Ex. 4-Building

[mikemeister_admin]

Building done in lab

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Definitely better.  I think you can come in a little more aggressively with the shadow and highlight, and get a bit more contrast.

Also, it looks like you're working on the small image from the web page - right click on the caption underneath the image and you can download a larger version that will be easier to see the details - such as the water tower, and the dark edge of the water.

Video solution here:
http://curvemeister.com/downloads/Class/c1s1/solutions.htm

[mikemeister_admin]

Mike, just what do you mean by " a little more aggressively with shadow and highlight". Can define better or give example?
Thanks Joe S

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I mean that the image needs more contrast than you gave to it.  There are too many unused pixel values - there are no pixels with brightness levels below about 8 or so, and only 72 pixels darker than 25.  That's about 10 percent of the image's dynamic range, and the result is an image that still lacks contrast because of the lack of pure black.  Even more so for the highlights.  The brightest pixel in your corrected image is 219, when it could be 250 or 255.