Eric, in answer to your question: the pic on the left is pretty much as it came out on the photo (slide film), just the contrast tweaked a little. The one on the right is the same picture with PhotoShop' s Adjust>Autolevels applied to it - I've been fascinated to see what this does to pics where there isn't much of a colour range. Came out looking good and stormy, didn't it?
WOW 