Shadow Adjustments

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Shadow Adjustments

in

Most Image Editing Softwares

     I have to start by saying that the best thing to do when your doing any photography, especially where you have lots of control, is to do everything on location or in the studio. That's what I try to do with my toy photography on E-Bay.

    The reason for this is simple:  Do it right in the studio or on location, and you spend less time on the computer. More importantly, if you're a pro photographer, you're charging for a finished product (Photoshopped) and the longer you spend, the less money you are earning per hour or per assignment.

    Why I'm writing today's instalment is that I see too much bad photography on E-Bay. Sometimes I think it's intentional - don't show the flaws, breaks and scratches, and let the buyer be responsible. Furthermore, E-Bay doesn't seem to mind how descriptions or photographs are done or their respective quality. Only when A buyer files a complaint does anything happen!

    Below are 2 photographs that I took. One is better lit than the other, but I wanted to show you what can be "salvaged" or improved  through any image-editing software.

Image 1:

Problem: Needs better detail in the shadows

Solution: Add more light in the shadows either form a reflector or with a second light.

Image 2: Better detail through the use of a reflector in the shadow area

Problem: Not enough light in the driver's head

Solution: Adjust the reflector angle, or use a second reflector or light

However, just like life in general, things don't always go smoothly or in the right direction

So.there are Image-Enhancing Software features to help you out.

Image 1:

Problem: Needs better detail in the shadows

Solution: Use Photoshop's 

Image>>Adjustments??Shadows/Highlights

This is the default percentage when you use this function -

 it's 37% which means that you lighten the darkness by 37%

The "highlights" are by default zero (0).

The highlight setting is used when your bright area 

are too bright and detail is being washed out or is too bright.

Here's the result.

Much better, even though I did not photograph the item 100% in the studio!

The 2 images before

The 2 images after using the highlight/shadow command

    Photoshop, like all other software programs is a "hoarder". By that, I mean that it keeps every function and improvement since day one, when the program hit the market. There are at least 5-10 ways or procedures to do the same thing as I did above with the blue Hubley Cast Iron racer (circa 1930's).

    So here's another way to do the same thing, which would be to lighten the shadows. The command is "Dodge". What that does is to lighten up the dark areas via a large circular tool. I'm going to use  a different image to demonstrate this tool.

h3 Images of the same car, but with improved lighting in the shadows from top to bottom.

hThe dodging tool location

The arrow is pointing to the size of the circular dodging tool.

You can increase or decrease the size either by entering a number or by moving a slider.

The "Range" sub-menu allows you to improves the:

shadows

mid-tones

highlights

By selecting 1 of the 3.

hI like to work in steps.

I will move the "dodging tool" along the area needing to be lightened up, 

but I will take 3 passings to do this.

It's slower, but it the end it's faster.

Each step of dodging, allows toy to see the result,"a bit at a time", rather than 

dodging too much with an over-aggressive setting.

Here  is the second passing over a dark area to lighten it.

Here  is the third passing over a dark area to lighten it.

Here  is the final image where I used the dodging tool in selective dark areas to lighten up those areas.

Here  is the image before I did the dodging.

So thanks for the visit, 

and as always,

Have a good morning, afternoon, or evening,

wherever you may be.