This may not look like much, but I am actually quite pleased with it
photographically.

Obviously, half the flower bed is in shadow, and the other half is
still in full sun. The cool thing (IMO) is the level of detail in both
areas.

I took several shots of this at different settings (all spot metered
on the central flower), and this one came out OK in the bright, and
very dark in the shadow. The RAW converter I use is Lightroom. The
first thing I did was to reduce contrast as far as I could. Then there
is an option called "Recovery" that just darkens the very brightest
highlights. There is another option called "Fill Light" that just
brightens the very darkest portions. By using both, I think I have
achieved a result that is similar to what my eye saw at the time
without looking too unnatural. A High Dynamic Range process can do
something similar, but it is a lot harder to deal with.

JD
Canon 1D-mkIII
EXIF Data Included
e-mail: blissful-wind(at)usa.net

Additional images at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-pa/