said by DeathK:" wouldn't try to bring up the shadows too far or turn it into some pseudo-HDR shot with a single image. If you make another trip there again you can try bracketing and process the images through some HDR software. You'll get much better results in that regard."
I agree about the dramatic look of the shadows. At the same time, I liked the colors on the cave ceiling resulting from the reflection from the patches of sunlight. I shot a few back-lighted images that my lovely bride likes - I'll post them after this one has moved off the front page and showcased other folks' photos.
For me, the "HDR look" wouldn't do it justice, but raising the colors using the Pentax software's tone curve feature on the RAW image brought up the colors in the shady parts to give it a mellower and more colorful look.
I did another edit where I brought up the shadows the same way in the pEF file, saved it as a TIFF then used Raw Therapee's local contrast and thirty pass RL deconvolution sharpening. It did a great job sharpening without inducing halos, graininess or noise.
I'd like to go there again to take bracketed shots for a multi-image HDR. However, this one was timed perfectly with the lone person walking in the patch of sunlight. It would be hard to get that lucky again. If I schedule a trip, I'll IM you. Maybe we can meet up and shoot a few together.
For more information on single image tone mapping; »
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To ··· _mappingI won't get into a discussion on whether my edit meets the definition. It is what it is.
