faux HDR

the underbelly of the pier is a wondrously aggravating piece of work to capture photographically. the wood has weathered into tremendous shades and the light falls into a natural chiaroscuro that makes visually-hungry people like me drool...but the lens is not quite as intelligent as the eye, so all the rigor of this shot is in the post-production. pictures like this are usually taken in several different bracketed exposures and then 'tone mapped' to bring out detail in even highlighted and shaded areas, these images are called 'high dynamic range', or HDR. since i made only one exposure i faked it with my RAW converter and a whole lot of masked curves. i relay all this photo-geek gibberish purely for my own satisfaction, as this picture took me about as long as all the other ones combined, and i'm reasonably satisfied with the product (not perfectly, but i'm still pretty happy). you all probably thought i was done with maine photos, but oh no, there are more to come, i've just been busy blowing my nose, hacking, knitting, and going for long walks with the boy. autumn has arrived in portland.