My friend Dave Cooney has given me several good tips for making better winter shots. Once is to set the camera to overexpose a bit to make the snow whiter. (Digital cameras have a tendency to make choices that turn the snow gray…) He also gave me a good Photoshop tip that I used to fix a winter shot from last year… before I knew to set the exposure compensation.
Here is the original:
And here is the correction:
Make the correction under “Image->Adjustment->Shadow/Highlights”… Photoshop makes a guess at what it thinks you want… but there are sliders you can mess with to fine-tune it.
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I don’t have Shadow/Highlights in my version of Photoshop. What’s wrong with just adjusting the levels and/or Brightness/Contrast?
Dave – Brightness/Contrast works, too… but the shadows/highlights seems to know just which elements to brighten and which to leave. It’s cool. My friend only has “Elements” and he has Shadows/Highlights… Hmmm… I wonder if it’s in a different place in Elements?
From turkey tails to turkey trails (?)
I have the full Photoshop, but it’s several years old. This isn’t the first time I’ve run into a tip I couldn’t use.
Shadow/Hightlights appeared in Photoshop CS, I think, so if you have PS7 or earlier, no dice. It works differently from Levels or Brightness/Contrast in that it specifically attempts to brighten shadow areas and darken highlight areas (or any combo of the two), leaving the mid-range more-or-less alone. You should be able to approximate it’s effect using Curves, though, although the interface for Curves is less intuitive.
Great job Jen and mastering photoshop is always a never ending battle! So many ways to do your edits which can always tell a different story! Great job and love how the turkey tracks almost look like a mini road!
Thank you soooo much for this tip!!!
Hugs, JJ
When using Shadows and Highlights you will find 3 adjustments using sliders. One each for “Shadows”, “Highlights” and “Midtone Contrast”. It is very useful in bringing out the detail in underexposed and overexposed areas in the same image, however lightening the shadows has a tendency to reduce contrast which is easily corrected with the midtone contrast slider. I have Elements version5.
Nice pictures.
It’s nice to know you can fix your photos without having to change the settings on the camera. I’m going to order a copy of Photoshop Elements and am looking forward to being able to fix up some of my pictures too. Thanks Dave and Jenn for the tips!