Converting from RAW to JPG

[Daniel Browning]

As a personal preference I like images that use light and shadow well and have a high dynamic range e.g. silhouette

Actually, silhouette photographs have a very low dynamic range. That's one of the defining characteristics. If it had higher dynamic range, then there wouldn't be so much of the image crushed to black.

or to soften the image.

To me, after resizing the image to 1024x682, the image is plenty sharp/crisp and does not require any additional sharpening or softening.

I feel that the unedited JPG lost dynamic range

Actually, the edited version has slightly *less* dynamic range than the unedited jpeg; for example, there is less visible detail in the shrubs on the left under the bright lights in the edited version.


It sounds like you might prefer it if you set the defaults in your raw converter to produce less dynamic range (e.g. "contrast" slider/tone curve), more sharpening, and higher saturation.