Ian,
Try deleting your preferences file. On Win hold alt/shift/ctrl keys simultaneously down immediately after launch. Answer yes and let it load.
BTW, there are some other techniques that may work better than fill flash if you’re interested.
Mark, I’d be interested in the techniques you use in lieu of fill flash – thanks!
Chuck
Chuck,
The technique I’m referring to is the one that I learned from you! I think it’s called contrast masking. lol
Fill flash will lighten up the background as well as the foreground. It’s not that refined a tool but it can do the trick if you’re not concerned about the background.
Contrast masking tends to lighten underexposure and darken the overexposure.
I’ve also got a shadow recovery program that I bought at fredmiranda.com but ‘your technique’ works better in some situations. SR Pro is the plug in and it works with Elements.
You know, duplicate then Image>Adjustments>Invert
Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color
Gaussian Blur filter…2.0 (I think)
Change mode to Overlay or Soft Light
About the real fill flash with the camera: always take care to use less flash light output than the available light.
Often fill flash, like pre-programmed in cameras, is too strong. Usually it is at the same level as the ambient light, but it should be about one stop less. This way it you can retain a pretty natural looking balance between highlights and shadows. Generally you can program the flash output of the camera; set it at 50%.
Leen
ian s mckenzie’s post is EXACTLY my situation.
I use Fill Flash a lot. Suddenly today it doesn’t work anymore. The slider makes the photo dark with a grayish, slightly opaque, cast. It’s going to be difficult to finish my task of editing old family photos without this feature.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice but the problem persists. Does anyone know what’s going on? Ian, have you found a solution?
Thanks.
Trish
Ian and Trish,
It may very well be that your preferences file has become corrupted. When things start going wonky all of a sudden, that’s the first place to look.
On Windows, IMMEDiately after hitting the icon to launch the program, hold down 3 keys, alt/shift/ctrl and continue to hold until a dialog box appears asking if you want to delete, answer yes and let the program finish loading. If you didn’t get the dialog box, let it load and try again.
Let us know if this was a solution for you.
Nancy S,
You are a genius!!! This worked perfectly for me.
Thank you very, very much.
Trish
Nancy S,
I thought I would add one point.
I saw your earlier post recommending the alt/shift/ctrl method. I tried it but couldn’t get the dialog box. That’s because I let the program load first. If others have this problem, please note that it works when you hit the keys IMMEDIATELY after clicking on the icon, before the program loads.
I hope ian mckenzie sees your post Nancy.
Again, thank you so very much.
Trish
Trish,
Good! All is well in your world. You capitalized ‘immediately’ similarly to my rendition for emphasis.
This is a little quirk in the program IMHO. A quirky solution to a quirk actually. <g>
Nancy
