Fill Flash

Jul 13, 2004

Have you tried going to filters>render>lighting and using just the plain clear light, on omni, light up the subjects face with the intensity, just enough to make it lit, and use ambient just enough to keep the rest from getting dark. I was going to leave a url to show what I mean, but MSN is not cooperating with me I have used fill flash and for some things it is wonderful But I have found for others the omni lighting works better..

JoAn_J_Yost

Jul 13, 2004

oh and you are talking about blend options when using layers?. After using them you can use the opacity slider to make then less vivid. Try this as an example. On a photo which you would like to make a bit clearer. duplicate the layer.. then go to filter>other>highpass and then ok. Then go to the blend options you were just talking about on the layer menu, and try the different ones. you can try them in succession with out major changes. Try then the opacity slider on each one I like to use soft light on faces, multiply on buildings and scenery, but you may have different opinions. after you get it where you like it flatten the image, and to to filter>sharpen> unsharp mask, and just a touch uusually will do it. It makes a major difference in a to soft photo. There are many ways to do one thing in photohop and elements is no different I hope I explained where you can understand Or even if it was what you were asking.

Henry_Skinner

Jul 13, 2004

Charles,
A method from Katrin Eismann’s book that I find very handy:

1.) Create a new adjustment layer above the layer you want modified – (le.g., levels). Do not modify anything just OK through the dialogs.

2.) Change the blending mode of the new layer to screen.

3.) On the menu: Image>adjustments>invert (make sure you are in the image menu not the layer menu)

4.) Select the gradient tool

5.) Make sure the transparency option is checked

6.) Select or create a gradient that goes from white to transparent.

7.) you can now pull gradients across portions of the image and they will lighten where the gradient is white.

You can build up multiple gradients from different angles or apply only to a selection. The opacity of the layer may be modified to mute the effect. This process may be used to darken an area by setting the layer blending mode to multiply. (The lighten and darken must be on seperate layers)
HTH

Hank

Patti Anderson

Jul 13, 2004

Eismann’s Screen blend method is great, but you can also use a soft brush instead of using a gradient after step #3. Click on the layer mask on the Layers palette (which should be black after inverting it) and use a soft edge brush and paint with white. If you make a mistake, switch to black and you can "erase" what you did. Just another option. 🙂

Patti

Stu_Bloom

Jul 13, 2004

As is common in the Photoshop/PSE world, there are multiple ways to do the same thing.

Yet another method of dealing with detail in the shadows is Chuck Snyder’s world-famous contrast mask technique.

Chuck Snyder "Gradient tool help needed" 2/2/04 3:45pm </cgi-bin/webx?14/0>

It’s my favorite (thanks Chuck!). In full Photoshop, I have it set up as an action because I use it so often.

On occasion I find that setting the blending mode of the Contrast Mask layer to Soft Light instead of Overlay gives a more pleasing look.

Sometimes it results in images that lack a certain amount of "pop." The way I fix this is after applying the contrast mask I add a defogging USM filter:

1. Merge the original layer and the contrast mask layer
2. Activate Filters->Sharpening->Unsharp Mask
3. Set amount=20, pixels=50, threshhold=0

Stu_Bloom

Jul 13, 2004

One other thing on the use of the contrast mask. If you have a blue sky with cloud detail, the contrast mask can make the clouds appear unnatural, especially when the mask is set to high opacity. I sometimes mask out the sky area before I apply the contrast mask.

Ed_Wurster

Jul 13, 2004

Charles_Steinberg wrote:

I have a number of family photos where the subject’s face was hidden in shadow. Can anyone explain to a beginner the fill-flash quick fix? Is there a better way to fix this? In particular, I note that fill flash tends to give the photo a washed-out look while simultaneously making some colors stand out as unnaturally vibrant and giving flesh tones a redish hue. I’ve found I sometimes have to decrease the saturation on the whole picture to compensate. I’ve tried selecting just the portion in shadow and lightening that, but that always ends up looking like a clumsy, obvious alteration. What are the hard light, soft light, etc. adjustment layers — are those a superior option to fill flash? Oh, and what’s the difference between these and "dodge"?

Contrast Masking doc with background refs:

http://www.wizov.com/support/Contrast_Masking.pdf

Adding other improvements as Stu has said makes it better.

—
Ed Wurster
http://www.ewurster.com/blog/

Mark_Sand

Jul 14, 2004

Charles,
You said

I’ve tried selecting just the portion in shadow and lightening that, but that always ends up looking like a clumsy, obvious alteration.

Did you try feathering the selection a few pixels? This will give a smooth transition between the face and rest of the picture and the alteration will not be so obvious.

Mark

Mark_Reibman

Jul 14, 2004

If you don’t mind spending a few bucks, this tool from fredmiranda.com gets a lot of use by me and works very well. It’s also fast and works with Elements as a plug in. It’s a shadow recovery tool.

<http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/SRpro>

jhjl1

Jul 14, 2004

If you have added "curves" with one of the add-ons you can get down and dirty with a reverse S curve and usually tease a little detail out of the shadows.

—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

I have a number of family photos where the subject’s face was hidden

in shadow.

Charles_Steinberg

Jul 14, 2004

Is the fredmiranda.com product far superior to the fill flash function built into Elements?

Ed_Wurster

Jul 15, 2004

wrote:

One other thing on the use of the contrast mask. If you have a blue sky with cloud detail, the contrast mask can make the clouds appear unnatural, especially when the mask is set to high opacity. I sometimes mask out the sky area before I apply the contrast mask.

The other day when this topic was popular I went searching for alternatives to Contrast Masking. I didn’t find much, but ran across a page that claimed to have an alternative, variable method to CM. It didn’t work well, IMO. I’ll try to track it down, as it may be useful.

Your idea of masking is good, and definitely improves the CM result.

Something else that I’ve thought of is that there must be a way to emulate the gaussian blur, but in a way that you can modify after-the-fact. In other words, I apply gaussian blur with a value of 15 for this picture, but would like to see the effect of 20, 25, and 30. I realize I could do this with 4 separate layers, and turn them on and off, but maybe there is another method?

Ed

Stu_Bloom

Jul 15, 2004

I usually try it without the mask first, and look at the result. I don’t know what the variable is, but sometimes contrast masks improve the cloudy skies and sometimes they ruin them.

One way you can modify the amount of Gaussian blur after-the-fact is to create it on a duplicate layer, then vary the opacity of that layer. This works for many of the filters (maybe all, but I haven’t tried it with all). I use it all the time with USM and with high-pass sharpening.

In full Photoshop (but not Elements) you can fade the effect of any filter through an Edit menu command but you have to do it as the very next step after applying the filter.

Charles_Steinberg

Jul 21, 2004

Thanks all. I’ve tried all the suggestions and they each worked well in different respects. One question on the gradient tool — I’m not sure I’m doing it right. It seems to make part of the picture lighter and part darker. The instructions said to select a gradient that goes from white to transparent. How do I do this, as opposed to white to black? I do have the transparency option box checked.

Kenneth_Liffmann

Jul 21, 2004

Charles,
I have Elements v. 1, but I think that the drill is identical in v.2.
1. Set foreground color to white in the squares at the lower left
2. Go to the gradient tool and on my machine in the gradient picker, "foreground to transparent" is the second selection. It should now be configured: white to transparent.
Ken

Do_Brinkmann

Jul 22, 2004

Charles did you view the challenge where Susan’s "cowboy" husband was pictured in funny p.j. pants, broken arms and all? Well his face is very shadowed, right? Is this what you mean…how to lighten face? Don’t know if this is anything that could help, but someone explained recently on this site to use"lasso"tool to surround the dark area (this selects it), then use the tool in the list called "dodge" (#10 on the left hand side of the tool list). Choose a soft brush, adjust opacity and size and click on the dark area to lighten the face. Of course you are working on a copy of the original! Then click on select in bar across the top of screen and click on deselect when you are satisfied with results. Some feathering could be used I imagine. You can clone a proper darker color back around facial area if lasso area was too large.

Please anyone correct this if not a suitable way to handle the above situation…but I think this is complete and the way I did it. Do

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