dark colors / detail

lr1811

I took some photos tonight of a friend's family. The wife wore black clothing and she has dark hair. I can't show any detail on her unless I use shadow/highlight feature (in Photoshop CS) which leaves it a litrle grainy.

Is there an easiler tool I should be using?

Thanks!
Brian

Shay Stephens

Black typically doesn't have a lot of detail to show. I wouldn't try to hard to artificially crank dark detail.

And the best tool for shadow detail is getting a proper exposure. Careful exposure choices will make all the difference. If you don't have a light meter, then consider learning the zone system as it applies to exposure. Then you can spot meter off dark hair and know whether or not to set the compensation to -2EV or -3EV.

Once you have control of exposure, shadow detail is rarely a problem.

rutt

Shay is right about getting the exposure right, of course. But lots of times there is shadow detail which can be recovered and retained in black during post processing. And even the best exposed shots sometimes need help in post in order to hold and emphasize shadow detail if that's a very important part of the image. Did you shoot raw? If so, the most important trick is to make sure that the raw converter doesn't clip any part of the black histogram. If you use CS2's ACR, set the curve to linear and make sure to set the shadow value to or low enough that there is no clipping. You'll be able to see the clipped area if you check the preview, shadow, and highlights boxes along the top.

After that, it might be that you can recover some shadow detail with shadow/highlight. If so, you can hold and emphasize by steepening the black curve in CMYK and sharpening the black channel there.

Post your example the the Digital Darkroom forum if you'd like more help. Full res is always easier to work with.