poita said:

The cartoon shot on the right actually looks more washed out to me though?

Oh, I didn't mean the contrast of the cartoon ... rather the color strength improvement over the previous page's attempt (like in trying to see more of that green in fox's shirt). But right now I have only a little idea what everything should look like. :)

Thanks for all the information! Will definitely look into it.

New programs will be problematic as I'm using older equipment with older OS. For now, I'll just spew out the theories and approaches (which I test and refine in these instances) ... and the relevant numbers as a starting points for the project(s). And, yes, they should definitely use the high bit processing, which I think they can with that expensive software they use (ouch, I think I hurt my wallet again).