Is Photoshop's "Recovery" tool in the RAW editor as amazing as it seems?

[TheBiles]

Any time I open a RAW, the first thing I do after adjusting exposure (if needed) is crank up that Recovery tool and watch all of the little details just pop out of the photo. It really does seem to recover a lot of details that were lost to things like overexposure, but I want to know what is the downside of this tool (if any). I'm assuming it would be less useful if you were going for a softer look or something more artistic, but it is just amazing in any of my shots that I just want to sharpen up.

 

[Forkie]

Not sure there are any down sides. It does darken the photo in general, but not enough that it can't be fixed with the other controls. As with most things, it's about balancing the controls to get the optimum exposure.

 

[ghache]

there is no downside really but there is always be a negative effect if you push it too much. it will bring back the details you lost due to overexposure in highlights but as soon as you push the slider to far, the details you got back will turn into a wierd gray blurry pixels.
Try by yourself. you have to find the sweet spot with that slider, personnaly, its the one i am rarely using.

 

[bazooka]

I have blown-out highlights turned on and I usually turn up recovery until >99% of the red (overexposed areas) goes away. However, it seems to just be making up data, perhaps based on surrounding pixels? Not sure, but ghache is correct, try to recover a massively blown sunset and it's going to look like a posterized turd.

 

[Big Mike]

Just crank it up all the way and see how weird/terrible the image looks. That's the downside.

If you turn it up 1%, your image is moving 1% toward that weird/terrible image. The way I see it, the more you turn it up, the worse it (some aspects of your image) will get. I try to be very careful about using it.

 

[TheBiles]

Just crank it up all the way and see how weird/terrible the image looks. That's the downside.

If you turn it up 1%, your image is moving 1% toward that weird/terrible image. The way I see it, the more you turn it up, the worse it (some aspects of your image) will get. I try to be very careful about using it.

I've noticed that some images look absolutely horrible with it jacked all the way up, but others look fantastic, and some go from good -> beautiful -> horribad as you increase it.

 

[KmH]

I rarely use the recovery slider, preferring to get the highlights right in the camera. I think that's why they include a histogram feature for the camea's rear LCD.

I think the presence adjustments in ACR are overlooked by many when editing.

 

[RyanLilly]

The histogram is good, but I also turn on the "blinkies" when I review images in camera. There is no downside to using recovery, as long a you can achieve the results that you are after. It can save details in a shot that was slightly overexposed, but its not as good as getting it right in camera to begin with. I guess if there is a downside to these adjustments, it is that it can be easy to be complacent with mediocre exposures, and thinking "I'll just fix it in post." I don't use recovery a whole lot, because I'm usually pretty mindful of any clipping in camera, but it is nice to have the whole set of exposure controls that ACR offers.