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montreal
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 13:40
Hi! I have a post processing question and I hope I can express it clearly enough...

Let's say that on a single image (raw), I have areas that are too bright, and others that are too dark. I can use exposure compensation before converting, but then I loose details either in the bright spots or in the dark ones (depending which way I decide to go).

So what's the best thing to do in that case? I came up with a solution but I want to know if it makes sense. Here it is:

Before converting, I reduce contrast in FileViewer (therefore gaining detail in both dark and bright areas). Then, I convert to tiff, and using PS, I increase the contrast a bit, to get rid of the "washed out" look of the reduce contrasting. I still get more detail in the bright/dark areas than if I had just used exposure compensation in Fileviewer, but am I losing image quality elsewhere?

CyberPet
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 13:42
You make two copies of the raw-file, one with perfect exposure in the shadows and one with perfect exposure in the highlights and then merge the two into one.

Baadil
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 13:49
Sorry to hijack this a bit but I think it is relevent...
Perta,

How would you go about merging both images? I understand having both in same file as seperate layers but what layer setting would you use to combine both?

Thanks.

12345Michael54321
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 14:40
Might this be a good time to mention the Luminous Landscape article at

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml

which gives step-by-step directions on just this matter?

CyberDyneSystems
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 14:47
I think we have a step by step in our own tutorials sticky as well?... :)

montreal
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 15:25
Thank you CyberPet. :)

But back to the main topic, did my idea make sense?

tim
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 15:30
Have a look at this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=75743). The technique in it's very simple, just remember to tweak the layer mask to make it look how you want.

Hellashot
26th of May 2005 (Thu), 19:42
And I wouldn't use zoombrowser to edit your files. It's a crude image viewer that wasn't made to modify images best.

montreal
27th of May 2005 (Fri), 10:50
And I wouldn't use zoombrowser to edit your files.

Oops... I meant FileViewer... I changed it in the original post to avoid more confusion. Sorry :o