One thing to try is to make a new layer on top, fill it with 50% black, put it in Overlay mode and paint on it with low opacities of black or white, acting as dodge and burn. At least its reversible this way.
I use an adjustment layer filled with 50% gray and set to overlay blend.
Then I set colours to the black/white default and choose a brush shape, opacity and feather and paint with black onto the gray adjust layer to darken and paint with white to lighten.
As for specular highlights not much can be done since all three channels will be blown out to 255 with no detail to recover.
Thanks for replying Mathias, I have read your book PS Res.&Retouch.from to cover to cover multiple times; it’s excellent. I do mostly underwater photography which necessitates strobes; a couple of problems i encounter, is hot spots on the subject (often which are often clipped, reflecting off the scales or whatever). The normal methods leave the hot spots mostly unaffected (the real bright ones, or clipped) and the method you just described seem to do a very similar effect as multiply.
The second problem is, i do not always have the option of stopping down the lens enough to get a blackened background (close up and macro) when the negative space is busy or distracting, so i need to blur it, obviously easy with several methods, but just as importantly darken the whites or reflections, and yes i do use diffuses on my strobes. Thank you for any more imput. Phil
Change the blending mode of the adjustment layer to "Luminosity". That will prevent the colour saturation from being changed.
Rob
Thanks Rob, that worked. I used a Levels adjustment layer with a hide all mask; then cranked up the levels slider until all the blacks were clipped, then used a low opacity soft brush with white paint on the mask with the blending mode set to luminosity. Excellent! Thanks….Phil
with Highlights I’ve occasionally use the spot heal on to a second layer and then blended with varying degrees of success, it really depends on the subject and size of the highlight. Also some use of the new tools in ACR 4.1 with the highlight recovery can help slightly. mind you the above two suggestions sound good work really well.
bgbarrelridr, as far as I know, Mathias has not written the book you refer, even though he is knowlegeable enough to write one. Go for it, Mat!
Hehe, I think you were thinking of Katrin Eismann. Shes also good… 😉
Pierre, I have been thinking about maybe making a ‘masterclass’ book for digital photographers / Photoshop. The idea is not as far fetched as it could be, as I have an arm and a leg in the publishing biz.
How do you fill with 50% grey (or 50% black for that matter)? I remember doing something like that before, but can’t remember (using PS7).
Create a layer and use the bucket tool?
127, 127, 127 (RGB) is the shade you want
Danielle…
Try: Edit > Fill > 50% grey
FYI: 50% grey is the equivalent of 50% black + 50% white, halfway between the extremes.
Hey Mathias…use www.lulu.com…self publishing without upfront cost!
and the books are high quality!
I’d buy one of your books!