In both cases above the lighting was using the Flash. Yesterday was rainy (hence the wet look) and overcast. I took some without the flash but there just wasn't enough there. No vibrancy. I use a Sony DSC-F707 digital, and used the reduced flash setting. These were with F5 and F3.5 respectively. Adjustments to Levels (medium) and Curves (just a tweak) plus a small cropping in Photoshop 6. All I had with me was my hat (black gambler) so I held it over the camera during the shot to shield from the rain and I think that affected the flash just a bit. Any suggestions on improvement? Thank you for asking! Magick Michael aka zhounder