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BALANCING SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS WITH PS CS/CS2
In my opinion, balancing Shadows and Highlights in a picture is vital to get good results indipendently if you work on a Colour or on a Black&White image
Beside looking much better, a well 'balanced' picture
is much easier to restore or retouch because all the possible details
are more clearly visible, also, 'balancing' an image first, can
be an enormous help if you wish to colour it
How often do we try to
apply colour to nearly white Highlights or nearly black Shadows only to
realize that the colour won't show at all or barely so? That's because,
in PS, you can't colour black or white
I have been asked if by 'balancing Highlights and Shadows'
I mean brightening the Highlights until they are just below the 'pure
white' mark and darkening the Shadows until they are just below the
'pure black' mark
No
I don't mean that ... this
would only increase the contrast and in most cases it would lead to
further loss of details in parts of the corrected areas.
'Balancing' Shadows and Highlights, for
me, means getting darker and lighter areas of an image 'closer' to each
other in other words 'decreasing' the contrast (which can always be adjusted later
).
There are many ways for 'balancing' a picture
Levels, Curves, Brightness/Contrast, and several others
but
what I will use here, is the new 'magic' Option Shadow/Highlight (found under the Image>Adjustments Menu) first introduced with PS CS.
But let's get down to 'work'
Thank you Nebgranny for sending and allowing me to use this picture!!!
TIP:I know I'm repeating myself, but I'll never tire of saying to never work on the original
always make a working duplicate of your image and rename it immediately just to be on the safe side
- As you can see, this image is 'unevenly' faded
meaning the shadows are still OK but the highlights are too bright and
faded so very few details are visible in them
(the little girl's
face/skin, dress and the dog's coat)(Image 1)
Image 1
- Go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT (Image 2)
Image 2
- The default Shadow/Highlight dialog box will open: check the 'Show More Options' box
(Image 3)
Image 3
- after which you'll get this... (PS Default
Values)
Wow, look at that
you have now the possibility to
individually tweak/correct Shadows, Highlights, Saturation/Colour (for
the corrected parts only) and Midtones Contrast
all in one 'go'!!!!: (Image 4)
Image 4
- Make sure your 'Preview' box is cheked so you can
see the changes immediately
The PS default values in some cases are
just perfect
but not always
like in this case where the shadows
were 'lifted' but the highlights hadn't changed at all (Image 5)
Image 5
- Actually, here, the lifted shadows didn't reveal
anything interesting
on the contrary
So I tweaked the default
values
(practically all of them) until I was satisfied with the
result
As usual, it's a matter of trial and error
(Image 6)
IMPORTANT: the
following values worked well for this picture only
You'll have to
'tweak' the default values until you are happy with the result for each
individual picture
Tweaking the 'Amount and Tonal Width' in
the 'Highlights' box will darken the whites in your picture showing
more details and allowing you to colour the lightest parts of your
image in a satisfactory way
Tweaking the 'Midtones Contrast' in the 'Adjustments' box will help with the contrast
Image 6
- don't worry if the image looks a bit on the dark
side
you can brighten it up again later with whatever Tool you feel
comfortable with
but look at how many more details are now clearly
visible
particularly in the little girl's face, dress and in the
dog's coat! (Image 7)
Image 7
- Amazing
isn't it
Now that your image is
'balanced' (no more blown-out highlights and no more solid black
shadows) you can proceed to colour it at your desire, to just apply a
sepia tone to it, or simply leave it Black&White
I lightly
coloured it to show how nice the colours look on a balanced picture
(Image 8)
Image 8
Just one go with
the SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT Option can also be a great help in
'bringing back to life' evenly, strongly faded images .... (Image 9)
Image 9
....giving a very good start for an easier restoration!
Ciao... ciao
Flora.
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