Re: A face only a mother could love!

David:
Here's the simplest way to approach it first:
Open the image in PS 7.0. If you haven't already, click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layer palette (the icon is in the middle and looks like a slightly askew half-moon). Then click on 'Levels' in the menu that appears. In the levels box, click on 'options' (bottom button). In the Auto Color Correction Options box that appears, choose the 'Enhance Monochromatic Contrast' radio button and change the highlight clip amount to 0.01. Leave the shadow clip amount at 0.5. Then click OK. (This darkens the highlights and brightens the shadows a little, important before you do what comes next).

Now in the levels box, adjust the slider below the histogram until the blown highlight starts to darken, or at least until the area around it darkens. If the highlight had some detail in it, the highlight will darken. Otherwise darkening the area around it is the best you can do. Click OK when you like what you've got.

The more complex approach:
Find the magnetic lasso tool in the Actions palette (looks like an upside down coat hanger). Click on it and use it to carefully outline the blown-out area you want to lighten with your mouse. (I use my trackball to do this for small areas but I have a Wacom Intuos 2 graphics tablet and pen for large ones.) Then click on the new layer icon, choose levels from the menu that appears, and adjust the slider to darken the blown area you outlined. Only the outlined area gets darkened, but you'll probably need a subtle correction since the border between darkened and undarkened parts will be starkly distinct.

Hope some of this works!

Where is Logan Lake, anyway?


At 06:55 AM 6/22/2005, you wrote: 
Good Mornin' Mark!

I agree - but I have only PS 7.0, and although ALT I and A work, there is no W. Any thoughts/tips with the older systems?

Thanks.

David.

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On 21/06/2005 at 12:40 PM Mark Bohrer wrote:

>That's definitely an American coot. They're precocial (able to feed
>themselves a month after hatching), and fledge (fly) after 8 weeks. Nice
>picture, though it could stand cutting down the overly-bright reflected
>highlight ahead of the bird. Photoshop CS' shadow/highlight works for this
>sometimes; in the program, open the image and press alt I A W.


David Young,
Logan Lake, BC
CANADA.


Mark Bohrer
Mountain and Desert Photography
www.mountain-and-desert.com
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