Using PhotoLab 4 to process sunset photos

Talking of which, I just reworked this image, using an appropriate DCP profile from the Adobe DNG Converter installation that @platypus talked about here Color behavior - Any answer? - #21 by platypus as a starting point.

It really gives an amazing starting point, with a properly flat rendering that was easier to work with - at least, that’s my opinion.

Here’s an export of the finished result…

And here are the steps I took to get there.

  1. Apply the four Optical Corrections and set the colour temperature to 5600°K ±0

  2. Apply the Flat camera profile for your camera.

    Capture d’écran 2021-09-29 à 17.40.35

    You’ll need to import the profile from where @platypus showed by selecting the rendering drop-down and navigating to the folder.

    This then gives…

  3. Now, apply a couple of Spot Weighted Smart Lighting areas: one to the bright building on the left…

    Capture d’écran 2021-09-29 à 17.47.11

    Note how clear the lights are without having to reduce the exposure. This means you got the exposure spot on.

    Now apply a second area to the darkest part of the bottom right…

    Once again, you can see that the lights are not flared.

    This then gives you this…

  4. Now reduce the top of the tone curve and increase the bottom, and add a bit of fine contrast…

    … to give you this…

  5. Add in a touch of Vibrance…

    Capture d’écran 2021-09-29 à 18.03.31

  6. Turn on the DeepPRIME NR and apply a Force Parallels perspective correction and crop…

And that’s just about it. Subject to your approval of course :nerd_face:

Here’s the DOP file with my version added…

_MJM9021 | 2021-09-28-Sun setting over Biscayne Bay.nef.dop (26,2 Ko)

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