blown highlights=no more!

DanielB

this was on FM thought you guys might find it interesting:


Blow Highlights and Ctrl Alt ~
This might not be the place to share such info, but since it would benefit some Landscape photographers so much I thought I might just put it here.

Want to fix those blow highlights? Here is an unusual, and very little known trick. In PS have one layer your image exposed for the whole scene (that has the blow out highlights) then have underneath it the same exact scene exposed for the highlights (highlights not blown). Of course you could auto bracket the scene, like I do. But sometimes you might just take the exposure way down in ACR using the "Exposure Compensation" slider.

Then with the top layer activated, hit CTRL Alt ~ (PC) or Opt Cmd ~

(Mac). This activates a "Luminosity Mask"

CTRL Alt ~ (PC) or Opt Cmd ~ make PS select just the blown out pixels (highlights) mostly! What I do is hit Ctrl Alt ~ and then I usually go under "Select" and "Feather" this selection 250 pixels or less. Then I hit DELETE. You have now deleted those blown out pixels and exchanged them for the pixels in the layer below that still have detail! Then flatten the file! "Feathering" makes the effect blend in real nice. A tip: try different amounts on the feathering.

Of course I still graduate auto bracketed shots, but I have found this technique to work even better for many Nature and Landscape images.

TOF guy

Very interesting ! Thanks for the tip.

Thierry

Savone

WOW, That is an awesome tip. Thank god I went back to read some old posts!

wxwax

That is interesting. Control-Alt-~ is the first step in Andy's toning process, as well.

DanielB

any time guys. Sid, is it really? huh, i'll have to do a search...

saurora

Thanks for the tutorial, Daniel. I sorta knew some of this, but too lazy to get the book out...I need to give this a try, though, because I blow my highlights alot!!!!