Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: toning down highlights

  1. #1
    BPN Viewer
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    sacramento california
    Posts
    500
    Threads
    57
    Thank You Posts

    Default toning down highlights

    Is it better to use the burn tool to tone down bright area than selecting the area of interest and then decreasing the brightness or exposure ? If better, why? I am not refering to blown highlights.

    thanks for your answer/help

    Ray

  2. #2
    Banned
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    3,949
    Threads
    254
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Ray,

    It depends on what you want to achieve. If it is a small spot, the burn tool is fine, but for larger areas, it can be difficult to make it uniform. Also, I don't like the effect in some cases.

    I usually find it better to do a feathered selection or refine edge selection, then use the shadow/highlight tool in PS, or simply use the curves tool. The curves tool is a great tool and one can do a lot of things with it, once you learn the details of how it affects images.

    Sometimes to avoid a color shift in these applications, I switch to LAB mode and do the application of the tool on the luminance channel.

    Roger

  3. #3
    BPN Viewer Dave Leroy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Delta, BC
    Posts
    3,789
    Threads
    380
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    For a couple other options I find the adjustment brush in ACR works well for making adjustments to a bright area or to bring out a bit of detail in darker areas.

    You can also sometimes bring a bright area down a bit with S/H adjustments.

    Dave

  4. #4
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Sugar Land, Texas USA
    Posts
    1,819
    Threads
    480
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    I'm in agreement with Dave, at least partly. The ACR curves adjustment is most useful, the Lights and Highlights sliders specifically. Although the adjustment brush is indeed useful, especially for small spots, with larger areas it leaves unblended edges. The spot removal tool can be useful as well, as long as you are careful to pick an appropriate source.
    In any case you will have a distinct disadvantage when you open in PS and try to do adjustments as opposed to in ACR itself. For example use of the Shadow/Highlight tool is much more likey to produce artifacts like halos, and for some reason the simple coversion from RAW to PSD seems to partly reduce some artifacts as well.
    Bottom line; do as much adjustment as possible in the RAW converter.
    regards~Bill

  5. #5
    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    NC
    Posts
    1,690
    Threads
    363
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    You can knock down small specular areas with the Brush tool set to darken blend mode. Multiple passes will almost eliminate them altogether.

    Chas

  6. #6
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    6,588
    Threads
    643
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Following on from Chas' suggestion, here's another one which works particularly well for human faces. Say you have a portrait with side lighting and there are patches of highlights (some could be blown) on the light side. Pick up some face colour with the eye dropper tool and with a soft paint brush set to Color blending mode, brush over the highlights. With the this blending mode you lay color down but it does not affect detail. You can of course set the bush parameters of opacity and flow to <100 which will decrease the effect as you brush away. This is also an excellent way of hand colouring b/w images, almost like the old days!

  7. #7
    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    NC
    Posts
    1,690
    Threads
    363
    Thank You Posts

    Default lps to make the image

    John,

    Good tip!

    The Brush with Color blend mode can be used to go over an area after burning or darkening the highlight areas, as frequently these areas can start to gray out. Adding a bit of color back in helps to make these altered areas appear more natural.

    Chas

  8. #8
    BPN Viewer
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    sacramento california
    Posts
    500
    Threads
    57
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Thanks for help and suggestions

    Ray

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Web Analytics