DPP's Linear checkbox - used to fix blown out sky

Had wondered about the Linear checkbox in DPP. Decided to try using it to fix a blown out sky on a not-so-great shapshot.

The truck was in the shade while the far shoreline of the lake & sky were brightly lit by the sun - resulting in a terrible shot:

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I haven't opened DPP in a coons age but I might have to see if I still have it installed. You sure saved a lot of detail in the hi lights of the sky this way...Seems like even more than you would get in ACR with dropping the exposure one of many different ways.

hopefully I will remember to investigate someday when im goofin around

Sue, I am stunned by the exposure of the sky in that second shot. In the original, the sky looked like it was irreparable. Good job.

In processing this image, also consider this: use the linear as you did to repair the sky, but as opposed to masking, create about 3 or so tiffs of differing exposures and pull them into a HDR program.

If you like the tonemapped look, that might change the look of the shot, and if you do not, there are many hdr apps on the market now that do a very good job of creating natural-looking images.

Sue, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I use DPP all the time yet have never tried the "Linear" tab, but your second sky is excellent, off to look at some of my shots now

Pretty nice

If you add a curves adjustment layer to just the "lineair" layer (clip it to the layer: Cmd+G), and drag up the shadows and midtones a bit, I think it will look a bit more natural (less dark underside of clouds)

I made another attempt at the same image to see if I could improve the final output.
I'm pleased with this outcome. I know the foreground still lacks pizzazz, BUT despite numerous attempts at various settings, it was determined to remain dull. It was very dark on the original while the sky was very light, so I'm content to get this much back.

I can live with this version. Much better than what I had, and now a decent enough shot for my husband to enjoy the memories of camping by and kayaking on that lake!

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Sue,

To be clear, you are using DPP to get the sky good and then bringing two versions into Photoshop to merge/blend a brighter foreground with the nice sky?

Tony ... yes.

The picture was an odd one, underexposed on the bottom and overexposed on the top due to the setting sun, clouds blocking the sun AND smoke in the sky.

First used DPP to process the lower portion of the image to the best result. Still not great, but the best possible after fiddling with the RAW Brightness adjustment and White balance adjustment. Also did a bit with the Highlight and Shadow sliders. For this version, no attention was given to the sky. Then saved as jpg.

Second, used DPP to process the upper portion of the image to its best result with the Linear checkbox, plus some fiddling with the Brightness adjustment. Note that the Contrast, Highlight and Shadow sliders do not function with Linear checked. I also played with the White balance adjustment to get the best looking result. I found it useful to use the Highlight alert (Alt-M on PCs) to clearly show when an area was too blown out. Again, saved as jpg.

Then opened both in Photoshop, and copied the Linear version into the other on a new layer. Then masked the linear version to show the lower portion from the layer with the regular image. Had to do some finetuning of the mask because some areas around the tree limbs were blown out in the landscape version due to the overexposed sky. Used varying opacities as I painted the mask in or out. Maybe not the best way, but the way I knew how!

In Photoshop I also tweaked the contrast, hue/saturation (dickered with the saturation of each colour), brightness and vibrance for each layer until I had what I felt was the best result.

Today's attempt took about an hour again. Might reduce the fluorescent blue water but other than that, it's good enough for the husband!

Thanks for the detail, Sue!

hi sue, this might seem like a dumb question but where abouts is the linear checkbox located in dpp,regards duncan

On PCs, it is on the RAW tab, directly under the Contrast/Highlight/Sha​dow sliders.
Not sure where it shows on the Apple/Mac platform.

Will others post their experiments & results?
I'm curious to see the potential for this feature!

Sue -
FYI, the application Breezebrowser which is based on the Canon SDK offers an option in its RAW converter to do a "double" conversion in which the linear and gamma corrected versions are blended, but it doesn't do as good a highlight recovery as you have achieved.

Also, I remember this article from about six years ago about doing this:
http://visual-vacations.com …hybrid_raw_conv​ersion.htm
I remembered it because at the time I found it a very interesting and useful technique and used it several times.

I recently tried a technique with aspects similar to the process described by Sue to attempt to improve the skies in a series of images taken this past October at Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
The TOP ROW shows the technique involving "linear contrast". On the left, a DPP conversion adjusted so the area other than the sky is brightened just below the point of blowing the highlights. In the centre, a DPP conversion using the "linear conversion", with no other tweaks. On the right, the result when these two conversions are "fused" with TuFuse Pro (which attempts to choose the "better" pixel, i.e. closer to midtone, or blend two acceptable but different pixels).
The BOTTOM ROW shows the other technique I tried, a DPP conversion based on rendering the area other than the sky as well as possible. Then in CS3 I added a duplicate layer, used Multiply Blending, masked off the non-sky area with a gradiant mask, touched up the horizon line on the mask, and then adjusted the opacity to achieve the amount of sky darkening I desired.
I decided to go with the second technique, although the result of using linear contrast was certainly more dramatic. Unfortunately, it wasn't realistic, and that was part of my intent.

Maxdave

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Just found this thread after searching for uses for the linear checkbox in DPP. I did the same thing as the OP and maxdave. Found my original image to have the clouds blown out. The linear tab cured that but killed the rest of my image. I exported both version to Photoshop and combined the two, then applied some additional color correction.