Reducing highlights in Photoshop

[Fred Weiss]

I'm looking for the best way to reduce highlights and shadows in an existing image using Photoshop CS2. To put in another way, to equalize or linearize the effect of light on a given image reducing the bright spots and shadows while still retaining a reasonably vibrant and realistic look to the image.

I've been trying different tools for several hours and am not getting what I want which would be as if the image was photographed in a global light.

Is it doable? If so, what approach would you take?

 

[phototec]

Shadow Highlight Adjustment

Fred,

Try the shadow/highlight adjustment, you have two sliders, on for the shadows and one for the highlights, it works great. Most of the time I have to lower the default shadow.

In CS3, it's under IMAGE, ADJUSTMENTS, SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT, not sure where it is located in CS2?

 

[artbot]

i'd burn and dodge it. if the image falls apart,

i might do a photocopy of the image to save the structural mushroom, then color range the highlights so that you can dodge them to perfection. it does have a good bit of flatness and highlight.

 

["Deposit Please"]

+1 Shadow/highlights

 

[phototec]

i'd burn and dodge it.QUOTE]


Yep, I would also Color Burn the blown out highlights.

Fred, I can do this for you later tonight, PM me the largest file you have, I'll fix'er up.

 

[Fred Weiss]

i'd burn and dodge it.QUOTE]


Yep, I would also Color Burn the blown out highlights.

Fred, I can do this for you later tonight, PM me the largest file you have, I'll fix'er up.

I appreciate the offer but what I'm looking for is technique. The mushroom is just an example. This is an issue I'd like to master since it comes up all the time in my seamless tile making. When I create a tile I am looking to rotate and resize duplicate images to add variety to the finished image. What happens is the highlights and shadows create a confusion of where the light is coming from that I need to get rid of.

Burning and dodging is something I tried and got terrible results. So if that's the way to go, I'd appreciate tips and fine points to improve my results.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I would play around with shadow/highlight, as has been mentioned

 

[Fred Weiss]

Let me try and explain it differently. In one of the applications I use for tile creation, there is a two command process to

1. Equalize brightness and

2. Set the brightness strength

It works extremely well but is a global command. here is an example of the before and after:

Left: Camera flash will often make photographs darker around the edges.

Right: Equalizing brightness can even out lighting.


But if I have a number of different objects, be they mushrooms or whatever, I would prefer to adjust these individually. so I am looking for a way in Photoshop to accomplish the same result.

 

[tbaker]

one thing that I do, because I've yet to find a globalized filter or anything to do it for me, is duplicate the layer that needs fixing, go to brightness and contrast ( to start) and fiddle with it, until you're happy, then grabbing a large brush eraser, get rid of what you don't want.

It sounds time consuming but in the mushroom pic above took me about 10 seconds to complete, and that included opening pshop.

I'm sure there's a better way, but I haven't really found one. The filters that i've seen ( and trust me I've tried them all), manage to muddy the remaining image.

newer pshop has additional lights and lighting effects that you can employ to equalize the lighting on an image, but to date, I've yet to find one I like.

 

[Fred Weiss]

one thing that I do, because I've yet to find a globalized filter or anything to do it for me, is duplicate the layer that needs fixing, go to brightness and contrast ( to start) and fiddle with it, until you're happy, then grabbing a large brush eraser, get rid of what you don't want.

It sounds time consuming but in the mushroom pic above took me about 10 seconds to complete, and that included opening pshop.

I'm sure there's a better way, but I haven't really found one. The filters that i've seen ( and trust me I've tried them all), manage to muddy the remaining image.

newer pshop has additional lights and lighting effects that you can employ to equalize the lighting on an image, but to date, I've yet to find one I like.

Thanks. I'll try that.

 

[thewood]

It sounds time consuming but in the mushroom pic above took me about 10 seconds to complete, and that included opening pshop.

Wow, you're fast.

 

[tbaker]

I've been using pshop since version 2.0. I'm not fast really, just really really really experienced.

 

[p3]

Hey Fred. What you are looking for, I would not use photoshop to do. I was just talking to the photographer at my work about it and he never uses photoshop to edit a photo in that way. It never comes out right and he said its difficult to do. He is at lunch right now but when he gets back i will get the name of the program he uses to correct colors and shadows and things like that. He really is good at it. can see his photos at www.higbeephoto.com

to get an idea of what he works with. I'll get you some info shortly.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I tried your technique and it helps. I had also asked at the forum for the application I was trying to emulate and the reply was to use the high pass filter with the radius set to the max. That also helped.

The two approaches together worked very well with the final adjustment being made with layer settings, transparency and the smudge tool.

 

[phototec]

Let me try and explain it differently. In one of the applications I use for tile creation, there is a two command process to

1. Equalize brightness and

2. Set the brightness strength

It works extremely well but is a global command. here is an example of the before and after:

Left: Camera flash will often make photographs darker around the edges.

Right: Equalizing brightness can even out lighting.


But if I have a number of different objects, be they mushrooms or whatever, I would prefer to adjust these individually. so I am looking for a way in Photoshop to accomplish the same result.

Fred,

Sometimes it's better to start out with a good photo, than to spend many, many hours trying to fix one. That being said, whenever photographing a flat art object, a on-camera flash will cause the lighting effect you show in your before photo. To get good even illumination you need to NOT use on-camera flash, USE a two light source positioned at 45° to the subject, this will give uniform light distribution.

This is how I photograph artwork for duplication and NOT get glare or the center HOT spot like in your before example. Another thing that helps is to have large light reflectors or soft boxes for even illumination.

Here is a short video explaining the lighting setup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCdGACI-THU&feature=related