03 Soft Contrast
So I’ll reset the regular Contrast slider to zero and try Soft Contrast. If I increase this setting, the result is slightly different. The shadows take on a kind of dense, sooty appearance and they spread out slightly into the surroundings as a kind of dark glow. It’s an interesting effect which I’ll certainly want to use some time, but it’s not really working here.
04 ‘Negative’ Soft Contrast
But if I push the Soft Contrast slider the other way, something very interesting happens – the darker parts of the picture are lightened and the lighter parts are darkened – it’s like an instant HDR effect for your black and white pictures. This too produces a ‘glow’ effect (a light glow, this time), but with a complex, detailed subject like this, it’s not that obvious.
05 Now for the Contrast!
NOW I can use the regular Contrast slider, and the picture’s now much closer to the result I have in my mind. The sky is now in fact slightly darker than its reflection in the water, and I can still see details in the building.
I’m tempted to stop here, but now that the darker tones in the picture have been recovered so well by the Soft Contrast slider, the image now has the potential for some further enhancements.