Highlight Recovery in LR4

I thought I would post an example of the strength of Hightlight Recovery in LR4. This shot was taken after I got my Lee filter set and didn't know how to use them correctly. As you can see I blew the highlights big time.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/d_swanson/70237​13413/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/d_swanson/70237​13371/

Hey, very nice shot of a beautiful scene, and I agree that you did quite well!

Thought that fall looked familiar, I've been there too.

Did you make the adjustments in ACR or in "Develop" ?

Looks great !!

I agree LR4 recovers blown highlights well, but I found in a few blown face shots recovering detail (without any additional PP) can make people age 20-30 years..!

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14170501
I agree LR4 recovers blown highlights well, but I found in a few blown face shots recovering detail (without any additional PP) can make people age 20-30 years..!

Heh! Does it "age" them or does it just make them look natural/"real"?

wow thats pretty good!

nice, makes me want lr4

The thing that I have found with LR4 is that if you expose to the right, once you have pulled the exposure down, is that as well as recovering the Highlights the shadows can be brought back up without really introducing any noise. I reckon that you could get a lot more detail out of those shadows as well.

Al

BigAl007 wrote in post #14173466
The thing that I have found with LR4 is that if you expose to the right, once you have pulled the exposure down, is that as well as recovering the Highlights the shadows can be brought back up without really introducing any noise. I reckon that you could get a lot more detail out of those shadows as well.

Al

Pushed to their limits Highlights and Shadows will produce a pseudo-HDR effect. They can't create something the camera didn't record, but they sure wring out the last drop of detail in the DR.

Go to here:
http://blogs.adobe.com …al-laplacian-filters.html
and click on the pictures.

Here are a couple of old images that I have now got results for that I am very happy with by using LR4
As you say it cannot add detail that was not recorded, but it is great at wringing out what is in there. Getting detail on both the top and the bottom of the aircraft, while in flight would have previously needed two conversions and quite a lot of work, now it is just a case of balancing six sliders.

I might try reading the paper later when I can might just be able to start to get my head around the math.

Al

Thanks guys for your comments.

BigAl007
You are most likely correct that I could get a bit more shadow detail if I tried a little more. If you have been to Watkins Glen then you know the range of light from shadow to sunlit is vast. I only wanted to get a hint of detail in the shadows but I will try and bring out more to see if I like the result.

Here is another set of photos from Sunset Crater near Flagstaff, Az. You will notice I cropped pretty heavily between the original and my final. I apologize for the quality on these but the method I used to get the before and after isn't the best. I will work on finding a better method,

Sunrise at Sunset Crater - Before LR4 adjustments.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/d_swanson/70265​54771/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/d_swanson/68804​54324/

Youzer, I'd say you did very well!

Yowzer some more great pictures, unfortunately the only place in the USA that I have been able to visit is Central Florida (Orlando) with day trips to each coast but I guess I know what you mean about the range of light out west as I have travelled to Tunisia in the past, where from the photos I took back then (All Kodachrome 25/64) the light is also hugely challenging with huge dynamic range. It's a shame that I lost my entire collection of slides/negs when my house was flooded, not many backup options back then though.

Al

Diver-Down
Sorry to take so long to answer your question. I did the adjustments in 'Develop' in LR4 only.

Question:

I've only begun to play around with LR4 so maybe I'm wrong, but I noticed that there is no "recovery slider" ?

Up until now I have been using LR 2 (version 7), and this seems to be one big difference with the new LR.

So, do you think that because the new 2012 process does a better job of highlight recovery (as you seem to be pointing out), Adobe decided that a recovery slider was redundant ? Or, is it still in there and I just haven't seen it ?

Thanks !

P.S. As I said, I've only started using LR4 but so far I am liking it's performance and the improved look of the photos.