Blown Highlights / Murkey Shadows

[Radtech1]

I am looking for the holy grail of PS Plugins. One that will restore blown highlights and enhance murkey shadows all without damaging the color. I love my 10d but I am having some issues with the density range.

Does anyone have any recomendation for a plug in. Even one I have to pay for. I thought that I hade seen one like this on Fred Mirandas site, but I cant find it now.

Thanks.

Radtech

[dtrayers]

Boy, you don't want much, do you? ;)

Once a highlight is blown there isn't much you can do. There just isn't any detail to get out of the image. Shadows have a little more hope.

The best bet is to expose for the highlight, and then adjust the shadows using curves. Even better is to capture the image in RAW format. You won't get any more exposure range, but the increments between the gray levels is greater (12-bit vs. 8-bit), and you'll have a better chance of tweaking out the details in the shadows either during conversion from RAW or in a 16-bit editor like Photoshop or Picture Window Pro.

Dig around in the Luminous-Landscape (http://www.luminous-landscape.com) website or check out this article from Roger Cavanagh (http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/28_exposeright.htm).

Another technique for scenes with a wide exposure range (like sunsets or backlighting) is to make two exposures, then blend them on the computer. The Luminous-Landscape site has info on that techinique too.