Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [97]
Figure 3.44.
The Tone Curve panel, shown here in Point Curve editor mode with the default Medium Contrast tone curve setting.
1.
In this first example, the image tones were adjusted using the Basic panel controls to produce an optimized range of tones that were ready to be enhanced further. I could have used the Brightness and Contrast sliders next, but the Tone Curve panel provides a simple yet effective interface for manipulating the Contrast and Brightness.
2.
In the Tone Curve panel I selected the Parametric Curve option. By dragging the Highlights slider to the right and the Lights slider to the left, I was able to increase the contrast in the sky. One can also apply these adjustments by selecting the target adjustment tool (circled) and clicking and dragging up or down on target areas of the image.
3.
I then adjusted the Darks and Shadows sliders to add more contrast in the dark regions of the photograph. In addition to this, I fine-tuned the scope of adjustment for the Tone Curve sliders by adjusting the positions of the three tone range split points (circled).
Correcting a high contrast image
1.
This photograph has a wide subject brightness range, and is shown here opened in Camera Raw using the default settings.
2.
The first step was to take care of the highlights. I adjusted the Exposure slider to apply a negative Exposure adjustment, followed by a Recovery adjustment to hold more of the detail in the highlights.
3.
I then tackled the Shadow detail by raising the Fill Light setting. When you are required to push the Fill Light adjustment to such extremes, it is not uncommon to have to raise the Blacks (as I did here). The picture was not yet perfect, but we can now see detail at both ends of the tonal scale.
4.
Lastly, I went to the Tone Curve panel and used the slider settings shown here to carefully add contrast to the photograph where it was needed most.
HSL/Grayscale panel
The HSL controls provide eight color sliders with which to control the Hue, Saturation and Luminance. These work in a similar way to the Hue/Saturation adjustment in Photoshop, but are in many ways better; based on my own experience I find these controls are more predictable in their response. In Figure 3.45 I used the Luminance controls to darken the blue sky and add more contrast in the clouds, plus I lightened the grass and trees slightly. Try doing this using Hue/Saturation in Photoshop and you will find that the blue colors tend to lose saturation as you darken the luminosity. You will also notice that instead of using the traditional additive and subtractive primary colors of red, green, blue, plus cyan, magenta and yellow, the color slider controls in the HSL panel are based on colors that are of more actual relevance when editing photographic images. For example, the Oranges slider is useful for adjusting skin tones and Aquas allows you to target the color of the sea, but without affecting the color of a sky.
Figure 3.45 In this example, the Luminance sliders in the HSL/Grayscale panel were used to darken the sky and also lighten the colors of the leaves.
Camera Raw Detail panel
In case you are wondering, the next chapter contains a major section on working with the Detail panel.
HSL color controls
The choice of color ranges for the HSL sliders is really quite logical when you think about it. We may often want to adjust skin tone colors, but skin tones aren't red or yellow, but are more of an orange color. And the sea is often not blue but more of an aqua color. Basically, the hue ranges in the HSL controls are designed to provide a more applicable range of colors for photographers to work with.
Recovering out-of-gamut colors
Figure 3.46 highlights