So sue me, I got inspired. ;)
I wanted to make a quick post about Photoshop levels. It's a tool used to adjust shadows and highlights in photos. Basically it's three sliders with a grey scale range of 0-255 from black to white. If you crank the Highlights (white) down all the bright parts of the picture go dark and if you crank it up they all blow out super bright. Same thing with midtones (grays) and Shadows (blacks). It's just like adjusting brightness and contrast but you have more control and get a cleaner result
Click on the images to make them larger. If you have Photoshop at home feel free to try it yourself with the originals
Here is photo_01 with normal levels.

Here is the same photo with the highlights taken from 255 to 50 making everything with some brightness in the photo blow out really white. What's interesting here is that the "fog" right in front of me goes in front of the porch. While the "fog" in the driveway is behind it.

Now here is photo_01 with all the Shadows taken from 0 to 100 making everything dark really dark. This one creeps me out the most.
Here is photo_05 with normal levels.
Here is photo_05 with the highlights taken from 255 to 50. You can actually see across the street and up the road. the pools of orange light are streetlamps.
Now here is photo_05 with shadows taken from 0 to 100. Unlike Photo_01 you can only see the snow everything else blacks out. I don't know why the tree and walkway are so light in Photo_01.

Notice that none of the snow has any motion blur. At the time it was falling very slowly with fat wet flakes. Also there isn't any indication of flaring in the whites that would be indicative of fog on the camera lens. Everything is all sharp and clear all the way through the photos.
Strange but true!!
Peace and Love,
