Before The Rain

This was yet another photo where I had difficulty emphasizing the

darkness of the clouds without compromising the details of the two

people in the foreground. Any pointer(s) on how this can be best

achieved would be useful. For information, I use Corel Paint Shop Pro

XI. Thank you.

Nice composition in bw. As you have noted it is a difficult photograph with difference in light. I have no idea about Corel that you use, but if you have any software available which can select a portion, you can easily make the faces of the two persons in the front brighter by differentially selecting them. With the same tool, you could make the clouds a bit darker which would have turned this excellent composition worthy of 7/6. Photoshop CS2 or CS3, even Photoshop 7 does it; you can also download Paint net free from net, which is not as good as Photoshop, but can select with the lasso tool. Thanks for your mail. Take care.

In this image the mood is well expressed in my opinion. Corel is also a good editing software, though I don't know its use. You can selectively increase the light on the two figures- I think that is possible in most editing softwares. The lighted parts of the left side railing also asking for more light -that makes them more useful in this composition. Best regards.