I was going through some photos I took the other day while at home and found one I quite liked. The only problem was either the sky was blown or the red tractor etc was too dark.
So, the solution was to take three (-1, 0 and +1.25) “exposures” from the RAW file and combine them using the GIMP. I simply create three layers and erase/cut out (using the “Free Select Tool”) the appropriate areas; to aid the erasing I created a brush with radius 100px. Add a touch of dodging and burning and there we have the lighting sorted out.
Now for the rest of the image, as it was taken using an ultra wide angle lens, namely the Canon 10-22mm, the horizon was a little distorted (as was the rest of the image but I quite like that).
I did a little Google search and found this page: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hodsond/gimp.html which contains some nice GIMP plugins. I used the Correct Lens Distortion (and then a small rotate by -0.15) to straighten the horizon.
Finally a crop, a (very) small curve adjustment and a little bit of sharpening and there we go.
St Agnes Beach (Trevaunance Cove)
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