PS/CS shadow/highlight adjustment

rutt

This was shot jpeg, might have worked out better raw, but that wasn't how it happened. Well, I saw potential there, even if it is very dark.



PS/CS has a new feature image->adjustments->shadow/highlight which I've played with a little. Thought I'd give it a try here. I just used the defaults and I got this:



It sure did recover a lot of detail in the shadows but it lost the beautiful black. So, I made a trip into LAB (so to speak) curves to make the black more neutral:



Now how about some sharpening. In my experience with pictures of this particular dog, it's very easy to make her fur look wet or fuzzy or just wrong. It's important to find the right channel to sharpen (where the detail is) and it's important to employ the right sharpening technique.

I ened up using Dan Margulis' trick of oversharpening and then blending in two separate layers, one for darken and one for lighten. The opacity of the lighten layer can be low. The result is nice sharpening without too much white halo effect. I think the white halos are what causes the wet look.



(I also took the opportunity to use the sharpening tool on her eyes and especially on the drool.)

Along the way to this version, I noticed that the red channel was a pretty nice B&W image. I also used the DM 2 layer sharpeing trick on it:



So, I don't think I really understand the highlight/shadow thing yet, but it seems like it has its uses. Seems like it needs to be followed up with some more classical techniques to nail it.

ginger_55

No Green Tennis balls with blk/white dog

rutt wrote:

This was shot jpeg, might have worked out better raw, but that wasn't how it happened. Well, I saw potential there, even if it is very dark.


I like the black and white, at least the tennis ball isn't green, then. I live in Charleston, SC, have been playing tennis here 15 years. Played other places before. Never saw a green tennis ball before last night on this site, too.

ginger

rutt

ginger_55 wrote:

rutt wrote:

This was shot jpeg, might have worked out better raw, but that wasn't how it happened. Well, I saw potential there, even if it is very dark.


I like the black and white, at least the tennis ball isn't green, then. I live in Charleston, SC, have been playing tennis here 15 years. Played other places before. Never saw a green tennis ball before last night on this site, too.

ginger

Tennis, yes, but do you have a lab? You see the balls do start out yellow. But what happens when you mix yellow pigment with mud and dog drool? This is basic color theory, or maybe chemistry, or maybe a little of both.
If you like I can send you some samples. PM my your address and I'll get em right out to you.

wmsnyder

Shadow/Highlight Tool
I had limited success with this tool until I read Artie Morris's Digital pdf file. Here are the default settings he suggest:

Make sure the black and white clip boxes are set to 0.
Shadow amount 10-15
Shadow Tonal 25
Shadow Radius 30

Highlight amount 1
Highlight Tonal 12-15
Highlight Radius 30
You can use the save as default button to make these values the default.

rutt

wmsnyder wrote:

I had limited success with this tool until I read Artie Morris's Digital pdf file. Here are the default settings he suggest:

Make sure the black and white clip boxes are set to 0.
Shadow amount 10-15
Shadow Tonal 25
Shadow Radius 30

Highlight amount 1
Highlight Tonal 12-15
Highlight Radius 30
You can use the save as default button to make these values the default.

Do you have a pointer to this article? I'd really like to know what the thing actually does. I mean I understand what USM does, for example. And before I did I couldn't use it as effectively as I could afterwards.

wmsnyder

Here is his web site. The pdf file cost $20 but I think it is well worth it.

http://www.birdsasart.com/

rutt wrote:

Do you have a pointer to this article? I'd really like to know what the thing actually does. I mean I understand what USM does, for example. And before I did I couldn't use it as effectively as I could afterwards.