Recovering lost detail in highlights

Message-ID:<1ipc7ov.zza3i81ikdq15N%usenet@oakseed.demon.co.uk.invalid>
Subject:

Recovering lost detail in highlights

Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:43 +0100


I have a portrait photo taken with too much flash. It has large areas
that are blown out in the red channel only. I would like to use some of
the detail still present in the green and blue channels and re-introduce
it into the red channel. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

The obvious thing might be to use the "Channel Mixer" and use it to mix
in a bit of green and blue into the red channel with "Preserve
luminosity". Unfortunately this distorts the colours in the rest of the
image too much. I only want to reduce the red highlights.

Another approach I tried was "Adjust Colour Balance" with the Highlights
range selected. However, everything I try in there also distorts the
colours too crudely. I don't want to shift the hue, I only want to
reduce the overall value and apply some of the detail in the other
channels to the truncated red channel.

I tried duplicating the layer, desaturating it, and then setting the
layer mode of desaturated copy to "Value". It was my hope that a Value
layer would not affect the hue or saturation of the actual picture
layer. Maybe it doesn't in theory, but yellows look brown now! By the
way, desaturate by Lightness works much better than desaturate by
Luminance for this purpose, but that's only to say that Luminance is
even worse!

I tried repeating that last technique by generating the greyscale Value
layer using the channel mixer in its special greyscale mode, but I feel
like I'm just stumbling in the dark.

Can anyone shed light on a better way to do what I want?

-- 
James Taylor

Message-ID:<1ipc7ov.zza3i81ikdq15N%usenet@oakseed.demon.co.uk.invalid>
Subject:

Recovering lost detail in highlights

Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:43 +0100


I have a portrait photo taken with too much flash. It has large areas
that are blown out in the red channel only. I would like to use some of
the detail still present in the green and blue channels and re-introduce
it into the red channel. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

The obvious thing might be to use the "Channel Mixer" and use it to mix
in a bit of green and blue into the red channel with "Preserve
luminosity". Unfortunately this distorts the colours in the rest of the
image too much. I only want to reduce the red highlights.

Another approach I tried was "Adjust Colour Balance" with the Highlights
range selected. However, everything I try in there also distorts the
colours too crudely. I don't want to shift the hue, I only want to
reduce the overall value and apply some of the detail in the other
channels to the truncated red channel.

I tried duplicating the layer, desaturating it, and then setting the
layer mode of desaturated copy to "Value". It was my hope that a Value
layer would not affect the hue or saturation of the actual picture
layer. Maybe it doesn't in theory, but yellows look brown now! By the
way, desaturate by Lightness works much better than desaturate by
Luminance for this purpose, but that's only to say that Luminance is
even worse!

I tried repeating that last technique by generating the greyscale Value
layer using the channel mixer in its special greyscale mode, but I feel
like I'm just stumbling in the dark.

Can anyone shed light on a better way to do what I want?

-- 
James Taylor

Message-ID:<1ipc7ov.zza3i81ikdq15N%usenet@oakseed.demon.co.uk.invalid>
Subject:

Recovering lost detail in highlights

Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:43 +0100


I have a portrait photo taken with too much flash. It has large areas
that are blown out in the red channel only. I would like to use some of
the detail still present in the green and blue channels and re-introduce
it into the red channel. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

The obvious thing might be to use the "Channel Mixer" and use it to mix
in a bit of green and blue into the red channel with "Preserve
luminosity". Unfortunately this distorts the colours in the rest of the
image too much. I only want to reduce the red highlights.

Another approach I tried was "Adjust Colour Balance" with the Highlights
range selected. However, everything I try in there also distorts the
colours too crudely. I don't want to shift the hue, I only want to
reduce the overall value and apply some of the detail in the other
channels to the truncated red channel.

I tried duplicating the layer, desaturating it, and then setting the
layer mode of desaturated copy to "Value". It was my hope that a Value
layer would not affect the hue or saturation of the actual picture
layer. Maybe it doesn't in theory, but yellows look brown now! By the
way, desaturate by Lightness works much better than desaturate by
Luminance for this purpose, but that's only to say that Luminance is
even worse!

I tried repeating that last technique by generating the greyscale Value
layer using the channel mixer in its special greyscale mode, but I feel
like I'm just stumbling in the dark.

Can anyone shed light on a better way to do what I want?

-- 
James Taylor