Are you guys seeing detail in the shadows or are they black? I wanted them to be black -- and they are on my screen -- but they're muddy on my wife's computer.
Some of the shadows do have some details on my monitor.
If you compare it to the bar below the photos in voting here on DPC, some of the shadows like your wife's (I assume) right eye is between the second and third darkest block.
Did you want some detail in the right eye?
The other shadows dont have as much detail though.
Nothing that a little curves adjustment can’t fix to make it completely black.
I can see the curve of the eyelid, faintly, & that's about it. Does not look muddy. My attention was caught by the texture of the arm. Nice shot. Innocence of the sleeping baby, watchfulness of the mother.
Lots of solid black shadows on my monitor. I can just *barely* perceive a triangular area of detail on the baby's outfit just to the right of his elbow. But I have to really look for it. I can see the detail in that area a little better at the 1024 pixel size. I can clearly make out the mother's right eye, but I would not call the shadows murky in any way.
Maybe just open up a levels dialog and clip the shadows a touch.
Ok. My initial edit in Lightroom didn't clip any shadows but they were still black on my monitor. I guess I need to clip them to make them black for everyone...
Ok. My initial edit in Lightroom didn't clip any shadows but they were still black on my monitor. I guess I need to clip them to make them black for everyone...
Why would you clip the blacks to make them black for everyone. I calibrate my HP LP2475w with my Spyder3Studio kit. The dark to light spectrum on DPC is perfect on my monitor as is any test site out there. The lighting of your photo is technically right where you want it to be when viewed on a calibrated monitor so why would you want to alter it based on feedback from people who either don't calibrate their monitors or do it by eyeball at best?
ETA: I'm talking in general here, and not specifically about any of those that responded to this thread. My main point is you should be processing for correct results on calibrated or near calibrated monitors, and not trying to please everyone out there whose monitors may be off quite a bit. If they set their contract or brightness higher than it should be for photo viewing than all you are doing is ruining YOUR shot to conform to their settings which in that case...good luck pleasing everyone because that's an effort in futility.
Geeze, on my monitor it's like a perfect zone system rendering, fully detailed balcks adding incredible depth and intimacy to the image. I can see the shaded eye on the mother, for example, I see detail on her body under the baby, etc. I cannot imagine wanting to "clip" this image to black shadows. What a waste.
I try to have my monitor calibrated for shadows/highlights and such. With low key shots it's a toughy to have it look the same (or of the exact quality you want it) on all monitors.
Saying that, I see some railings in the background but the rest of the shot looks great. The shadows aren't pitch black. Do you want the baby's face to be completely hidden? At the moment I see her closed eye and a bit of sparkle in the Mom's eye, not clearly but enough to think it's not overly bright or completely hidden from view.
Geeze, on my monitor it's like a perfect zone system rendering, fully detailed balcks adding incredible depth and intimacy to the image. I can see the shaded eye on the mother, for example, I see detail on her body under the baby, etc. I cannot imagine wanting to "clip" this image to black shadows. What a waste.
Ok. My initial edit in Lightroom didn't clip any shadows but they were still black on my monitor. I guess I need to clip them to make them black for everyone...
Why would you clip the blacks to make them black for everyone. I calibrate my HP LP2475w with my Spyder3Studio kit. The dark to light spectrum on DPC is perfect on my monitor as is any test site out there. The lighting of your photo is technically right where you want it to be when viewed on a calibrated monitor so why would you want to alter it based on feedback from people who either don't calibrate their monitors or do it by eyeball at best?
ETA: I'm talking in general here, and not specifically about any of those that responded to this thread. My main point is you should be processing for correct results on calibrated or near calibrated monitors, and not trying to please everyone out there whose monitors may be off quite a bit. If they set their contract or brightness higher than it should be for photo viewing than all you are doing is ruining YOUR shot to conform to their settings which in that case...good luck pleasing everyone because that's an effort in futility.
Dave
My monitor isn't calibrated. So I didn't know if it was possible that it was mine that was off.
Geeze, on my monitor it's like a perfect zone system rendering, fully detailed balcks adding incredible depth and intimacy to the image. I can see the shaded eye on the mother, for example, I see detail on her body under the baby, etc. I cannot imagine wanting to "clip" this image to black shadows. What a waste.
I was just trying to use the key light to highlight the form of the image and not necessarily capture all of the details. For instance, I didn't want the bed posts in the background. If you can see bed posts, then my monitor is not showing the same as yours. On my wife's computer, seeing the detail in the shadows, it didn't look clean to me.
