[Tutor Tip] Edmond Archer Photoshop: Utilising the Whole Dynamic Range of your Files While this of course does not apply to all subjects and styles, unless you have a specific reason not to, I would recommend that you take advantage of all of the tones available in your images. The human eye is naturally drawn to areas of detail and contrast, without using all the tones in our images we reduce our ability to create points of interest and lead our audience deeper into a photo. This example is maybe a little more subtle then what will commonly occur when shooting, however in the first image/histogram (1) you can see that a good portion of the shadow tones are not being used (highlighted in yellow). We would consider the top image to be slightly over exposed and the image is beginning to look washed out. For low contrast subjects and lighting conditions we often see this effect and our images end up looking a bit flat and uninteresting. In these situations we can use Photoshop’s Levels Tool to shift the black point of our image (2) and slide it closer to the edge of the histogram data. This stretches the tones in our scene across the available range of tones in the image file. We reintroduce blacks and get more depth through the increase in contrast. If you have a gap at the highlights end (right side) of your histogram instead or as well, you can do the same with the white point, shifting this towards the middle. If the overall image changes too much, select the middle slider under the graph (grey point) and modify this as necessary to get the final image/histogram you want (3). This can also be done with the Curves Tool to provide more control over the image. Find out more about Eddy on our website! thephotographyinstitute/index.cfm/apg/tutor See more of Eddy’s work here: 500px/MrIves
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:53:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015