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msoo
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Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 7384
Location: Cupertino, California
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 Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject: soocool tech tips #1: Recovering OVERBLOWN highlights |
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*** IMAGE BELOW COURTESY OF R Crain & IS COPYRIGHT TO RON CRAIN ***
Tech Tip: #1
Level: Semi-advanced
Topic: Recovering Overblown Highlights
Time to finish: 5 minutes
Today, we talk about Recovering OVERBLOWN highlights using LAB
Colorspace. Why would LAB color space be superior in this regards?
Well, if you ever try to PAINT with blend mode set to "color" in the
RGB color space or CMYK, you will notice that it does NOT work!
Why?? RGB Color space does NOT allow colors when it is white,
i.e. R=255, G=255, B=255. That's white, plain and simple. Painting
PURPLE on white or painting ANY color on white will get you WHITE.
This isn't a problem in the LAB color space. LAB allows something
called "Imaginary colors". For example, took a picture of the sun
during a BEAUTIFUL red/yellow sunset. When you took that image,
you KNOW that the brightest part of the sun has yellow in it. However,
reproducing that in RGB just plain do not work. Converting it to
LAB and repainting yellow on the BRIGHTEST part of the sun in
color mode will tell the LAB color that you want the part of the sun
to be TOTALLY white but with a bias towards yellow.
Step 1: Image -> Mode -> Lab Color
Step 2: Set a proper small brush size and paint into the overblown highligh area with a similar color from near the blown highlights. If
the color turned out to be too deep, lower the opacity of the brush
Step 3: In the "L" channel, use the healing brush to get some details
back. Play with opacity to make the transition look smooth.
Step 4: Convert back to RGB using the same route as Step 1.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Is this useful to you? Please let me know what you think.
- MS[/b]
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R. Crain
Conjurer of Colors
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 2099
Location: Sebastopol
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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Useful? Yes.
Dumb questions:
1. Do you paint on a new layer?
2. How far do you extend from the center of the blown highlights?
I spent a very short amount of time playing - lousy results. Will revisit later.
I have made this image (High res jpg) available for download in case anyone else would like to use the same image to follow along and compare with Michael's results.
http://www.crainology.com/canon/_MG_5749_cs2.zip
3.5MB
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msoo
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 7384
Location: Cupertino, California
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| R. Crain wrote: | Useful? Yes.
Dumb questions:
1. Do you paint on a new layer?
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Yes, duplicating the layer but the truth is, it wouldn't matter if
it is on a duplicate layer or not. I just like the ability to just
fiddle with the opacity if I want to.
| R. Crain wrote: |
2. How far do you extend from the center of the blown highlights?
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I don't understand the question.
- MS
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msoo
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Elysium
ShadowLord
Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 703
Location: Slovenia, Europe
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:48 am Post subject: |
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| I think it's very usefull Michael. I think I'll try it this Saturday. I used Shadows/Highlights tool until now to solve such a problems. |
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virtuamike
Conjurer of Colors
Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 1028
Location: Davis / Union City
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| msoo wrote: | Is it me or are these kinda lesson of little use to you folks?
- MS |
I dunno, seems like this is more along the lines of painting in detail that wasn't there vs actual highlight recovery.
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BenUdkow
Master Photographer
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 6796
Location: Oakland, CA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:25 am Post subject: |
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| virtuamike wrote: | | msoo wrote: | Is it me or are these kinda lesson of little use to you folks?
- MS |
I dunno, seems like this is more along the lines of painting in detail that wasn't there vs actual highlight recovery. |
Yeah I'm a bit confused too. I don't see the difference between just cloning in some texture as normal, etc and this technique. Also, this technique seems to have very limited applications. You couldn't use this on skin, details, or areas with complex patterns/gradients. Right?
BTW, I would ALWAYS assume that ANY information, tips, techniques, etc have some merit, even if it's not what you (or whoever posts it) intended. We're all here to learn (except Rob...I think he's just here for the beer). 
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donfrench
Visionary
Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 374
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:43 am Post subject: |
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I agree with Ben (with the possible exception of the part about Rob, since I don't know him.)
I am new to this list but I very much appreciate every tip anyone has to offer, especially when they know as much about the subject as Michael apparently knows about PS.
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msoo
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 7384
Location: Cupertino, California
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:49 am Post subject: |
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| gravityarc wrote: | | virtuamike wrote: |
I dunno, seems like this is more along the lines of painting in detail that wasn't there vs actual highlight recovery. |
Yeah I'm a bit confused too. I don't see the difference between just cloning in some texture as normal, etc and this technique. Also, this technique seems to have very limited applications. You couldn't use this on skin, details, or areas with complex patterns/gradients. Right?
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On the contrary, this particular method scores VERY high on
highlight recover on skin for portrait photography. The thing
about this method compared to normal texture painting is that
it is a lot more realistic and can be done in a shorter amount of steps.
- MS
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Ibn
Conjurer of Colors
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 1682
Location: San Jose
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:54 am Post subject: |
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Gonna give this a whirl through some shots to see how well it does.
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