Azaleas

[Anirban Halder]

Beautiful urban landscape. 20/1.8 is an awesome lens Akira and you seem to have started making best use of it already.

[Akira]

I simply added a curve - by picking a lighter point and a darker point in the azaleas - and the used those points to make a curve  - something like this

I use this method a LOT to add contrast - as you can bruch it away on the mask where you dont want it

Elsa, thanks for the disclosure.  I've never really succeeded in using tone curves in ACR, but your method seems to work nicely in various situations.

[Akira]

Beautiful urban landscape. 20/1.8 is an awesome lens Akira and you seem to have started making best use of it already.

Thanks and welcome back, Anirban!  I've been big fan of 20mm lenses since the film days and have used different 20mm Nikkors over the years.  This one seems to be a literal ultimate at this point.

[elsa hoffmann]

Elsa, thanks for the disclosure.  I've never really succeeded in using tone curves in ACR, but your method seems to work nicely in various situations.

Akira - I once watched a tutorial by Ben Willmore - I think it was 2 or 3 days exclusively on curves - and discovered how mighty that specific adjustment can be - in SO many ways. (I mean imagine all those hours just on curves) and when I open ANY image in PS - Curves is the very first action that happens - I immediately set black and white points, change mode to Luminosity (otherwise you might get a colour introduced and all I really want is the brightness levels set, not the colour)  - and start from there. Sometimes I do adjust further - and even on occasion delete the curves layer - but rule of thumb for me is Curves first.

[Akira]

Elsa, thanks for the further advice.  The Ben Willmore's "Learn To Love Photoshop" series looks good.  I'll investigate that.