> If one is able to drop the slope of the curve uniformly, one presumably loses local contrast uniformly across the whole scale(posted 8370 days ago)Yes, I've found that generally I prefer that solution. The only time I go for the "heroic measures" of putting a strong shoulder into the film is when I'm faced with background very bright sky through the trees. The range between foreground subject and the bright sky is so great that there's no way to hold both so it's preferable to be able to print at least a slight tone in the sky rather than blank white that can't reasonably be burned in.
It gives a weird curve shape, with pretty much normal contrast up to about seven stops, then almost flat. I'd call this extreme compensation but since there's so little contrast up on the high end there's no printable detail.
In looking at photos of similar subjects by other photographers, I've noticed that they generally handle it by not handling it; they either frame so there's virtually no background sky visible or they just let it blow out.