Thanks Ray, I wondered how you'd managed that rendering as every time I tried to lighten the mist I completely screwed the picture. Your version inspired me to go back and push things a little further though and I think I have come up with the scene as I remember it now. BTW, I tried to push things as far as you did in lightroom, and again it screwed the picture in a major way....I also have ACR 4.6 so opened the jpeg there and managed to come up with the same as you....interesting as I would have thought it to be the other way round where the jpeg would deteriorate! Nevertheless, that version is too hot for the scene as was, so here is the final edit. Thanks again to everyone...I wouldn't have been able to produce this result without your input.
Cheers
Brian
Oh and Russ, the print is pretty good!!
Brian,
That's far too dark and lacklustre. More work needs to be done.
Here's a technique in Photoshop for making adjustments whilst preserving highlight detail.
On the PC, click on 'channels RGB' whilst holding down CTRL. This selects the highlights.
Hold CTRL plus shift, then press I to invert.
Go to heading 'layer' then 'new adjustment layer'.
Select from 'new adjustment layer', levels, curves, brightness/contrast, etc, whatever you think might work.
Select something like 80% opacity.
Make adjustments to your heart's content, secure in the knowledge you will not blow highlights (within reason, of course ).