Adjusting contrast/brightness by gradient?

"surface9" wrote in message

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

yes you will need to read how to use masks and selections

make an adjustment layer to correct the shadow areas with curves or levels for the time being disregard the rest of the image being too light

you will see a white rectangle next to the curves adjustment that is the mask
all areas you don’t wish adjusted must be masked in black

you will need to understand how to select your light areas on the orig layer by combination of magnetic lasso, wand etc, you can correct the mask with a brush paint on it in black or white by clicking on the thumbnail of the mask after you have the selection feather it a little to make a smoother transition

(if you want >>>inverse that same selection to adjust the light areas separately)

I just did a picture like that
son in foreground full sharp focus and good contrast
mom was behind in low light was too soft due to depth of field and too flat made a dupe layer ,sharpened it and then used a mask with gradient to remove sharp from foreground that didn’t need it

then made a contrasty adjustment and removed bottom portion so only mom got adjusted

(all selections can be made into masks by using fill command or make the selection first then hit the icon for mask)

you can make masks on any image layer by clicking the little icon on layer palette

this is a fab technique to master and comes in handy with so many images

Good afternoon Surface!

I might start with making copies of the most contrasted channels — or cloned mirrors of them — and creating masks out of them.

Then load the masks one at a time, which will (should, I’m not there and have been known to say totally incorrect things now and then) let you darken or brighten one side while protecting the other, and then do it over on the other side.

This is an old technique that dates back to doing what you’re looking to do on a camera.

I’m sure that there are a dozen other (and probably faster and more efficient) ways to do it, but his will probably give you a place to start from.

Hope this helps

Gary in florida — one of the evil corporate people who destroy the lives of anybody that dares ask stupid questions.

Good thing yours wasn’t stupid, right?

Just kidding, folks 🙂

On 11/27/07 12:10 PM, in article
, "surface9"
wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

"Gary" wrote in message

Good afternoon Surface!

I might start with making copies of the most contrasted channels — or cloned mirrors of them — and creating masks out of them.
Then load the masks one at a time, which will (should, I’m not there and have been known to say totally incorrect things now and then) let you darken
or brighten one side while protecting the other, and then do it over on the
other side.

This is an old technique that dates back to doing what you’re looking to do
on a camera.

I’m sure that there are a dozen other (and probably faster and more efficient) ways to do it, but his will probably give you a place to start from.

Hope this helps

Gary in florida — one of the evil corporate people who destroy the lives of
anybody that dares ask stupid questions.

Good thing yours wasn’t stupid, right?

Just kidding, folks 🙂

On 11/27/07 12:10 PM, in article
,
"surface9"
wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

yeah another way might be to create two layers of the same image and try some different blend modes
quicker and avoids having to make any selections

I did find an example of changing selected areas already had it online here

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=439227484&contex t=set-72157600005475635&size=l

enhanced certain areas by selecting and using adjustment layers screenshot here
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=439224275&size=o

surface9 wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Same old! same old! you just use the very same old techinique’s (too many of them), and all you need to do is learning to adapt the same old technique to newer problem’s.

I bet if you read text message or researching for some information about retouching, then you should have read lot of talk about "Layer" and "Masking" which graphic users have been talking daily for the past many years. And "Layer" and "Masking" is what you need (you can use Dodge/Burn tool, but it’s little more complicate than Layer and Masking.

And I do hope you already know some basic to follow my simple instruction.

1. Make a dupe of the original (2 more layers would be better)

2. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "overexposed" area to your liking

3. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "underexposed" area to your liking

4. Click on the "Quick Mask" button, and MASK whatever area you want to reveal (appear).

That’s it!

On Nov 27, 3:42 pm, Joel wrote:

surface9 wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Same old! same old! you just use the very same old techinique’s (too many of them), and all you need to do is learning to adapt the same old technique to newer problem’s.

I bet if you read text message or researching for some information about retouching, then you should have read lot of talk about "Layer" and "Masking" which graphic users have been talking daily for the past many years. And "Layer" and "Masking" is what you need (you can use Dodge/Burn tool, but it’s little more complicate than Layer and Masking.
And I do hope you already know some basic to follow my simple instruction.
1. Make a dupe of the original (2 more layers would be better)
2. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "overexposed" area to your liking
3. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "underexposed" area to your liking
4. Click on the "Quick Mask" button, and MASK whatever area you want to reveal (appear).

That’s it!

Thanks, I’ll try both the layers and mask methods as well as the blends. But the one thing that I’m still not clear on is the GRADIENT aspect – when I apply brightness (or contrast) in MSPAINT or THJMBSPLUS, the entire selection is adjusted everywhere the same – is this also the way Photoshop will do it? Because that will leave a boundary between the area that I selected and the area that is already OK. I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

I don’t know if I am making myself clear – the bad lighting is not uniform within an area of the photo – but it starts to go bad and gets progressively worse in a small central area within the area i would select – I need the application of brightness and contrast to vary so as to match the badness of the lighting – I need to control this "gradient" application of brightness/contrast by selecting a "distance" from the edge for the full application of my brightness/ control, and for the final brightening to vary relative to the distance from the edge and the max-distance I specify.

I guess this seems complicated, but, I can’t see any other way to avoid a discernible edge where a the application of brightness/ contrast adjustment would be abruptly applied as per the edges of my selected area.

"surface9" wrote in message

On Nov 27, 3:42 pm, Joel wrote:

surface9 wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Same old! same old! you just use the very same old techinique’s (too many
of them), and all you need to do is learning to adapt the same old technique
to newer problem’s.

I bet if you read text message or researching for some
information about
retouching, then you should have read lot of talk about "Layer" and "Masking" which graphic users have been talking daily for the past many years. And "Layer" and "Masking" is what you need (you can use Dodge/Burn
tool, but it’s little more complicate than Layer and Masking.
And I do hope you already know some basic to follow my simple instruction.

1. Make a dupe of the original (2 more layers would be better)
2. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "overexposed" area to your liking
3. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "underexposed" area to your liking
4. Click on the "Quick Mask" button, and MASK whatever area you want to reveal (appear).

That’s it!

Thanks, I’ll try both the layers and mask methods as well as the blends. But the one thing that I’m still not clear on is the GRADIENT aspect – when I apply brightness (or contrast) in MSPAINT or THJMBSPLUS, the entire selection is adjusted everywhere the same – is this also the way Photoshop will do it? Because that will leave a boundary between the area that I selected and the area that is already OK. I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

I don’t know if I am making myself clear – the bad lighting is not uniform within an area of the photo – but it starts to go bad and gets progressively worse in a small central area within the area i would select – I need the application of brightness and contrast to vary so as to match the badness of the lighting – I need to control this "gradient" application of brightness/contrast by selecting a "distance" from the edge for the full application of my brightness/ control, and for the final brightening to vary relative to the distance from the edge and the max-distance I specify.

I guess this seems complicated, but, I can’t see any other way to avoid a discernible edge where a the application of brightness/ contrast adjustment would be abruptly applied as per the edges of my selected area.

no it’s simple
put the gradient black to clear
on the mask (white)

or as my first post you can feather the selection
re read my first post
follow step by step

if you like old fashioned dodge and burn
make a new layer
fill with 50% gray>set this layer to blend mode overlay the it will be invisible but you can dodge burn tool on it

surface9 wrote:

<snip>

And I do hope you already know some basic to follow my simple instruction.
1. Make a dupe of the original (2 more layers would be better)
2. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "overexposed" area to your liking
3. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "underexposed" area to your liking
4. Click on the "Quick Mask" button, and MASK whatever area you want to reveal (appear).

That’s it!

Thanks, I’ll try both the layers and mask methods as well as the blends. But the one thing that I’m still not clear on is the GRADIENT aspect – when I apply brightness (or contrast) in MSPAINT or THJMBSPLUS, the entire selection is adjusted everywhere the same – is this also the way Photoshop will do it? Because that will leave a boundary between the area that I selected and the area that is already OK. I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

I don’t know anything about other, and since you post the question on Photoshop newsgroup so I (I guess most if not all others as well) thought you are Photoshop user so I gave you the instruction how to do using Photoshop.

And again, it’s still Photoshop.

– By using combination of "Layer" and "Quick Mask" it doesn’t matter if the other place gets messed up, because you only work and want the good spot. Example if you want to reduce the "overexposed" then the good spot will get darker to completely BLACK, but you only need to fix the "overexposed" spot so it’s normal. And opposite when you try to work on the "underexposed" which will cause the good spot to go "overexposed".

– And as I mentioned you use "Quick Mask" to REVEAL (bring up the information from lower layer) the good area from layer below (or CONSEAL, hide the bad spot of upper layer)

And as you don’t see I mention anything about EDGE or anything because you DO NOT want to do the hard way. And if you are good with Photoshop then you shouldn’t need more than 1-2 minutes to fix the problem, and if you are very good then should be under 1 min.

I don’t know if I am making myself clear – the bad lighting is not uniform within an area of the photo – but it starts to go bad and gets progressively worse in a small central area within the area i would select – I need the application of brightness and contrast to vary so as to match the badness of the lighting – I need to control this "gradient" application of brightness/contrast by selecting a "distance" from the edge for the full application of my brightness/ control, and for the final brightening to vary relative to the distance from the edge and the max-distance I specify.

I guess this seems complicated, but, I can’t see any other way to avoid a discernible edge where a the application of brightness/ contrast adjustment would be abruptly applied as per the edges of my selected area.

I do understand what you are talking about, but it seems like you don’t know what I am talking about <bg>. So I give you an example of what I am talking about.

Lets say I take a photo but having a strong SHADOW problem like a very dark and long nose shadow on the face, someone’s shadow on someone else face, or can’t see the eyes because of shadow etc.. (or one size is overexposed and other side is underexposed doesn’t matter because it’s the same). And this is what I need to do.

– I make a dupe of the original layer (original photo)

– Using Level to brighten the upper layer til the shadow disappear. And the rest of the photo will be overexposed to completely WHITE, but it doesn’t matter because I don’t need those.

– Now, I use "Quick Mask" to bring back the good area from the Lower_Layer to replace the overexposed_of_upper_layer.

That’s it! now I have a newer photo without SHADOW issue. Same with overexposed, I use Level to darken the overexposed area, then use "Qucik Mask" to bring the good part from lower_layer.

See — I knew somebody would do it right 🙂

And yeah — magic wand. I;m old and had brain damage last year — but that’s not an excuse :-)))

g

On 11/27/07 4:42 PM, in article ,
"Joel" wrote:

surface9 wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Same old! same old! you just use the very same old techinique’s (too many of them), and all you need to do is learning to adapt the same old technique to newer problem’s.

I bet if you read text message or researching for some information about retouching, then you should have read lot of talk about "Layer" and "Masking" which graphic users have been talking daily for the past many years. And "Layer" and "Masking" is what you need (you can use Dodge/Burn tool, but it’s little more complicate than Layer and Masking.
And I do hope you already know some basic to follow my simple instruction.
1. Make a dupe of the original (2 more layers would be better)
2. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "overexposed" area to your liking
3. Using Level or Curve to adjust the "underexposed" area to your liking
4. Click on the "Quick Mask" button, and MASK whatever area you want to reveal (appear).

That’s it!

"surface9" wrote in message

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Yes, any number of well-developed techniques for adjusting shadows have been developed over the years, before Photoshop existed and after, but let’s step back a bit and look at the bigger picture.

Brightness and contrast were included in version 1 of Photoshop, but they are brutal tools to use on your image because they always throw away data. Levels, which someone mentioned, is an improvement because you can adjust the middle gray triangle, effectively trading shadow detail for highlight detail (or vice versa) gracefully, compressing image detail in the highlights (or shadows) instead of simply throwing it away.

Masking, and using multiple layers, can be very effective in some situations, but as you have already noted, it takes considerable skill to use a mask – particularly a mask that you draw yourself – without producing an artificial edge.

Photoshop offers a number of other tools for you to use. Shadows and highlights is a new, and extremely powerful, method of adjusting the overall brightness and detail. I suggest you spend half an hour experimenting with this tool. I’ll bet thumb drives to punch cards that you’ll get good results right away.

And then, of course, there is curves. Curves are Photoshop’s simplest, most elegant, and most powerful color correction tool. Using a curve that is steeper in the shadows, and less so in the rest of the image, will greatly improve shadow detail, with no telltale artificial edges.

But first try the S&H command.
—
Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com

"Mike Russell" wrote:

<snip>

Is there a technique for doing this?

Yes, any number of well-developed techniques for adjusting shadows have been developed over the years, before Photoshop existed and after, but let’s step back a bit and look at the bigger picture.

Brightness and contrast were included in version 1 of Photoshop, but they are brutal tools to use on your image because they always throw away data. Levels, which someone mentioned, is an improvement because you can adjust the middle gray triangle, effectively trading shadow detail for highlight detail (or vice versa) gracefully, compressing image detail in the highlights (or shadows) instead of simply throwing it away.
Masking, and using multiple layers, can be very effective in some situations, but as you have already noted, it takes considerable skill to use a mask – particularly a mask that you draw yourself – without producing an artificial edge.

You don’t create Mask *but* using "Quick Mask" command so not much skill required but understanding.

Photoshop offers a number of other tools for you to use. Shadows and highlights is a new, and extremely powerful, method of adjusting the overall brightness and detail. I suggest you spend half an hour experimenting with this tool. I’ll bet thumb drives to punch cards that you’ll get good results right away.

And then, of course, there is curves. Curves are Photoshop’s simplest, most elegant, and most powerful color correction tool. Using a curve that is steeper in the shadows, and less so in the rest of the image, will greatly improve shadow detail, with no telltale artificial edges.

Shadow/Hi-light, Level, Curves and most single command usually effect other area. So s/he will need to learn to use "layer" and something similar to "Quick Mask" (like Erase Tool if don’t want to use "Mask")

"Mike Russell" wrote in message

"surface9" wrote in message

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

Yes, any number of well-developed techniques for adjusting shadows have been developed over the years, before Photoshop existed and after, but let’s step back a bit and look at the bigger picture.

Brightness and contrast were included in version 1 of Photoshop, but they are brutal tools to use on your image because they always throw away data. Levels, which someone mentioned, is an improvement because you can adjust the middle gray triangle, effectively trading shadow detail for highlight detail (or vice versa) gracefully, compressing image detail in the highlights (or shadows) instead of simply throwing it away.
Masking, and using multiple layers, can be very effective in some situations, but as you have already noted, it takes considerable skill to use a mask – particularly a mask that you draw yourself – without producing an artificial edge.

Photoshop offers a number of other tools for you to use. Shadows and highlights is a new, and extremely powerful, method of adjusting the overall brightness and detail. I suggest you spend half an hour experimenting with this tool. I’ll bet thumb drives to punch cards that you’ll get good results right away.

And then, of course, there is curves. Curves are Photoshop’s simplest, most elegant, and most powerful color correction tool. Using a curve that is steeper in the shadows, and less so in the rest of the image, will greatly improve shadow detail, with no telltale artificial edges.
But first try the S&H command.
—
Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com

yeah I forget about the shadow highlight tool-so used to doing everything the old manual way

I agree
make a duplicate layer or make a copy
and try that first

I would agree that learning to make perfect selections is not a beginner method
however making good selections are the most important thing to learn IMO

In article
,
surface9 wrote:

I have a photograph that has areas where the shadows are much to dark – I can adjust the contrast and brightness so as to bring into clear view those portions of the photograph, but that washes out all the other areas of the photograph. What I need to be able to do is to use a freehand tool to outline a closed area that will be the object of contrast/brightness adjustments, but, not all the same. I need to have the adjustments not applied at all to the edges of my closed area, and for the brightness/contrast to be progressively appled to pixels according to how far away from the edge of the closed area they are, so that those pixels that are farther away than a predfined "distance" (I need to be able to chose this value), will be subject to the full application of the brigntess/contrast controls that I apply. I need to be able to see the effect in real time, with sliders, so that I can view and test the results – this way I can UNDO the bad lighting that was done when the photo was snapped.

Is there a technique for doing this?

There are many.

The best one starts with this: Never, ever, ever use the "brightness/contrast" command in Photoshop.

This command, which is suitable only for the newest beginners, is a "linear" command. It degrades the quality of the image by removing, or "clipping," detail from hilights, shadows, or both. And as you have discovered, it does not permit you to affect one tonal area with affecting another.

Learn to use the Curves command. Absolutely everything that Brightness/Contrast can do, Curves can do–but Curves gives you greater control, Curves lets you affect only certain tonal ranges, and Curves can be used without clipping detail from the hilights and shadows.

The way to affect only part of an image, and then have the change you make fade out, is to make a selection and then use the Feather command on the selection.

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

In article
,
surface9 wrote:

I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

Feather your selection. Use the lasso tool (or any other selection tool). Click on the Select menu and choose the Feather command. Enter a value. This softens the selection. Larger values cause the effect you apply to be blended out more smoothly.

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

On Nov 28, 5:34 pm, tacit wrote:

In article
,

surface9 wrote:

I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

Feather your selection. Use the lasso tool (or any other selection tool). Click on the Select menu and choose the Feather command. Enter a value. This softens the selection. Larger values cause the effect you apply to be blended out more smoothly.

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all athttp://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

FEATHER! Thanks, tacit, that is what I was searching for, but I just didn’t know what to call it (my term "gradient" seem appropriate because the adjustment needs to change along a gradient, from a little to a lot – exactly what feathering does).

Thanks to all the responses here, I am having a real hard time learning photoshop – it seems like it could easily be a 2-year college endeavor. But, as I read about feathering, I realize there are so many useful features that it is worht the effort to learn. Thanks again.

surface9 wrote:

On Nov 28, 5:34 pm, tacit wrote:

In article
,

surface9 wrote:

I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

Feather your selection. Use the lasso tool (or any other selection tool). Click on the Select menu and choose the Feather command. Enter a value. This softens the selection. Larger values cause the effect you apply to be blended out more smoothly.

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all athttp://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

FEATHER! Thanks, tacit, that is what I was searching for, but I just didn’t know what to call it (my term "gradient" seem appropriate because the adjustment needs to change along a gradient, from a little to a lot – exactly what feathering does).

Thanks to all the responses here, I am having a real hard time learning photoshop – it seems like it could easily be a 2-year college endeavor. But, as I read about feathering, I realize there are so many useful features that it is worht the effort to learn. Thanks again.

Feather may do a little trick but I don’t think it will give a good result. And like I said

1. Multiple LAYERS

2. Using MASK is the way (easier and better)

And you do not have to create a Mask File, but using Mask Mode so you just use BRUSH tool to do the Reveal and Conseal very similar to Erase Tool except it’s more powerful and flexible (similar to History). They are all basic and those are quick and dirty tricks to get a complex done in few short seconds.

Here’s an easy way to try:

1 Make a selection around the area to be lightened. It should be a little outside the area and it doesn’t have to be real exact

2 Create an adjustment layer. Any adjustment layer will do, but you get some added control if you use levels

3 This is important! Change the layer’s blending mode from NORMAL to SCREEN.

4 When you click OK it will lighten the area but will look lousy because it will do it in the area that you selected and the effect will have sharp edges

5 Now click on the little picture in the layer palette that shows your selection. It will be black with a white area that looks like the shape of your selection.

6 Go to filter – blur – gaussian blur and fool with the slider to get the soft edged effect you want.

7 If this has lightened the area too much just decrease the opacity of the adjustment layer. Nit enough? Just create a duplicate layer by keying in <ctrl> J. As before change the opacity of the new layer to fine tune your result.

"surface9" wrote in message

On Nov 28, 5:34 pm, tacit wrote:

In article
,

surface9 wrote:

I need the adjustment to vary from all the way (as per my slider control) in the centermost part of my selected area, and then the adjustment should progressively decrease for those pixels that are closer to the edge of my selected area so that NO BOUNDARY will be noticeable – that would mean that the outermost pixels in the area I want to adjust will not be adjusted very much, if at all, and the adjustment will be gradual as the distance from the edge is increased.

Feather your selection. Use the lasso tool (or any other selection tool). Click on the Select menu and choose the Feather command. Enter a value. This softens the selection. Larger values cause the effect you apply to be blended out more smoothly.

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all
athttp://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

FEATHER! Thanks, tacit, that is what I was searching for, but I just didn’t know what to call it (my term "gradient" seem appropriate because the adjustment needs to change along a gradient, from a little to a lot – exactly what feathering does).

Thanks to all the responses here, I am having a real hard time learning photoshop – it seems like it could easily be a 2-year college endeavor. But, as I read about feathering, I realize there are so many useful features that it is worht the effort to learn. Thanks again.

11/27 ?
……………….after you have the selection feather it a little to make a smoother
transition,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

yes after 10 years still learning, and always updates to learn as for creating> can always get better, be more inspired, etc

best way to learn is ask how to do the thing you need
on the way you discover tools techniques skills
sometimes the mistake is interesting
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kw-retouch/467423340/in/set-721 57600005475635/