Photo Highlight Recovery Tutorial

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

Hello,

A week or so ago there was a thread of HDR and more specifically about using
one raw image as the source for an HDR image to recovery highlights, etc. I
promised that I would post a tutorial for my technique on using a single raw
file for highlight recovery. Well here it is:

http://www.screencast.com/users/PC-Review_Online/folders/Tutorials/media/b1e365d8-b94b-497f-8df6-c7fe21a4894c

Robert

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Robert,

You asked for feedback:

I'd use a Luminosity Mask instead of color Range to create the mask - Ctrl-click the RGB chanel of the lighter layer, and apply it as a mask to the darker layer. That would give you a nice graduated mask instead of the harsher, uncontrolled mask from Color Range. I'd use layer masks instead of destructive editing such as deleting and erasing. This would allow you to use CHOPS on the mask, such as curves, blur, dodge and burn etc.

The final result will look flat, and will demand a corrective curve or levels contrast adjustment.

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

The reason I don't use the lum. option is because you can only select the
highlight data. For some reason (they have a good reason) they didn't
provide a way to use the channels to select midtones or shadows and while I
don't do it offten I do use the shadows to reduce noise in the shadows. So
instead of confusing people I used the color range command that does allow
for selecting either the highlights, midtones or shadows.

For the highlight recovery it doesn't matter which highlight selection
option you choose both will work. I just with you could also create a
selection from the channels of the midtones and shadows like you can for the
highlights.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Robert

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

Shadows is easy enough - just reverse the selection once you select the luminosity. For the midtones, create an alpha channel of the luminosity mask, deselect, then apply a 'hill curve' - that is, a curve with both ends at 0, but gamma (middle of curve) set to 255. Ctrl-click the alpha, and now you've got a midtone selection.

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

PS: There's nothing 'wrong' with your way of doing it, I just wanted to add in how I usually do this.

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

Those are good ideas. I will have to play with them. I never thought of
inverting the highlight selection to get the shadows. Makes perfect sense.

Robert

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

Mathias,

No problem with your way of doing it. Thanks for posting. The more
information that can be shared about a technique and the ways they are done
the better. That is the nice thing about Photoshop there are lots of ways of
doing the same thing.

Robert

[George...@adobeforums.com]

"...A luminosity mask...would give you a nice graduated mask instead of the harsher, uncontrolled mask from Color Range..."

Robert might better have used the color range command in "sampled colors" mode rather than in "highlight" mode. The "sampled colors" mode enables the fuzziness slider. The fuzziness slider provides the controlled graduation which, as Mathias points out, is otherwise lacking.

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

Right, except then the selection is based on color, not luminosity.

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

Well, I just did some playing around and I have some major issues with the
Control+Clicking on the RGB channel. It doesn't just select the highlights,
it seems to select nearly all of the image. Take a look at these samples
here. One is from using the color range and one from control clicking on the
RGB channel. The RGB channel option is not acceptable for what my technique
is supposed to do. I have better results using the color range, saving it to
an alpha channel and then applying a small amount of blur to take care of
the hard edges. I am going to play some more and work on refining the
technique but I don't see myself recommending the control clicking method
because it selects way more than just the highlights.

http://www.sonic.net/keesha/channels.jpg
Channels method

http://www.sonic.net/keesha/color_range.jpg
Color Range method

Any thoughts?

Robert

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

I might do one of my 'quick tutorials' on the subject if there is sufficient interest.

[Mathias_...@adobeforums.com]

Its different from your method, but in my world it makes a lot of sense to use luminosity masks. I could explain ad libitum, but really, it all boils down to experience, so try experimenting. If you think to much is selected (I work in 16-bit Prophoto, and that means I can apply final contrast after this method), try a curves adjustment on your mask.

[J_Ma...@adobeforums.com]

If you apply the right curve, you should be able to get identical masks from either method. You gain flexibility by using a broader luminosity and then applying a curve. You might want to expand the mask based on the subject matter. Using color range you're locked into highlights as defined by the PS algorithm.

[George...@adobeforums.com]

"...I might do one of my 'quick tutorials' on the subject if there is sufficient interest..."

Mathias, you've made an offer that cannot be resisted! Re CR using color rather than luminosity should not be a deterrent when working on almost-blown-out colors covering a narrow range as in Robert's examples.

"...Using color range you're locked into highlights as defined by the PS algorithm..."

J, Yes, the Highlights mode uses a preset range with very modest edge fuzziness. The Sampled Colors mode, however, provides a fuzziness slider which, together with the Add and Subtract tools gives a lot of flexibility in tweaking the selection.

[Robert_...@adobeforums.com]

That is one of the nice things about Photoshop is that there are many ways
of doing the same thing. For me that is the hallmark of a powerful program.

Robert