- Joined
- May 1, 2008
- Messages
- 25,414
- Reaction score
- 4,998
- Location
- UK - England
- Website
- www.deviantart.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Recently I have been editing shots taken during the height of the day - and thus been dealing with a lot of harsh lighting. One thing I have noticed is that my best friend the levels editing seems to exaggerate the influence of harsh lighting in a shot. Before now I have been adjusting curves and using the burn tool to try and reduce this effect, but recently I came across the method of making a contrast mask and have found this to be a good way to reduce the harsh effect.
example:
without contrast mask
100% crop
with contrast mask
100% crop
and the full shot a little larger if you wish to see (with mask of course)
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/...s/British Wildlife Centre 2/1000/IMG_1138.jpg
As for making a contrast mask I followed the directions here
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phot...-photoshop.html?search=contrast+mask&bool=and
if you are an elements user scroll down to the bottom where the author outlines how to get the same effect. The only difference I had with this was that I did not use gaussian blur - infact I added no blur at all to the result, since I saw not only in his example shot, but in my own as well that the use of the blur reduced overall sharpness of a shot.
Also note that I used a layer mask to apply the contrast mask to select areas only (those under the effect of harsh light and also the shadowed side of the birds head) I found that applied to the whole shot it took away the effect of depth and the shadows - so I used the mask to keep some form of depth to the shot
Anyone any thoughts on this or tips?
example:
without contrast mask
100% crop
with contrast mask
100% crop
and the full shot a little larger if you wish to see (with mask of course)
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/...s/British Wildlife Centre 2/1000/IMG_1138.jpg
As for making a contrast mask I followed the directions here
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phot...-photoshop.html?search=contrast+mask&bool=and
if you are an elements user scroll down to the bottom where the author outlines how to get the same effect. The only difference I had with this was that I did not use gaussian blur - infact I added no blur at all to the result, since I saw not only in his example shot, but in my own as well that the use of the blur reduced overall sharpness of a shot.
Also note that I used a layer mask to apply the contrast mask to select areas only (those under the effect of harsh light and also the shadowed side of the birds head) I found that applied to the whole shot it took away the effect of depth and the shadows - so I used the mask to keep some form of depth to the shot
Anyone any thoughts on this or tips?
Last edited: