Highlight and shadow controls in PSE

MJ
Posted By
Michael J Davis
Sep 23, 2007
Views
241
Replies
3
Status
Closed
A couple of dayas ago I posted the following on the PSE ng. Nor reply to date. Perhaps some here can help….

I have been experimenting with highlight / shadow controls in PSE5.

An example is shown in:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/watchman/1418946399/

In this example I have lightened the shadows by 50% and darkened the highlights by 50%. I am quite pleased with the results except for the ‘bloom’ around the darker outlines that rather spoil the effect, as though they are rather highly feathered.

Is there any way of controlling this effect? It should be possible to adjust the highlights and or shadows with only a slight marginal effect but I can’t see where this is set in the default menus.

Thanks for any comments.

Mike

[The reply-to address is valid for 30 days from this posting] —
Michael J Davis

Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/watchman/
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For this is what the Lord has said to me,
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J
Joel
Sep 23, 2007
Michael J Davis <?.?@trustsof.demon.co.uk> wrote:

A couple of dayas ago I posted the following on the PSE ng. Nor reply to date. Perhaps some here can help….

I have been experimenting with highlight / shadow controls in PSE5.
An example is shown in:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/watchman/1418946399/

In this example I have lightened the shadows by 50% and darkened the highlights by 50%. I am quite pleased with the results except for the ‘bloom’ around the darker outlines that rather spoil the effect, as though they are rather highly feathered.

Is there any way of controlling this effect? It should be possible to adjust the highlights and or shadows with only a slight marginal effect but I can’t see where this is set in the default menus.

Thanks for any comments.

I don’t know exactly what you try to archive, and I am not PSE user (I have several versions came with my hardwarez but never look at them) to know if it has Layer, and Masking etc.. but I can give you one of many different ways/techniques to control the image. I can say even more difficult than some landscape.

1. You make a dupe of the original

2. If you want to fix either Over/Underexposed then

– One layer you increase the brightness to fix the shadow

– One layer you decrease the brightness to fix the overexposed

and you can just just about any combination of any command you know (like level, curve, hi-lite/shadow, dodge/burn etc..)

3. Then you use Quick Mask to blend/combine 2 layers together. Or you can control

– which part to keep, which to be replace (from other layer)

– How much you can to keep/replace

– Using different brush size/soft/hard and opacity to control the edge.

… and learn to adapt the technique to different work.

Mike
MJ
Michael J Davis
Sep 24, 2007
In message , Joel
writes
Michael J Davis <?.?@trustsof.demon.co.uk> wrote:

A couple of dayas ago I posted the following on the PSE ng. Nor reply to date. Perhaps some here can help….

I have been experimenting with highlight / shadow controls in PSE5.
An example is shown in:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/watchman/1418946399/

In this example I have lightened the shadows by 50% and darkened the highlights by 50%. I am quite pleased with the results except for the ‘bloom’ around the darker outlines that rather spoil the effect, as though they are rather highly feathered.

Is there any way of controlling this effect? It should be possible to adjust the highlights and or shadows with only a slight marginal effect but I can’t see where this is set in the default menus.

Thanks for any comments.

I don’t know exactly what you try to archive, and I am not PSE user (I have several versions came with my hardwarez but never look at them) to know if it has Layer, and Masking etc.. but I can give you one of many different ways/techniques to control the image. I can say even more difficult than some landscape.

1. You make a dupe of the original

2. If you want to fix either Over/Underexposed then

– One layer you increase the brightness to fix the shadow
– One layer you decrease the brightness to fix the overexposed
and you can just just about any combination of any command you know (like level, curve, hi-lite/shadow, dodge/burn etc..)

3. Then you use Quick Mask to blend/combine 2 layers together. Or you can control

– which part to keep, which to be replace (from other layer)
– How much you can to keep/replace

– Using different brush size/soft/hard and opacity to control the edge.
… and learn to adapt the technique to different work.

Thanks Joel. I guess, being a PSE5 user, that I’m really just lazy. The shadow/ highlight control seemed an ‘improvement’ over my previous version 1, and so I thought I should try it.

But you are right, of course! I really ought to have gone that route (and would have done before) – and yes PSE5 has many tools – thanks for those tips. I’ll go play….!

Mike

[The reply-to address is valid for 30 days from this posting] —
Michael J Davis
http://www.trustsof.demon.co.uk
<><
For this is what the Lord has said to me,
"Go and post a Watchman and let
him report what he sees." Isa 21:6
<><
J
Joel
Sep 24, 2007
Michael J Davis <?.?@trustsof.demon.co.uk> wrote:

<snip>
I don’t know exactly what you try to archive, and I am not PSE user (I have several versions came with my hardwarez but never look at them) to know if it has Layer, and Masking etc.. but I can give you one of many different ways/techniques to control the image. I can say even more difficult than some landscape.

1. You make a dupe of the original

2. If you want to fix either Over/Underexposed then

– One layer you increase the brightness to fix the shadow
– One layer you decrease the brightness to fix the overexposed
and you can just just about any combination of any command you know (like level, curve, hi-lite/shadow, dodge/burn etc..)

3. Then you use Quick Mask to blend/combine 2 layers together. Or you can control

– which part to keep, which to be replace (from other layer)
– How much you can to keep/replace

– Using different brush size/soft/hard and opacity to control the edge.
… and learn to adapt the technique to different work.

Thanks Joel. I guess, being a PSE5 user, that I’m really just lazy. The shadow/ highlight control seemed an ‘improvement’ over my previous version 1, and so I thought I should try it.

But you are right, of course! I really ought to have gone that route (and would have done before) – and yes PSE5 has many tools – thanks for those tips. I’ll go play….!

The above is one of the advanced tricks to deal with something like shadow on portrait which is much harder more complicate than landscape.

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