Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/13, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pure Fun
( slightly stylized )

Today we visited a most excellent playground in Ravenna, a town four miles north, and among the resulting photos was one of Anthony gleefully enjoying a spin on a suspended tire. I liked the picture, but thought that a more punchy treatment would suit it better. I've occasionally liked the results of a “Dave Hill look” treatment (described here, and another example here), and what you see above is the result.

This time, though, I took advantage of a new feature of Lightroom 2 to soften it up, and take off the edge that the normal Dave Hill result.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/13, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pure Fun
in Adobe Lightroom

You can see in the develop settings at right that most settings are totally exaggerated... recovery, fill light, blacks, and contrast. The key here is clarity, and how it was applied. Clarity was first introduced in Lightroom version 1.1 to allow you to enhance local contrast, and with the normal “Dave Hill look” treatment, you push it to its maximum.

Lightroom 2, however, introduces the ability to apply negative clarity, which reduces local contrast. This softens things up, with the marquee use being to smooth the look of skin in a portrait (and as such, negative clarity is normally used with a localized-correction brush, so that you don't reduce the contrast of areas like the eyes).

In this case, I used negative clarity on the entire frame, which softens up the whole thing, bringing the somewhat harsh “Dave Hill look” more in line with the youthful, innocent subject of the shot. I really like the effect.

Here's the “normal” treatment I would have given the original photo, which has some fill light applied to make up for the harsh shadows...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/13, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not So Interesting
But Still Fun

And for context, here's what he was spinning on...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

He was actually spinning at a fairly good clip, but a fast shutter speed makes it look like he's just sitting there.