*Controlling Contrast – A Quick Tutorial

MV
Posted By
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 29, 2004
Views
315
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Managing the contrast in a photograph must be one of the most important tasks in post processing. These are just a few quick tips for the workflow of contrast enhancements.

At minimum, Levels or Curves or perhaps both, are applied. We should get used to use Adjustment Layers instead of ‘hard-copy’ adjustments.

A quick way of determining shadow and highlight burnouts in the Levels dialog is to Alt-drag the Levels end point sliders. The preview will clearly show when burnouts or blow-outs appear, even in which color.

Users of Curves should be alerted that the Curves interface can be enlarged via a small icon in the lower right of the Curves interface. This allows more precise control when applying curve points.

You can identify and define your shade directly in the image (one click in the image to preview, one ctrl-click to apply point to curve), then you can use the arrow keys to tweak the curve point, shift-arrow for 10x movement. The arrow keys can be used for many of Photoshop dialog screens with much efficiency and accuracy, although not all filters are equally optimized for them.

One of Photoshops few features that I never personally use is the Brightness/Contrast adjustment. Many professionals agree that there are smarter way of controlling these factors than a pure linear approach.

Here are two techniques broadly used amongst photo professionals, these are ‘the old school of contrast’:

1) Increasing contrast with USM

Duplicate layer
Filter>Sharpen>USM
Settings for web sized image: 1-20, 50, 0
Settings for larger photos: 1-20, 70, 0
Adjust duplicate layer blending to your liking

I call this method ‘Contrast Coating’. It can create a subtle contrast enhancement such as you know from very expensive camera lenses.

2) Decreasing contrast with Contrast Masking

Duplicate layer
Image>Adjust>Desaturate
Image>Adjust>Invert
Set Image blend mode: Overlay or Soft Light
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur:

You can either choose a very low blur or a very large blur (0.3 or 30+ radius), if you choose a low blur radius, then you must decrease the layer opacity to a very low level. (Which is what I did in the example below).

Contrast Masking can even be used as a ‘fill flash’ effect to rescue over-contrasty or backlit photos.

Here´s a graphic of these two effects, when aggressively applied to a neutral image of a domestic animal:

In both of these recipes, you are left with a layer that you can blend and mask any way you like, so you can easily combine the two effects in an image, say to lift shadows, but increase midtone contrast if you like.

Mathias

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Lawrence_Hudetz
Jan 30, 2004
The new contrast controls in PSCS do a lot of that now. What you call contrast coating is actually a marvelous tool. It can be enhanced by decreasing Amount 1/2 to 1/3 and applying sucessivly.

The downside of CC is the halo or "Eberhard" effect between areas of sudden, large value changes, like mountains againt a bright (sometimes not so bright!) skies. Technical Pan film is noted for this effect. It does increase the apparent sharpness of the image in a very appealing way. Applied well, final sharpening at print time needs only minor application.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jan 30, 2004
Yes, unfortunately my tips are limited up to version 7, as I do not yet have my own copy of CS, I do not know the new tools like the shadow and highlight adjustment.

Thank you for your input Lawrence. I agree that applying in lower amounts sucessively is a good way of decreasing halos, even in normal USM appliance.

Mathias
GA
George_Austin
Jan 30, 2004
Mathias,

thanks for volunteerinbg that very concise and informative summary

George
PC
Philo_Calhoun
Jan 30, 2004
Mathias: as always, a great tutorial!
ND
Nick_Decker
Jan 30, 2004
Excellent, Mat, I learn something new every time you post one of these.

Thanks!
JL
John_LT4
Jan 30, 2004
Thanks Mathias – when are you coming out with a training CD!!! 🙂
CB
Cathy_Brown
Jan 30, 2004
Mathias, that’s just plain terrific. Thanks!
PC
Pierre_Courtejoie
Feb 20, 2004
Bump… shouldn’t this gem join the resources section?
P
Phosphor
Feb 20, 2004
Will do…I missed it when it was first posted.

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