If you have one of the more recent editions of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you have a wonderful tool that works like magic. The Shadow/Highlights tool is amazing and it works well with moth photos. This tool can lighten up the dark areas without affecting the lighter areas or darken the light areas without affecting the dark areas. It can be found at Image/Adjustments/Shadow Highlight. Here are my default settings. Amount on both: 0% Tonal width on both: 50% Radius on both: 30 px Color correction: 0 Midtone contrast: 0 Black clip and white clip: 0.01% I usually just adjust the Amount but occasionally I'll try playing with the Tonal Width or other sliders. The best way to learn what it can do is to open up a photo with some overly dark areas and play with the various sliders. It's amazing just how much detail can be hiding in those shadows. If you have to use a high Amount percentage, you'll sometimes end up with areas that look a bit washed out but a little Contrast boost will fix that. In the before/after sample I set the Shadows Amount to 65% and then increased the contrast. Ken Childs Henderson, TN Chester County http://tinyurl.com/Kens-Moths-2011
Attachment:
SH_sample.jpg
Description: JPEG image
