John,

*Grin*. Postprocessing allowed. Challenge remains.
If ever you get near a grey metallic dial, please awe us like you did with Confluence of Lume.

In the meantime I'll try your card trickery.
Cheerz, Jurgen

: Jurgen,

: Why no post processing? I have said before here that every image I
: take get's post processed before I ever show it to anybody. That
: includes iPhone pix. That doesn't mean that I put something in
: or take something out. It doesn't mean that I fix flaws.

: Cameras don't see that way a human being sees. A camera has a lens
: and a sensor/film. A human being has eyes and a brain. A sensor
: is thoughtless. A brain does its own processing...whether you
: like it or not. To get a photo from a camera to look like what
: your brain sees post processing is almost always required. This
: doesn't mean you make thinks look better than reality...it means
: you make photos look real.

: From the photo standpoint, what I would do to make the dial look
: better on this shot is to light it from the side(s) and put
: something above it to reflect dark on the crystal...either a
: black or a dark grey card. To see the effect take a watch and
: put it in window light and hold a black or a dark grey colored
: card above it until the card reflects in the dial/crystal. You
: won't need a camera to see the effect.

: JohnCote