Lacking any new images to post is causing me to go back through the ones on file. I've been sorting out my favourites, selecting either on the basis of the general quality of the image or because of a special factor (such as two foxes together). Anyway, I selected an early photo of the cub for today's picture. The weather was damp at the time I took this, so as you can see there are various 'orbs' across the image.
The orbs are a fairly common feature of digital pictures, especially when water or dust is about. My usual technique has been to get out the clone brush and gently brush out the obvious flaws. I tried something different tonight.
First of all I used the 'lasso' selection tool to select the cub. I then inverted the selection so that everything but the cub was active in the editor. I tried blurring the background, but that didn't have much effect. I then decided to use the tone map feature which alters tonal qualities quite drastically (it can get quite psychedelic if you're not careful). Anyway, I used it to drastically darken the whole of the background, which also had the effect of sharpening the foreground. I also added one notch of sharpness before I reduced the image for the web. Even with a fairly quick job (five minutes trial and error), the effect is quite startling. If you look carefully the orb effects are still just about apparent (you may need a bright screen to see it), but the image overall is much improved from a fairly poor original. With more time, it would have been even sharper. The tonal colour of the cub was not adjusted at all.
Fox #2 did show by the way, and was watched closely by the neighbour's cat the whole time. No photos though.