Creative Thursday - Howe Cavern

This past summer the girls and I went to upstate NY.  We visited Howe and Secret Caverns.  They were alright, but not as neat at Bristol Caverns in Tn. or Lurray Caverns in Va.

I digress.

I was showing a friend my cavern pictures and they asked, "How did you get those pictures in the dark of the caverns?".  I of course corrected them and said, "You mean in the light of the caverns?"
So I started thinking that most people who have to take pictures in less than optimal conditions with less than optimal equipment (I really need to start using a tripod), probably miss out on a lot of their better shots.  Digital cameras have an amazing ability to hold much more information than is visibly conveyed.  What this means in English is that  simple enhancements can be done to make a seemingly bad picture into a good one.
For a quick example, I found two pictures I took in the cavern.  One appears dark (photographer error, but one a typical auto camera would make.) and one with the correct exposure (I'll blame the first one on the kids).
Below are the pictures.  The first two pictures are the same picture, one is dark and the other was Auto color enhanced using the freeware Irfanview.  The third picture is a different picture, taken of the same subject but correctly.

Dark picture that would normally  be tossed.

Same dark picture run through free color enhancer.

Correctly exposed picture.

The colors in the enhanced version, do not match the correctly exposed picture because a lot of the color enhancers over do it a bit.  Gimp, X3, Photoshop and Photo Studio will all do a better job at getting the correct colors, or you can correct them manually.  Some people even like the juiced up color a bit.

The above examples were done with good equipment but I found this trick while using a Canon S1-IS point and shoot at the Grand Canyon several (5+) years ago.  It was night time, under a full moon, and I took a bunch of shots that I thought would amount to nothing.  After throwing them through a color enhancer, the shots changed from a moon lit sky to a unique view of the canyon.  I'll post those at a later date, when I find them. 

Next time you take a picture in a less than optimal light condition or with less than optimal equipment (don't we all have at least one, if not more point and shoots).  Don't toss them, throw them through a color enhancer.  You'd be surprised how much more the camera sees than you do.

I tend to keep most of my images in an unedited state and don't let my camera do any sharpening, but all of the shots in this post have been lightly sharpened.

The above shot is the only one color enhanced, out of the group.