Ok, Chris kindly emailed the original PEF. The shot was overexposed for the sky - so the banding is down to that.
Tyr's suggestion of bracketing shots is fine - assuming you have a tripod and some time. (Moves into the HDR realm, which is another big topic!!)

Silkypix could almost do something with the sky - but it wasn't ETTR, alas.

Still, given that the image was the only shot we have, here's a simple fix

* Process as best you can in RAW
* Open in Photoshop
* Use the color picker to select a good part of the sky (I used the bit at the top of the building)
* Add a new adjustment layer - Solid Color (yes, you're reading right!)
* Change the layer blend mode to "Color" (ooh! Picture goes blue)
* Fill the mask with black (back to colour)
* Use the Gradient tool to paint White-to-transparent at 50% opacity and grad in the bit of sky.



Full size images start here: http://www.pbase.com/image/86888302 (click Next to see four images)

That'll get rid of the cyan cast, but doesn't deal with the change in luminance. Looks pretty natural.




But, should you want the whole thing sorted it's best to do a mask of the building and drop in a new sky (or clone in the existing sky over the bald patch )

Hope that helps!
Matt

I have CS2 and very, very rarely use the ACR. I'd rate Silkypix very highly though But, as I mentioned there are two algorithms for highlight recovery. Silkypix must still have the information available in the RAW itself - so you have to expose with it in mind (rather than finding out at the post-processing stage only).
If you want you can email me a PEF file and I'll run it through all the RAW converters I have and let you know
Matt

There are two factors:

1) If you shot JPG, or you process like this into JPG from RAW, then the blue channel is pathetic in JPG It'll posterise like mad when you're dealing with a blue-only subject. (It's one huge advantage to shooting RAW )

2) CCD clipping, as mentioned above. If you shoot RAW you should ETTR (Expose To The Right of the histogram). If you blow out anything you'll just never recover it at all (except DxOptics apparently has a recovery feature in version 5). Silkypix can deal with the situation - if you ETTR and use the exposure compensation to bring the main part of the image back in line, the dynamic range adjustment can tweak how the resultant clips are handled (but it can't recover what's been lost at the capture stage).

Hope that helps a touch!
Matt

They seem to go around the £250 mark second hand... so that's not exactly well above
Matt

IIRC, the 24-90 was around £450 RRP. Optically superb, and very, very nice on the digital format
I keep um-ing and ah-ing over whether to sell mine off to fund the new DA* lenses... but the 24-90 range is superb as a single lens Decisions decisions

Matt

Hi Amer and welcome to the board!

"Bright" is for printing straight from camera.
"Natural" is if you want to do post-processing.

If you might want to post-process, then you could also consider shooting RAW+JPG with the "Bright" option. You can then print directly from the JPG or edit as much as you want from the RAW (but you'll get fewer shots on a card).

Hope that helps!
Matt

It also depends on whether there are highlights in the background. If the background has bright sunlight (or other bright light sources) and you shoot wide open then you'll get the circles.
(One of the advantages of digital - you can shoot and review to get the best angle)
Matt

That's not quite true...
It's only when you've overwritten the card with new images that you can't get it back. A format only "hides" that the files were there - it doesn't remove the file data itself. There are a few free pieces of recovery software (like Zero Assumption Recovery) and some other excellent paid-for ones (threads are on here).
I tend to cycle two or three cards in the camera so I extend the time I have to recover any files needed (though I've never needed to so far!)
Matt

Short of requiring a contact clean, it does sound like a camera problem
Matt

What's the SD card make and model?
I have seen a few cards go "belly up" in my time... most of the marque brands (SanDisk, Lexar etc) have either lifetime or 5 year warranties.
(But then there have been some cheap forged versions floating about as well that are worth nothing :roll

I would definitely try another card first
(FWIW, I get my cards from www.picstop.co.uk - stupid prices on genuine Sandisk Extreme III cards!)

Matt