I really should be outside working around the house, but a new training tip over at Kelby has been bugging me, and I need to test it out before I add it to my workflow and make it mine. For the last week, I’ve used it in bits and pieces but I needed to get serious and nail this down.
The technique lets you put shadow and details back into your image via the ACR raw smart object. I know that my Images tend to get blocked up in the shadows, that is, I loose details, sometimes it’s on purpose, but other times, well there just gone,even if I try to protect them. Finally when I export my file thru Photoshop for the Web Blog, my Image darkens by a 1/2 stop and more shadow detail is deleted.
Why is this important, well everything matters, if I start out with no shadow/detail then that situation becomes cumulative and perpaps multiplicative thru the entire process. So lots of talk, but a picture is a thousand words…
The image beow is based on my worflow techniques from a year ago. I’m still amazed that all these digital pixels stay alive and well, resting waiting for some electricity and software to bring them back to life. These images are now eighteen months old…yet I know film is the same way, Prez is always telling me about a negative that is 30,40,50 years old and he can still create film based Photograph from them……
In any event, what I am comparing is shadows detail, the original image is missing that detail, in the ‘eye socket’ and the foreground/background rocks and mountains. You also tend to add more staturation as you go to the contrast dark side, so the bolder and blue skys tend to be a bit over saturated,
Based on what I have tried so far, this new technique adds shadow detail back in, and keeps luminosity up, and saturation down….so I’ll continue to give this new technique a place in the digital darkroom
