Controlling the Stretch

Overall the effect is quite interesting. However the bike could possibly be better seen if the light behind it was not quite so dark. The cause of the darkening is the downward (dark) stretching of the highlights (red arrows) as a result of the large shift in the upper (right) control arrow at the brighter end of the sky range. This is not desirable in this case, but it can be controlled with an anchor point. One was added in the middle of the highlights and has caused the brightest parts of the sky (nearer the horizon) to remain reasonably light, while changing the aura more towards a halo – something that Harley aficionados will appreciate.

This has lightened the image, mostly eliminating the darkening in the lights. Note the effects on the oil tank, forks etc. It has also had an interesting effect in the sky – by restricting the darkening of the sky tones that are between the inverted tones and the highlights (upper short red arrow in histogram), a region of lightness has been retained in the sky which adds a lot of interest to the result, even if it looks a little unreal. Fine tuning the upper transition point for the inversion and the anchor location will give control over the position and amount of the sky’s lighter areas. In need use multiple anchors.

You may be wondering why the oval around the bike is not symmetrical – this is because the sky tones are dependant on the position of the sun – and in this case it was behind and o the left of me, so as to exclude my shadow from the shot.