Improve shadow and highlight detail, Adjust image shadows and highlights, Improve – Adobe Photoshop CS4 User Manual
Page 183: Shadow and highlight detail
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USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Color and tonal adjustments
Last updated 1/10/2010
Note: You can also choose Image > Adjustments > Black & White. But keep in mind that this method makes direct
adjustments to the image layer and discards image information.
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In the Adjustments panel, manually adjust the conversion using the color sliders, apply an Auto conversion, or
select a previously saved custom mix.
Preset menu
Select a predefined grayscale mix or a previously saved mix. To save a mix, choose Save Black & White
Preset from the panel menu.
Auto
Sets a grayscale mix based on the color values of the images, maximizing the distribution of gray values. The
Auto mix often produces excellent results, or can be used as the starting point for tweaking gray values using the color
sliders.
Color Sliders
Adjust the gray tones of specific colors in an image. Drag a slider left to darken or right to lighten the
gray tones of an image’s original color.
•
To adjust a particular color component, select the On-image adjustment tool
and then click in the image. Drag
left or right to modify the color slider for the predominant color at that location, making it darker or brighter in the
image.
Note: If you are using the Black & White dialog box instead of the Adjustments panel, click and hold on an image area
to activate the color slider for the predominant color at that location, then drag horizontally to shift the slider.
•
Click the Reset button
to reset all color sliders to the default grayscale conversion.
Preview
Deselect to view the image in its original color mode.
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To apply a color tone, select Tint. To fine-tune the tint color, click the color swatch to open the Color Picker.
More Help topics
Improve shadow and highlight detail
The Shadow/Highlight command is suitable for correcting photos with silhouetted images due to strong backlighting
or correcting subjects that have been slightly washed out because they were too close to the camera flash. The
adjustment is also useful for brightening areas of shadow in an otherwise well-lit image. The Shadow/Highlight
command does not simply lighten or darken an image; it lightens or darkens based on the surrounding pixels (local
neighborhood) in the shadows or highlights. For this reason, there are separate controls of the shadows and the
highlights. The defaults are set to fix images with backlighting problems.
The Shadow/Highlight command also has a Midtone Contrast slider, Black Clip option, and White Clip option for
adjusting the overall contrast of the image, and a Color Correction slider for adjusting saturation.
Original image, and Shadow/Highlight Correction applied
Adjust image shadows and highlights
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Choose Image > Adjustments
> Shadow/Highlight.