flat...

[thecovered]

im sure this has been covered many times before, sorry...
most of my shots come out flat looking. ive pp'd them to death and can never make them look how i want. is this mainly achieved from stacking layers, or all about camera setting? attached is a couple shots i took awhile ago. both are pretty compressed obviously. any comments on how to inprove. much appreciated
thanx
jeremy

20d, 1/1250, iso 100, f5.6, 400mm
79132

1/1250, iso 100, f4, 70mm
79133

[tim]

Can you put high res files onto a web server for us to download and play with?

[PhotosGuy]

That should be pretty easy to fix. Take a look at this thread for how to use a Layer Mask to selectivly lighten/darken part of a pic: Airport runway shoot (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=117950)

Dynamic range question...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135097
RAitch Tutorial - Burn and Dodge with a Layer
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=810581#post810581
Tutorial - Create a layer mask from image detail
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=100077
Masks - Lightening
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=977235#post977235
Another example using Masks (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=108256) is here.

Russell Brown Tips & Techniques: Advanced Masking
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html
Scottes: Tutorial: Masking for Noise Reduction (Big!)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48929
The Light's Right Studio: Blended Exposures Revisited (http://www.thelightsright.com/tutorials/BlendedExposuresRevisited.pdf)

[chtgrubbs]

You might want to check out Dan Margulis' book on using LAB Color for Photoshop. Doing Curves corrections in LAB mode allows you to greatly enhance color contrast without making overall contrast too great.

[Double Negative]

Just open up the curves dialog (or even levels) and drag the black/white (not grey!) sliders in from the ends a little bit. The more you do so, the steeper the curve becomes, compressing the tones and increasing contrast.

In the histogram, you'll want to maximize things a little by clipping the ends up to where the curve starts to go up... Sometimes even when there's only a one pixel line on the "floor."

[thecovered]

thanx for the really good info. ill look into it in more detail later tonite when i get a chance.
heres the originals. play with them all u want
-jeremy

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/theCovered/surf/IMG_0300copyid.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h82/theCovered/surf/skate/IMG_0861.jpg