Another image for you to try out.

[ggroess]

Everyone...

I am attaching a larger version of this image so you have more data to work with.  This is an image that I really wrestle with...

I await your versions...I'm going to stay out of this as long as possible...Have at it...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

This is a very strange exposure Greg - the figure on the left seems to have moved.  What was the shutter speed and did you hand hold it?
Zog

[ggroess]

About 10 seconds...BTW they did not know they were being shot. 
What they were looking at had them frozen...I was trying to be sneaky.
It was a tripod shot i did get off two exposures before they were aware of me...I grabbed the wrong one from the hard drive...
I replaced the image Chris...try it again...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

But... but... please Sir, I've only just finished processing the first one!!

Ah well will try the second one properly - but here is the 1st one as a quick idea to see what might give...
FocusMagic 2 pixels
Lighten Shadows action
Local Contrast 50 pixels
Equalise Man from Mans
CurveMeister - Lab Sat with L channel mask

Is that the sort of image you are after,  or have I blown it as usual?

I like the idea of quickly playing to get a feel of how one could present the image and then after various experiments, try and pick the best approach - am just playing with Orton blur to see if that gives a nice feel to the image...
Zog
PS am being told I'm not allow more than 300BK on file size - so this is at quality 1

[mikemeister_admin]

So here is Orton - I quite like the effect
(quality 3 again to get under 300KB)

[mikemeister_admin]

Yes I like the Orton effect, but not the colour - so here is my attempt at the 2nd one
(still hitting the 300KB limit!).
I shall be interested to see a normal rendition, as playing with the L channel and an inverted L mask in CurveMeister, one seems to be able to bring the boys up quite nicely without over blowing the trees.
Zog

[ggroess]

I'd have to say the first is closest to the way i remember the scene...
I'm going to try your method on it and see where it leads me...  The Orton stuff is interesting but the light was late evening and very golden coming through the trees and moss as it was...

Greg

[leeharper_admin]

I've been looking forward to trying my hand with this image ;D

In the spirit of trying out a few different correction methods, this is simply a first attempt...

Something that I've been giving a lot of thought to over the last month is how much should be done to the image before curves are applied; and, what place raw conversion programs have in a curve-based workflow. This correction makes use of Adobe Camera Raw - I used some curves afterwards...

What I'm interested in is how my next attempt - which will not incorporate any ACR adjustments - will stack up next to this version. Will it look better? I've heard that (so long as the curves are being created by somebody sufficiently sophisticated) it ought to; I guess we shall see. ;)

Greg - do these colors evoke what you remember of the scene?

Cheers,
Lee.

[mikemeister_admin]

First step was shad/hilite with color correction off,then photo filter warming filter with a tint I selected.
CM for lightness,edge sharpening,back to CM to put a neutral on the grey hoodie and finally HD sharpening at about 30% opacity.GregM

[leeharper_admin]

Ok, here is the version that didn't use Adobe Camera Raw (I'm not sure which I like best)...

I started with an Overlay channel blend, used the (Image > Adjustments > ) Exposure (Gamma slider) tool a bit, and some Man from Mars curves.

Lee.