into a single smooth tonal range image). HDR, at least for me, requires a still life subject. The Cole Brothers Circus shots I posted a couple of weeks ago were HDR though the light wasn’t that extreme that HDR was greatly needed.

I use Photoshop though I’ve just reinstalled Rawshooter to get the speed of converting from RAW to jpg for the initial judging of the images. I shoot in RAW mode. Usually I do both RAW and jpg (the camera allows that) but with fast multiple exposures my camera won’t keep up and I’ll miss shots so I shoot only RAW. RAW, with its expanded bit depth gives greater latitude in correcting for exposure extremes – like blown out highlights in a white bike frame or bright uniform colors or an over exposed shot directly into the sun like the sun shower image. With Photoshop’s Bridge RAW converter converting a race’s images to jpg takes more than an hour – in computer processing alone. Specific CameraRAW image enhancements only add to that time. I then check the output jpgs for the ones I like best and do whatever tweaking I think is needed on those preferred images directly from the original RAW using 16bit tiff as output (46MB per tiff output image).

When I finally get to the 16bit tiff stage I work in Photoshop using mainly the highlight-shadow and “Levels” tools. I usually use the highlight-shadow tool to tone down blown out highlights. This also increases color saturation in images that are somewhat light and bland – though properly exposed. Sometimes I do multiple outputs from a single RAW image where one is intentionally made very dark. I then blend the recovered highlights from the “dark” RAW “bracket” over the blown highlights in the average “bracket.” That might be thought of as a one image HDR, though that isn’t really HDR. It’s using the expanded bit depth of a single RAW image.

Looking at the “atmosphere” images from this series, the one most different from what’s seen is the rain shower shot. It looks much more overexposed than the final image. In the sunset shot the riders are slightly dark and more muted in tones. I used the “Levels” tool to make the blacks darker and more distinct. The rainbow start shot was very much like it appears. I just brightened the riders slightly but I had done test shots with the external flash beforehand to get the balance for matching the background sky, so the flash helped in that regard.

I also use the “loop” select tool to selectively control what parts of an image are affected by whatever adjustment tool I’m working with. I usually “feather” the selection to a degree dependent on the area and how distinct it is from other parts of the image. Beyond that feathering I then use the channels palette to further control the edges and feathering of the selection by painting the selection layer mask using brushes of varied opacity and size. If that description isn’t clear – I make a selection of a part of an image and soften the selection edges with the “feather” adjustment. I then further soften and adjust the selection and its edges by manipulating the selection mask, which can be found as a layer in the “channels” tab.

Doing this selective adjustment allows me to darken a sky and smooth the horizon edge so that the effect is barely noticeable or lighten and “crispen” a face that’s a bit dull because it was in more shade than the rest of an image.

I also do a vignette on almost all the images I post. That’s a general darkening of the outer borders of an image, giving the central subject a subtle attention focus.

So when I post that I spend 20 to 30 minutes per image, I’m not exaggerating. Still, it’s much better than the old days of darkroom work waving my hands under an enlarger lens for dodging and burning-in and then having a hot water tray to selectively speed development of parts of a print that need to be further darkened. Unfortunately I no longer have my old Nikon Fs but I do still have 3 black and white enlargers if anyone is interested in going gonzo on B&W. Two 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 condenser enlargers. Simmon-Omega B8 and Beseler 23CII. Also a 4X5 Simmon-Omega A2 with cold light head (florescent light).