Quote:
Originally Posted by Prissy
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Notice that those light have no exposed lights. They're all signs with backlighting. Most of the ones you see on these pages are skylines with directly exposed lights with no covers that are point sources that are actually overexposed. Because they occupy so little area the over exposure is not a problem and is seen as twinkle.
You can make sure that your images are extra sharp by using a tripod, low ISO, mirror lock up and remote shutter release. Expose to the right of the histogram and normalize the brightness level in RAW conversion. Add
Vibrance and
Contrast in PP and maybe a tasteful touch of
Saturation. If you want sparkle or twinkle, pick subjects with exposed lights in parts of the image. If you shoot an LED sign, try getting close so that the individual lights are more prominent. Be careful with Sharpening, since it can destroy detail.
Out of the camera images are NOT realistic. Our eyes see more color and contrast than the RAW uncorrected image and the basic (non-program) jpeg will show. LightRoom, DxO, DPP, Nik all add to the realism. Thinking that the untouched RAW image is "accurate", particularly if you expose to the right, is a mistake. The RAW file is a collection of data, ready for "conversion" to a natural looking output.
Dave