Oh No...Scratched My Lens!!

hahahaha...Sorry...not really. It started snowing last night and so I was practicing with long exposure. The extra lighting was provided by the spots for my deck. When I first saw these 2, they immediately reminded me of someone taking a scratch pad to my lens!!! :eek: What do you think. Based on my monitor, I adjusted the levels, brightness and contrast a bit. I hope I didn't destroy the effect. Taxes are in and hope to get a Monitor Calibration tool soon.
Ken

Were you looking for serious feedback on these? If so, you should post them on Photo Critique. I think they're way too hot in the foreground. With a darker exposure and some careful post -processing, you can have a better balanced photo with detail in the sky and the deck.

Actually, no John...hehe...I was just having fun....I have been playing with them to see if I can get rid of the hot spots. But need quite a bit more work. I am working on some that did come out much better which I will put in the critique section...
But, when I first saw these 2...I thought I'd have a little fun, since that was my first thought...OH NO!!! Scratched lenses!!!! hehe...
But some fun replies would be fun!!! hehe...or maybe I've got a too sick of a humor for this forum!!! hahahaha...nah!!! hahahaha
Ken

Yeah, I was scared when I read the subject of your post. Oh no! And the camera is brand new. I'm glad you were joking.

But seriously. You can't get it all in an exposure like the one you posted. There's too much exposure range. You have to either make two exposures and combine them in layers, or shoot for the highlight exposure and then lighten the shadow areas. Digital cameras have an amazing amount of latitude in the shadows. You can shoot dark and pull tons of detail out of the shadows. If you looked at my RAW files you'd probably think they were all dark. It's no accident. I shoot for the highlights and everything is adjusted after the fact.

Thanx for the lesson John, Your little vignettes have taught me more than just about any book I've read. Not only was I playing with long time exposures...but, I was learning the histogram as well. I actually began understanding the processes much better. Both these lessons, I practiced, were from things I learned in the post I made after our phone conversation about histograms and the post here in VF about nighttime photography!!
If I've said it once, I've now said it several hundred times....PR is the Greatest!!! Thanx to everyone for all I have learned.
Ken