Shadow/Highlight in CS

E
Posted By
embee
Mar 18, 2005
Views
387
Replies
6
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Closed
I’ve recently upgraded from PS7 to CS and while I’m generally pleased with some of the new features, one addition which I find outstanding is the Shadow/Highlight option. I now wonder how I ever got by without it!

With some of my photos, I’ve never been able to get the tone I want quite right using curves and levels etc – now they really jump out at me.

As a latecomer to CS I missed out on the significance of the Shadow/Highlight tool’s introduction and I was wondering if other people here are as impressed as I am, also how much they use it. I’d also appreciate any info on how others fit it into their workflow.

Personally, I do a general colour/tone adjustment first using Curvemeister and levels before firing up Shadow/Highlight and using it. I try not to push things too far as I find it can introduce some unpleasant effects if it’s overused. But for giving a flat photo a big lift, I think this tool is superb in careful hands.

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C
ChrisM204
Mar 18, 2005
embee wrote:
I’ve recently upgraded from PS7 to CS and while I’m generally pleased with some of the new features, one addition which I find outstanding is the Shadow/Highlight option. I now wonder how I ever got by without it!
With some of my photos, I’ve never been able to get the tone I want quite right using curves and levels etc – now they really jump out at me.
As a latecomer to CS I missed out on the significance of the Shadow/Highlight tool’s introduction and I was wondering if other people here are as impressed as I am, also how much they use it. I’d also appreciate any info on how others fit it into their workflow.
Personally, I do a general colour/tone adjustment first using Curvemeister and levels before firing up Shadow/Highlight and using it. I try not to push things too far as I find it can introduce some unpleasant effects if it’s overused. But for giving a flat photo a big lift, I think this tool is superb in careful hands.

The s/h tool is indeed very nice in many cases, but not in all. In some instances, the tool does a much better job than my curves. It seems to be able to keep good contrast across an image while curves have the problem of gaining contrast in some areas while losing contrast in others.

The biggest problem I have with the s/h tool is the way it messes up black/white points that are already set up. I also wonder how to fit this tool in my workflow. Should I set up the black/white points first, apply s/h, and re-establish the black/white points a second time?
TN
Tom Nelson
Mar 18, 2005
In article wrote:

The biggest problem I have with the s/h tool is the way it messes up black/white points that are already set up. I also wonder how to fit this tool in my workflow. Should I set up the black/white points first, apply s/h, and re-establish the black/white points a second time?

You can set a default for S/H that includes the black and white clip points. Those are the darkest and lightest areas, which will be ignored by S/H. Click "show more options" to get it and a host of other features.

High levels of S/H make the midtones get all flat and desaturated. Use color correction and midtone contrast to fix that.

There are also some photos, typically taken without fill flash under overcast skies, which look blah even when you’ve set the tonal contrast correctly in Curves. You can give them more snap by zeroing the shadow and highlight controls and instead increasing the midtone contrast. I’ve never seen this discussed, and it’s not for every photograph, but it can be a real help in a few cases.

Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography
C
ChrisM204
Mar 19, 2005
Tom Nelson wrote:
In article wrote:

The biggest problem I have with the s/h tool is the way it messes up black/white points that are already set up. I also wonder how to fit this tool in my workflow. Should I set up the black/white points first, apply s/h, and re-establish the black/white points a second time?

You can set a default for S/H that includes the black and white clip points. Those are the darkest and lightest areas, which will be ignored by S/H. Click "show more options" to get it and a host of other features.

Yes, I do use the black/white clip controls in s/h to re-establish the messed up black/white points. But I don’t know the meaning or definition of the clip controls’ percentage values, and ended up by trial and error. I also don’t know if adjusting the clip controls after applying s/h is the correct way to use them. Will setting the clip values to zero percent as defaults tell s/h to leave the black and white points alone?

High levels of S/H make the midtones get all flat and desaturated. Use color correction and midtone contrast to fix that.

I try not to over correct with s/h by adjusting the sliders, and don’t use color correction or contrast much. Color correction seems to vary saturation and not hue.

There are also some photos, typically taken without fill flash under overcast skies, which look blah even when you’ve set the tonal contrast correctly in Curves. You can give them more snap by zeroing the shadow and highlight controls and instead increasing the midtone contrast. I’ve never seen this discussed, and it’s not for every photograph, but it can be a real help in a few cases.

Don’t quite understand your suggestion in the second sentence. Are you talking about Curves or s/h?
RK
Ron Krebs
Mar 20, 2005
wrote in message
Tom Nelson wrote:
In article wrote:

The biggest problem I have with the s/h tool is the way it messes up black/white points that are already set up. I also wonder how to fit this tool in my workflow. Should I set up the black/white points
first,
apply s/h, and re-establish the black/white points a second time?

You can set a default for S/H that includes the black and white clip points. Those are the darkest and lightest areas, which will be ignored by S/H. Click "show more options" to get it and a host of other features.

Yes, I do use the black/white clip controls in s/h to re-establish the messed up black/white points. But I don’t know the meaning or definition of the clip controls’ percentage values, and ended up by trial and error. I also don’t know if adjusting the clip controls after applying s/h is the correct way to use them. Will setting the clip values to zero percent as defaults tell s/h to leave the black and white points alone?

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think the percentage windows show what percentage of the color is clipped from the histogram at both ends when the S/H is applied.

High levels of S/H make the midtones get all flat and desaturated. Use color correction and midtone contrast to fix that.

I try not to over correct with s/h by adjusting the sliders, and don’t use color correction or contrast much. Color correction seems to vary saturation and not hue.

There are also some photos, typically taken without fill flash under overcast skies, which look blah even when you’ve set the tonal contrast correctly in Curves. You can give them more snap by zeroing the shadow and highlight controls and instead increasing the midtone contrast. I’ve never seen this discussed, and it’s not for every photograph, but it can be a real help in a few cases.

Don’t quite understand your suggestion in the second sentence. Are you talking about Curves or s/h?
TN
Tom Nelson
Mar 22, 2005
In article wrote:

Yes, I do use the black/white clip controls in s/h to re-establish the messed up black/white points. But I don’t know the meaning or definition of the clip controls’ percentage values, and ended up by trial and error. I also don’t know if adjusting the clip controls after applying s/h is the correct way to use them. Will setting the clip values to zero percent as defaults tell s/h to leave the black and white points alone?

[from Photoshop Help]
Black Clip and White Clip
Specifies how much of the shadows and highlights will be clipped to the new extreme shadow (level 0) and highlight (level 255) colors in the image. Larger values produce an image with greater contrast. Be careful of setting the clipping values too large, as this will lead to reduced detail in the shadows or highlights as the intensity values get clipped and sent to pure black or white.

[Tom Nelson]
High levels of S/H make the midtones get all flat and desaturated. Use color correction and midtone contrast to fix that.
[Chris]
I try not to over correct with s/h by adjusting the sliders, and don’t use color correction or contrast much. Color correction seems to vary saturation and not hue.

Right

[Tom Nelson]
There are also some photos, typically taken without fill flash under overcast skies, which look blah even when you’ve set the tonal contrast correctly in Curves. You can give them more snap by zeroing the shadow and highlight controls and instead increasing the midtone contrast. I’ve never seen this discussed, and it’s not for every photograph, but it can be a real help in a few cases.
[Chris]
Don’t quite understand your suggestion in the second sentence. Are you talking about Curves or s/h?

Shadow/Highlight. See http://www.tnphoto.com/sh.html for a quick example.

Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography
B
Bubbabob
Apr 4, 2005
"embee" wrote:

I’ve recently upgraded from PS7 to CS and while I’m generally pleased with some of the new features, one addition which I find outstanding is the Shadow/Highlight option. I now wonder how I ever got by without it!

With some of my photos, I’ve never been able to get the tone I want quite right using curves and levels etc – now they really jump out at me.

As a latecomer to CS I missed out on the significance of the Shadow/Highlight tool’s introduction and I was wondering if other people here are as impressed as I am, also how much they use it. I’d also appreciate any info on how others fit it into their workflow.
….

It was worth the entire price of the upgrade.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

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