Optimizing images with the Highlight Shadows feature in Photoshop CS2

The Method

1. Download and open the image (below) 'lukeraw_medium.jpg' (140k)

2. Go to 'Images - Adjustments - Highlight/Shadows'.

This will bring up this dialoge box (below).
Just click the 'Show More Options' check box.

Which will give you this:

3. What we have to do here is keep the image in balance. At the moment the sky is far too bright compared to the sjubject. We need to redress this imbalance. With this feature all we do is
simply darken the sky by moving the 'Highlight' sliders. Normally with an image that is set against another colour very clearly, you would see a halo. You would adjust this with the Radius skiders, but in this case it is not so much of a problem, so we don't need
to change the Radius too much. So we will move the Tonal Width slider of the Highlights.

This has the effect of darkening the sky, thereby keeping the
image more in balance. See how the eye is kept in the frame
more and not going to the white of the windows. But now we
have a sickly green cast overall.

We can remove this with Selective Colour.

OPTIMIZATION - Getting the best out of your imagery with the Highlight/Shadow control All images © by Jon Davison 2007. In a previous tutorial on optimization (Adjustment Layers) I mentionedthat I would illustrate the Highlight and Shadow feature as a way of keeping your image balanced. To recap, optimizing pretty much means 'getting the best possible outcome', or cleaning up your images. You need to do this for a number of reasons; (1) Colour casts. (2) Dirt or dust on the CCD. (3) Uneven exposure. (4) Reciprocity failure, or (5) converting the image for press or internet delivery. In this tutorial we will remove an unwanted colour cast and adjust an uneven exposure. I took this image here of my son in the back seat of a Cessna with th edoor removed. Two things here need adjusting, a: the colour cast from the green/blue ocean beneath us, and b; as I did not use a flashlight to balance the disparate lighting, he is underexposed compared to the bright window illumination. So this is a way of keeping the ambient lighting intact. Flash would have given a very different type of lighting, both work, but it is up to you to choose which kind of treatment you need. Above left: Original frame as taken. Above right: Final image - optimized.
The Method 1. Download and open the image (below) 'lukeraw_medium.jpg' (140k) 2. Go to 'Images - Adjustments - Highlight/Shadows'. This will bring up this dialoge box (below). Just click the 'Show More Options' check box. Which will give you this: 3. What we have to do here is keep the image in balance. At the moment the sky is far too bright compared to the sjubject. We need to redress this imbalance. With this feature all we do is simply darken the sky by moving the 'Highlight' sliders. Normally with an image that is set against another colour very clearly, you would see a halo. You would adjust this with the Radius skiders, but in this case it is not so much of a problem, so we don't need to change the Radius too much. So we will move the Tonal Width slider of the Highlights. This has the effect of darkening the sky, thereby keeping the image more in balance. See how the eye is kept in the frame more and not going to the white of the windows. But now we have a sickly green cast overall. We can remove this with Selective Colour.	Go 'Image - Adjustments - Selective Colour' So start with the Green's and ad Magenta and take out Cyan to remove the green cast. Then Yellow, take out Cyan. Greens - remove Magenta and Cyan and a bit of the Yellow. Neutrals, take out say 5% of Cyan and +2% Yellow. This should give you a result as below. Notice how the headphones are now neutral. Here is where we bring them back. Go to Cyan then Blue to ad Magenta and a touch of yellow to the blue sky. This gives a more realistic sky tone. Now choose Neutrals from the Colours dropdown menu. With this we only need to move the slides a tiny bit to see results. You should have something like this by now? 8. By tweeking the Reds, Yellows, Blues and and Neutrals you should have an image that looks a bit like this. . A liitle better than the original frame don't you think? That is about it, the image is now cleaned up or 'Optimized' ready for resizing depending on where you are going to use it. Back to main Photoshop page