LX100 Subjects with high brightness range revisited

After editing in Adobe Camera Raw

I have been using the LX100 a lot lately. It makes a very good street/candid camera. I made the shot above in Programme AE Mode, with autofocus. The camera is very fast and responsive which allows it to be used in many close in situations.

Same capture. JPG straight out of camera with i-Dynamic set to Auto.

This is the same file as the one at the top showing the appearance as it came out of  Adobe Camera RAW with default settings.

To get from the appearance above to that at the top required some work in ACR. I adjusted rotation, perspective, exposure, color, highlights, shadows, contrast, blacks, vibrance and clarity.  I could have made the dark tones lighter and the light tones darker but that gives the photo an un-natural appearance.

The downside of lifting dark tones so much is the level of luminance noise in the lifted tones. I find this much less obvious in a print than on screen.

I think the LX100 has done a good job with the JPG but the version edited in ACR is better.

The LX100 is able to cope with subjects like the one above having very large brightness range, especially with RAW capture and thoughtful editing.