Photoshop Elements >
Raw Process, Twice,
To Reduce Contrast >
1 - Preliminaries
A Problem & Solutions
Let's say you're photographing a barn.
You can see the outside.
You can see the horsed inside the barn.
Unfortunately, when you photograph the barn, you have to choose
between setting the exposure for:
• The outside.
• For the horses.
Without interventions, you can't photograph both the outside
and the inside.
When photographing a scene with bright areas and dark areas,
go to
Photography's Problem: Representing What We See.
Here, we'll use a post-production method.
We'll process a raw file twice—once for the highlights—a second
time for the shadows.
Then, we'll combine the best parts of the two exposure variations.
Do the following.
Camera
You can optimize the exposure for raw files.
Go to Raw Files: Expose
to the Right.
Be sure to check off as you go along.
Develop Twice
1st Develop - Shadows
1) Open the raw file in the Adobe Raw Converter in Photoshop
Elements.
Let's call it DSC_1234.dng.
2) Edit DSC_1234.dng to optimize the shadow areas.
If you adjust the color settings, write down their values.
3) Click Open Image.
DSC_1234.dng will open in Photoshop Elements.
4) Go to File > Duplicate.
By default, Photoshop Elements will append copy to SC1234.dng.
DSC_1234 copy.dng
Change copy to shadows.
DSC_1234 shadows.dng
5) Click OK.
6) Close DSC_1234.dng without saving it.
You now have only on file open, DSC_1234 shadows.dng.
2nd Develop - Highlights
7) Open the raw file again and:
• Change the white balance back to As Shot, if it was
changed.
• Click Default to return to the default exposure and
contrast settings.
8) This time, edit DSC_1234.dng to optimize the highlight areas.
9) If you adjusted the color settings during the first develop,
enter the values that you wrote down.
10) Click Open Image.
DSC_1234.dng will open in Photoshop Elements.
So Far
You now have two files open.
|
DSC_1234.dng
|
Optimized for the highlights
|
|
DSC_1234 shadows.dng
|
Optimized for the shadows
|
Drag DSC_1234 shadows.dng
11) Double click the thumbnail for DSC_1234 shadows.dng in the
project bin at the bottom of your screen.
12) Select the Move tool.
13) Click and hold on the image of DSC_1234 shadows.dng in the
middle of your screen.
14) Drag the image down to the thumbnail of DSC_1234.dng in the
project bin.
The layers will look like this.
|
Layer 1
(DSC_1234 shadows.dng)
|
|
Background
(DSC_1234.dng)
|
If Layer 1 isn't centered, use the Move tool to position it in
register with the Background layer.
To facilitate the positioning, change the blending mode of the
Layer 1 to Difference.
Blending Mode?
At the top of the layers stack, look for the unlabeled Blending Mode box.
It's to the left of the
Opacity box.
If you're new to blending modes, go to
Blending
Modes.
When the layers are in register, change the blending mode of
Layer 1 back to Normal.
If you haven't already done so, go to
Move a Layer.
15) Change the name of Layer 1 to Shadows.
16) Change the name of the Background layer to Highlights.
17) Drag the Highlights layer to the top of the layers stack.
Two Methods for Merging
There are two methods for merging the two exposures.
The first method does the blending automatically.
The photograph is used as a mask.
The second method is manual.
You control the blending by erasing one of the layers.
Go to:
• Method
#1: Mask & Gaussian Blur
• Method
#2: Erase Tool
