Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Zion Trip Report (10/07)

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- United States (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/)

- - Zion Trip Report (10/07) (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/zion-trip-report-10-07-a-742524/)

Carol,

I guess I should have spelled it correctly:

www.travelwalks.com

The Prague, Budapest
NYC, Philadelphia
and
Bryce, Zion, GC, Sedona
trips were done with a digital SLR camera. The photos were then worked on for well under a minute each.

Within Photoshop or Elements there are many ways to get the same results.

Go to your nearest major bookstore and take a look at some of the books. One of them will show you how to reduce glare.

Essentially you want to reduce the very high highlights.

Carol,
I'm not 100% certain but my sources say it's so.

I think current versions of Elements have 2 commands that will make all the difference in your photos.

1)
Shadow/Highlight
This command will allow to to bring back detail lost in shadows and glary highlights. The reduction of highlights without affecting the remainder of the photo will do a great job for you.

Select Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadow/Highlights
2)
Unsharp Mask (USM)
Add a bit of sharpening. I'm not sure how much control Elements gives you but if there are 3 parameters try:
Amount about 70
Radius .8
and Threshold 0

Select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask

It won't take you long to decide which settings you like. With the Preview Option on you can see the results as you try it.

Let me know how you do with a few photos.

Myer, thanks for the photoshop tips! I'm pressed for time right now, but I wanted to be sure to say a huge thanks! I will definitely try this out soon.

Myer, wow, this is amazing! Did you follow the procedures you showed above? I certainly hope my Elements has the ability to do this easily. I should probably mention I have Elements 3.0 (bought a couple years ago) and I'm working on a Mac.

I'll give it a shot when I have time to try it out :)

Thanks!

Carol,
Actually, I used a method that is not available to you but that's not really important.

Within Photoshop/Elements there are many ways to get the same results. I've just selected a certain approach and use it.

= = = = =
Simply put, there are 2 things you want to do.
a)
Reduce the very, very bright light but not anything else. That's where you cannot see the detail due to the bright glare.
The Shadow/Highlight command should help greatly (Highlights mostly and some Shadow for dark areas).
b)
Add a bit of sharpening.
Thats where Unsharp Mask (USM) comes in. What a bad name for a command.

That's it!!!

If your version of Elements doesn't have them, you should upgrade. I don't know the cost but I think the whole program is about $100.

Not very expensive for the memories of your trip.

Myer, I just tried it... I DO have the ability to do those things. However, I had no idea what I was doing in the Shadow/Highlight section... couldn't really get a feel for what settings to use to get even remotely close to what you did. If it's not hard to do, can you tell me what percentages you used on a couple different photos of mine (so I can get an idea)? Perhaps you don't have that info once the correction is made. I'm just having a hard time balancing the 3 options they give me when the Shadow/Highlights window opens.

Ok. I'll give you the English explanation.

**** Shadow/Highlight
There are 2 settings. Shadow and Highlight. (Do not select "other settings" as this will give you many detailed parameters and confuse matters)

** Shadow.
Reduces shadows (reducing a shadow makes the photo lighter in this area). This will make the very dark areas lighter so that you can see what's in the dark shadows. Set this to "0" if nothing is lost in shadows. Otherwise you can bring back detail lost in the dark shadows by setting this to between 10 and 20%. You don't want to use too much as the photo may become too flat.

** Highlight.
This is where you can make the biggest difference (the biggest secret in Post-Processing).

Look at your original of #2615. On the left hand side all of the detail on the hill/mountain is lost because it is washed out (too bright).

Look at your original of #2663. Look up at the top at the white part of the rock. It's all washed out because it's too bright.

You want to reduce the very, very bright light.

That's where Highlight comes in. By setting it at between 25 and 40% (or sometimes even more) you will reduce only the highs and it won't affect the remainder of the photo. You'll even get bluer skies as the glare in the sky will be reduced.

Keep Preview selected so you can see the effect as you adjust.

If you now find the whole photo is a bit too dark you can brighten it up using Brightness (another command). This will increase the whole image so only add a bit.

**** Unsharp Mask (USM)
Most photos have at least a bit of lack of sharpness. This is caused by many factors.

If you sharpen too much it looks artificial.

There are 3 parameters here; Amount, Radius and Threshold.

Try about 50 to 70% Amount, .7 Radius and 0 Threshold.

This will also improve the distinction between colors and items in the image.
= = = = =

I did a few other things but probably 75% of the improvement is described above.

It all sounds so complicated but really, if you spend a couple of hours learning it and then a couple of hours getting used to it, you'll be able to greatly improve an image in under a minute. That's how long it took me.

= = = = =
There are those who will say that the images should not be played with. To some extent I agree.

However, I'm not changing anything. I'm trying to bring the image back to what I saw.

You eyesight is fantastic. As you scan a scene the pupil opens and closes as required in order to see it best.

Your camera can't do that. It takes one setting for the whole image.

Nobody can complain if all you do is bring the image back to what you remember seeing.

Let me know how you did. If all else fails we may have to take drastic action (to be continued).

You're awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to me in detail... I truly appreciate it :)

I will tinker with this for sure, as soon as I get a chance... and I will indeed report back!

I loved what you did to my photos... it was like taking a layer of "grime" off of them. Amazing. I have a lot to learn, and you've set me in the right direction, so 1,000 thanks!

Carol

Carol,
You are welcome.

I PP'd somebody's Italy trip for them and he described it exactly the same way.

Like I wrote. Let me know how you're doing. Hopefully we won't have to resort to drastic measures. I'd rather you do it than me.