controling highlights in ACR

ACR has a direct way to control the shadow level, but nothing for highlights. What I what to do is to keep say 90% of bottom RAW luminance levels and control only 10% of RAW luminance levels. In most cases to decrease the highlights to sqeeze the caputed DR from RAW into a 8bit RGB (and later in JPG)

Playing with the curve (bending the top right corner of the curve down) in ACR (one of the tabs) does not seem to help either. It seems that the curve adjustment is applied after the RAW image is converted - effectivly a similar effect could be done in Photoshop's curve adjustment, what is too late, since the extreme highlight info is lost.

What do you do? Can you somehow simulate highligh control by doing some combination of adjustments in Exposure, Brightness and Shadows? Do you have a magic combo that would share?

Or do you use some other converted that has such control?

Sometime back, I evaluated RSE and it had both bars to control shadow and highlight contrast, although it did not work exactly the way I wanted.

Thanks,
Aleks

I've found ACR to be simple to use once you undestand what the sliders so. Unfortunately Adobe didn't label the sliders very well. Here's what you need to know:

Use Exposure slider to adjust 100% white point.
Use Shadows slider to adjust 100% black point.

These two are the same as the right and left sliders in the Levels dialog.

Brightness slider adjusts gamma, similar to dragging the center of the curve in Curves. In other words, it keeps the white and black points the same and adjust the midtones uniformly.

Contrast slider is a pre-defined S-curve. I'm not sure if it's symetrical, or a special custom curve that Adobe generated.

In my experience, all the sliders and the Curve tab are applied to the RAW conversion. So if your adjusting the Contrast and Brightness sliders, better leave the Curve tab to Linear or they'll stack up, and vise versa.

What I do:

1. Adjust Exposure for white point. Sometimes I want areas to be blown, other times not. I try to leave a little wiggle room for contrast adjustment, especially for people portraits when skin tones are near the top of the curve.

2. Adjust Shadows for black point. After this, most scenes don't really need much extra contrast adjustment, but it varies from pic to pic.

3. Adjust Contrast slider or play with the Curves tab for midtone contrast. Most times I skip this part and prefer to add adjustment layers in Photoshop, but the sliders are useful for quick and dirty adjustments.

4. I never touch the Brightness slider, as can be easily duplicated in Curves.

My only problem was deciding what Brightness level Adobe considered to neutral. After some experimentation I finally decided on 50.

I know there's a LOT of techniques for doing this sort of thing, and I'm by no means an expert, but I've found the above procedure to be the simplest and most effective way to get started on a RAW image. Convert to 16 or 32 bit to maximize tonal quality if planning to do a lot of Levels or Curves after conversion. Hope this helps.

Darin

I blew some highlights this morning and cannot recover them. If you turn the exposure down, you scrunch more into the darker tones, and I don't have as much a grasp of it as you do. Yes, I would rather do curves in CS2.

Maybe I should have partial metered on the brightest area of the composition and adjusted the camera rather than trying to recover too much after the fact. I'm still experimenting with different methods.

I think it takes lots of practice and knowhow.

ShudderBug said:

I blew some highlights this morning and cannot recover them. If
you turn the exposure down, you scrunch more into the darker tones,
and I don't have as much a grasp of it as you do. Yes, I would
rather do curves in CS2.

Click to expand...

SB,

Sometimes the scene just has too much dynamic range. Beyond what the camera can capture. With these images, as you point out, dialing back on the exposure just piles shadows at or under the 0 point.

ShudderBug said:

Maybe I should have partial metered on the brightest area of the
composition and adjusted the camera rather than trying to recover
too much after the fact. I'm still experimenting with different
methods.

Click to expand...

If I have images like this (full histogam with tones at or under/over 0 and 255) I do 2 conversions. One for the shadows and one for the highlights, then blend the 2. This works real well for me for shots where I expose my subject(s) well, but wind up with a blown background.

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

no text

SMC2002 said:

ShudderBug said:

I blew some highlights this morning and cannot recover them. If
you turn the exposure down, you scrunch more into the darker tones,
and I don't have as much a grasp of it as you do. Yes, I would
rather do curves in CS2.

Click to expand...

SB,
Sometimes the scene just has too much dynamic range. Beyond what
the camera can capture. With these images, as you point out,
dialing back on the exposure just piles shadows at or under the 0
point.

Click to expand...

Seems to be the case. How do you determine the 0 point? Back off exposure until it lines up with the right bar? That's what I've been doing UNLESS too much goes to the left, then I have to compromise. They say shoot to the right. If my histogram hugs the right too much, I know when I get them dl'ed one or more of the channels will be climbing the right side of the chart. When I try to pull it back in ACR, like you said, it piles shadows. I can correct for some of that but not all without taking a lot of extra time.

SMC2002 said:

SMC2002 said:

Maybe I should have partial metered on the brightest area of the
composition and adjusted the camera rather than trying to recover
too much after the fact. I'm still experimenting with different
methods.

Click to expand...

If I have images like this (full histogam with tones at or
under/over 0 and 255) I do 2 conversions. One for the shadows and
one for the highlights, then blend the 2. This works real well for
me for shots where I expose my subject(s) well, but wind up with a
blown background.

Click to expand...

That's what I should try. The only problem is if the highlights are blown too much, they aren't coming back no matter what, but that would solve the problem of bunching on the left; i.e., improved dynamic range. I know there are advanced tricks for "chopping up the histogram" but I don't understand them yet.

The one bunch I shot today, I picked one that, with partial metering, did not blow the pink in the geranium (won't post sample of that as I just used a good one). Now this one blew the red channel ever so slightly, and try as I might, I can't get the true darker shade of red it was. Maybe your trick would work and maybe in the bright sunshine and backlit like that, it isn't so dark red.

Now I went back and don't know how to set ACR with my original settings where the red channel went up a little bit. BTW I for some reason like to "browse" my CR2 files in DPP but do all the processing in ACR. Anyway, here is the screen capture showing my modified settings:



Here is what I ended up with:



It's just a sucker from a hybrid graft that died back years ago that took off and has gone crazy. I like the circles in the bg, but the rose isn't quite faithful to the particular shade most of those are (you see a lot of them around). Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't see some potential in it.

I see I switched back to pattern metering at this point. In the future, when I am shooting red, I will push back the exposure comp one notch and see if that helps in camera rather than trying to correct it in PS. Still, if the camera can't handle the dynamic range, you aren't going to get it "as shot".

How do I get my shot settings back? That is not how the histogram looked when I first opened it in ACR and started processing. There was a red line climbing just a short way up the right bar (which isn't too bad really) but I don't want anything climbing the right bar if possible. I tried all sorts of things to darken the red and if I had more patience, I know there are other things I could have done.

Thanks for the help. I will try combining shots if I can find out how to start over with shot settings again. It's got to be something simple I'm missing. I don't want to delete the .xmp file that goes with it unless I talk to somebody more experienced.

SMC2002 said:

Steve

Click to expand...

You are spot on about if the highlights are blown too badly, there's no recovering them.

This scene is a perfect example of how your meter is fooled. You have a bright subject fill a small portion of the frame and a dark background filling the rest. If you shoot this with a null ( 0 ) meter reading in almost any metering mode, this is a recipe for an over exposed subject.

Even though we use RAW, we still have to try to get the exposure as close as possible. In this case, I would opt for properly exposing the rose and background be damned. So when faced with this scenario again (bright on dark), dial in some negative EV Compensation. On this shot, you may have needed more than 1 stop. Sometimes when I shoot white birds @ mid-day, I have to dial in as much as -1 2/3. This will work in Av, Tv and P modes. If you shoot manual, you will have to manually lower the speed.

Just for future reference, the same routine outlined above, works in reverse for dark subjects against bright backgrounds. You just dial in + EV Compensation. Checking your histogram after shooting should give you a good idea about how close you are with your blowouts.

Even though we can use EV Comp to get the subject properly exposed. We still wind up with over/under exposed backgrounds. That's where the blending of RAW conversions can help you expand the dynamic range of the finished product

The ultimate solution is to try to stay within the DR of the camera by shooting during "sweet light". Early mornings and late afternoons.

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

SMC2002 said:

You are spot on about if the highlights are blown too badly,
there's no recovering them.

This scene is a perfect example of how your meter is fooled. You
have a bright subject fill a small portion of the frame and a dark
background filling the rest. If you shoot this with a null ( 0 )
meter reading in almost any metering mode, this is a recipe for an
over exposed subject.

Even though we use RAW, we still have to try to get the exposure as
close as possible. In this case, I would opt for properly exposing
the rose and background be damned.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm aiming for. Now I can partial meter, center weight meter, pattern meter (usual) and/or lock focus with the button and meter with the shutter (I don't understand that yet either).

So when faced with this

SMC2002 said:

scenario again (bright on dark), dial in some negative EV
Compensation. On this shot, you may have needed more than 1 stop.
Sometimes when I shoot white birds @ mid-day, I have to dial in as
much as -1 2/3. This will work in Av, Tv and P modes. If you
shoot manual, you will have to manually lower the speed.

Click to expand...

That's what I tend to do. Look at the histogram (if I can see it in the bright light), and dial in + or -. Thanks for reminding me that you can go as far down as -1 2/3. Normally I never go to the plus end, but have been doing that some lately. I usually like to shoot AV so I can control dof and don't know enough to go full manual yet.

SMC2002 said:

Just for future reference, the same routine outlined above, works
in reverse for dark subjects against bright backgrounds. You just
dial in + EV Compensation. Checking your histogram after shooting
should give you a good idea about how close you are with your
blowouts.

Even though we can use EV Comp to get the subject properly exposed.
We still wind up with over/under exposed backgrounds. That's where
the blending of RAW conversions can help you expand the dynamic
range of the finished product

Click to expand...

That's the next thing, and I appreciate your taking all this time to explain things, but you haven't said how I can revert back to shot settings for the second photo so I can blend them in CR2. With a little trial and error, I can figure that out easily enough as I have worked with layers.

SMC2002 said:

The ultimate solution is to try to stay within the DR of the camera
by shooting during "sweet light". Early mornings and late
afternoons.

Click to expand...

Ah. I'm tired of the amber glow of late afternoons, before that not too bad, but love the early morning light and not your best getter upper but am getting better with that when there's something I have in mind to shoot.

SMC2002 said:

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

Click to expand...

--

amicic said:

ACR has a direct way to control the shadow level, but nothing for
highlights. What I what to do is to keep say 90% of bottom RAW
luminance levels and control only 10% of RAW luminance levels. In
most cases to decrease the highlights to sqeeze the caputed DR from
RAW into a 8bit RGB (and later in JPG)

Playing with the curve (bending the top right corner of the curve
down) in ACR (one of the tabs) does not seem to help either. It
seems that the curve adjustment is applied after the RAW image is
converted - effectivly a similar effect could be done in
Photoshop's curve adjustment, what is too late, since the extreme
highlight info is lost.

What do you do? Can you somehow simulate highligh control by doing
some combination of adjustments in Exposure, Brightness and
Shadows? Do you have a magic combo that would share?

Or do you use some other converted that has such control?

Sometime back, I evaluated RSE and it had both bars to control
shadow and highlight contrast, although it did not work exactly the
way I wanted.

Click to expand...

You can also use the "Contrast" or "Saturation" to give some boosting. But since I don't use RAW often to know more, so this would be in the hand of RAW expert for the firm answer.

Or I have no problem to adjust for displaying, but for printing it's another story.

ShudderBug said:

That's the next thing, and I appreciate your taking all this time
to explain things, but you haven't said how I can revert back to
shot settings for the second photo so I can blend them in CR2.
With a little trial and error, I can figure that out easily enough
as I have worked with layers.

Click to expand...

OK, Here's what I do. I open the RAW file in ACR. I do the first conversion for the background, since it tends to occupy a majority of the frame. So if it's too dark or too bright, I adjust the exposure (white point) and shadows (black point) to get the look I am after. I then open it, in CS, and save as a 12 level (low compression) jpg. If it's a very special pic or you are printing large you can save it as a TIF file (even a 16bit TIF if you like). I then click on File> Open Recent and open the RAW file again. This time I adjust for the highlights. I then open this copy. Select> All> Edit> Copy, close the new file and Edit> Past the copy onto the first conversion. This will create a new layer. Then it's just a matter of Layers> Layer Mask> Reveal All and erasing using the brush tool.

I find it easiest to erase the entire image and then "paint" back the subject. It is probably easier to save the subject conversion and then paste the background. You do have to erase less. But, I find it easier to do it the other way around...LOL

ShudderBug said:

Ah. I'm tired of the amber glow of late afternoons, before that
not too bad, but love the early morning light and not your best
getter upper but am getting better with that when there's something
I have in mind to shoot.

Click to expand...

LOL......that's why I like to shoot birds. You've got to get up early to catch em

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

ShudderBug said:

Now I went back and don't know how to set ACR with my original
settings where the red channel went up a little bit. BTW I for
some reason like to "browse" my CR2 files in DPP but do all the
processing in ACR. Anyway, here is the screen capture showing my
modified settings:

Here is what I ended up with:

Click to expand...

Now, load the image to Photoshop then select Ctrl-Y (Proof Printing) to see what may display on the printing.

• But you will need to setup the "Proof Setting" by select the "Printer Profile" you use for printing, else the Ctrl-Y may not show the difference.

SMC2002 said:

ShudderBug said:

That's the next thing, and I appreciate your taking all this time
to explain things, but you haven't said how I can revert back to
shot settings for the second photo so I can blend them in CR2.
With a little trial and error, I can figure that out easily enough
as I have worked with layers.

Click to expand...

OK, Here's what I do. I open the RAW file in ACR. I do the first
conversion for the background, since it tends to occupy a majority
of the frame. So if it's too dark or too bright, I adjust the
exposure (white point) and shadows (black point) to get the look I
am after. I then open it, in CS, and save as a 12 level (low
compression) jpg. If it's a very special pic or you are printing
large you can save it as a TIF file (even a 16bit TIF if you like).
I then click on File> Open Recent and open the RAW file again. This
time I adjust for the highlights. I then open this copy.
Select> All> Edit> Copy, close the new file and Edit> Past the copy
onto the first conversion. This will create a new layer. Then
it's just a matter of Layers> Layer Mask> Reveal All and erasing
using the brush tool.

I find it easiest to erase the entire image and then "paint" back
the subject. It is probably easier to save the subject conversion
and then paste the background. You do have to erase less. But, I
find it easier to do it the other way around...LOL

Click to expand...

That is all doable, but when you open the file for the second time, doesn't it start with your modified settings and not "as shot"? If you can't get your original shot settings back, by clicking some reset, I don't want to process in ACR or any other RAW editor.

Thatnks for the technique; I saved that, too.

SMC2002 said:

SMC2002 said:

Ah. I'm tired of the amber glow of late afternoons, before that
not too bad, but love the early morning light and not your best
getter upper but am getting better with that when there's something
I have in mind to shoot.

Click to expand...

LOL......that's why I like to shoot birds. You've got to get up
early to catch em

Click to expand...

NiteRider said:

You can also use the "Contrast" or "Saturation" to give some
boosting.

Click to expand...

My own preference is to use the Shadows and the Exposure sliders in ACR to control contrast. Once in a while, though, the Contrast slider itself is helpful independently of the Shadows and Exposure ones. Use Brightness like you'd use the mid-tones slider of PS CS - though I find the Levels adjustment in PS CS even more helpful than the Brightness control in ACR.

I rarely use the Saturation slider in ACR, preferring to do that adjustment in PS. Before using Sat in PS CS, though, remember to go all the way through the Levels drop-downs, making sure that you've paid attention not only to the RGB setting, but also to the individual Red, Green, and Blue sliders for Levels. Quite often, moving the right hand slider just a little bit to the left in the individual R, G, and B drop-downs of Levels will increase saturation and improve the appearance of your image significantly.

Bill H

NiteRider said:

NiteRider said:

Now I went back and don't know how to set ACR with my original
settings where the red channel went up a little bit. BTW I for
some reason like to "browse" my CR2 files in DPP but do all the
processing in ACR. Anyway, here is the screen capture showing my
modified settings:

Here is what I ended up with:

Click to expand...

Now, load the image to Photoshop then select Ctrl-Y (Proof
Printing) to see what may display on the printing.

• But you will need to setup the "Proof Setting" by select the

"Printer Profile" you use for printing, else the Ctrl-Y may not
show the difference.

Click to expand...

That is too much to deal with for now. I got this far. I loaded the .CR2 image, came up in ACR, did ctrl y, nothing. Clicked on open, opens in CS2. Click ctrl y and it shows RGB/8/CMYK.

Went to look for printer profile in the help files and that is too much to deal with right now. Found printer profile target, but nothing under printer.

I don't print and only use my printer as plug 'n play because the software is incompatible with my newer computer. I have to use workarounds to do what I was able to do easily before.

I still don't understand what this has to do with just getting ACR to revert to my shot settings and get my red line back. That's all I want. A way to start fresh. There are times when I will definitely want my unadulterated RAW file back with no changes, no .xmp. Can't you do that?

ShudderBug said:

That is all doable, but when you open the file for the second time,
doesn't it start with your modified settings and not "as shot"? If
you can't get your original shot settings back, by clicking some
reset, I don't want to process in ACR or any other RAW editor.

Click to expand...

Yes, when you go back to ACR, the image has your last settings applied. No problem. Just change the settings. The only slider you will probably change (or be working with) is the exposure slider (maybe shadows too). So re-adjusting isn't a big deal. If you are using CS2, it even allows you to color sample in multiple locations using the eyedropper

Steve

FWIW, if you get a chance to pick up Scott Kelby's RAW book, it's worth every penny
--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

SMC2002 said:

ShudderBug said:

That is all doable, but when you open the file for the second time,
doesn't it start with your modified settings and not "as shot"? If
you can't get your original shot settings back, by clicking some
reset, I don't want to process in ACR or any other RAW editor.

Click to expand...

Yes, when you go back to ACR, the image has your last settings
applied. No problem. Just change the settings. The only slider
you will probably change (or be working with) is the exposure
slider (maybe shadows too). So re-adjusting isn't a big deal. If
you are using CS2, it even allows you to color sample in multiple
locations using the eyedropper

Click to expand...

I never remember the numbers. Do I have to write them down? I feel so dumb, but there ought to be a way you can automatically revert to shot settings. Lots of times I play with different settings and couldn't possibly remember everything I change unless I write it down.

SMC2002 said:

Steve

FWIW, if you get a chance to pick up Scott Kelby's RAW book, it's
worth every penny

Click to expand...

Yes, I should have bought that instead of the roses book and there sits unread the CS2 manual and my medicare plans, my medicare supplement ins options, my prescription options, have a plumber here and they are starting to get ready to jackhammer my sidewalk.

I think I will take this up again when I am calmer. I can't sit still long enough to concentrate on any book right now. It's easier to have somebody just walk you through it, but I think I'll let it be until some of this is over. My photography plans are shot to heck for now. As well as a couple lenses I wanted. One has to make choices, and this has been put off far too long.

Thanks for the help, I saved it and will dig it out the next time I try to change a photo.

Also, I am going to copy one of my raw folders to backup, delete the .xmp file and see if I get my as shot settings back.

SMC2002 said:

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

Click to expand...

I have the film, it's the processor that gets out of whack.

Shudder,

If you don't remember the settings, that's OK. You can always zero the sliders out (as shot) and start from there if you have to. Usually, this "blended conversion technique" is very easy for me. As I mentioned, I try to properly expose my subject. So there's very little "tweaking" that needs to be done for the subject conversion layer. Maybe a little wb adj or exposure adj (FWIW, I use 0 sharpening and adjust luminance smoothing and NR as needed). Then Open and Save. The background conversion layer is tougher. If it's under exposed, brighten it by moving the exposure slider to the right. If it's too bright, move the slider the other way. You really shouldn't have to do much other adjustment (contrast, shadow, wb, brightness, tone, sat, etc...). If you brighten the BG, you may need to increase your Luminance Smoothing and NR settings.

What you are trying to do is expand the dynamic range. So instead of a 5-7 stop image with a blown/UE background, you can stretch the DR by getting a better exposure on the background, during conversion. This will essentially result in an image (once blended) that can give you a stop to 1 1/2 stops of added range.

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

SMC2002 said:

Shudder,
If you don't remember the settings, that's OK. You can always zero
the sliders out (as shot) and start from there if you have to.
Usually, this "blended conversion technique" is very easy for me.
As I mentioned, I try to properly expose my subject. So there's
very little "tweaking" that needs to be done for the subject
conversion layer. Maybe a little wb adj or exposure adj (FWIW, I
use 0 sharpening and adjust luminance smoothing and NR as needed).
Then Open and Save. The background conversion layer is tougher.
If it's under exposed, brighten it by moving the exposure slider to
the right. If it's too bright, move the slider the other way. You
really shouldn't have to do much other adjustment (contrast,
shadow, wb, brightness, tone, sat, etc...). If you brighten the
BG, you may need to increase your Luminance Smoothing and NR
settings.

What you are trying to do is expand the dynamic range. So instead
of a 5-7 stop image with a blown/UE background, you can stretch the
DR by getting a better exposure on the background, during
conversion. This will essentially result in an image (once
blended) that can give you a stop to 1 1/2 stops of added range.

Click to expand...

Thank you for all that info because I can put it to good use later, added to the file I accumulated on you and NiteRider re this matter. I figured it out. When you said zero out the sliders, I go, but but let's look at it. I opened a file I hadn't modified. Many different values on the sliders. Do I really want to zero them out and how do I do that?

So I look up at the top and see in a drop down window just under the histogram "Image Settings". I expand the menu and there it is: "Camera RAW defaults". That's it, that's what I wanted. There were two other choices, but neither of those does anything (at this point), "Previous Conversion?" and "Custom".

Maybe it was miscommunication. When I set the menu to "Camera RAW defaults", that picture of the red rose posted above reverted to exactly as I shot it with the red line climbing up the right.

Maybe it doesn't matter in the long run, but I can process one photo for certain aspects, save it like you said, then revert to camera RAW defaults and process the second one differently, then blend. In time I may come to see that your way is faster, but until I get to understand exactly all those functions, this is where I'm at.

Thank heaven I'm over that hurdle and have a lot of good info to work with besides. Sorry I put you through all that.

SMC2002 said:

Steve

Click to expand...

ShudderBug said:

ShudderBug said:

Thank you for all that info because I can put it to good use later,

Click to expand...

added to the file I accumulated on you and NiteRider re this
matter. I figured it out. When you said zero out the sliders, I
go, but but let's look at it. I opened a file I hadn't modified.
Many different values on the sliders. Do I really want to zero
them out and how do I do that?

Click to expand...

OK, if your sliders are not zeroed, you have the Auto boxes checked. Which means ACR will try to "best guess" those settings for you. I believe you can disable the Auto settings, so that your image will come up with zero slider settings, next time you open that RAW file. If not, you can go ahead and 0 them out . I may be wrong, but I have always assumed (as in earlier versions of ACR), that zero settings yield an "as shot" image.

ShudderBug said:

So I look up at the top and see in a drop down window just under
the histogram "Image Settings". I expand the menu and there it is:
"Camera RAW defaults". That's it, that's what I wanted. There
were two other choices, but neither of those does anything (at this
point), "Previous Conversion?" and "Custom".

Maybe it was miscommunication. When I set the menu to "Camera RAW
defaults", that picture of the red rose posted above reverted to
exactly as I shot it with the red line climbing up the right.

Maybe it doesn't matter in the long run, but I can process one
photo for certain aspects, save it like you said, then revert to
camera RAW defaults and process the second one differently, then
blend. In time I may come to see that your way is faster, but
until I get to understand exactly all those functions, this is
where I'm at.

Click to expand...

Just a difference in workflow. I seldom use the Auto slider values. They work decently on maybe 60% of the shots I process, but I like to do the adjustments based on what I see. Not on what the software thinks I should see ;-) For example, the Auto settings will try to give you a good exposure of the entire frame. With blown backgrounds, it will reduce exposure and may severely under expose the subject you took such great pains to expose properly. So when working with images with a large DR, the Auto settings do not work well enough.

ShudderBug said:

Thank heaven I'm over that hurdle and have a lot of good info to
work with besides. Sorry I put you through all that.

Click to expand...

No problem. I believe that sometime in the future you will do the same for someone else

Steve

--
Everyone has a photgraphic memory......some just don't have any film

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
http://freezeframephotography.smugmug.com
http://www.photobird.com/steve

Seems like Adobe listened to me Now, there is "Recovery" slider in ACR 4.x. Very close to what I wanted.

amicic said:

ACR has a direct way to control the shadow level, but nothing for
highlights. What I what to do is to keep say 90% of bottom RAW
luminance levels and control only 10% of RAW luminance levels. In
most cases to decrease the highlights to sqeeze the caputed DR from
RAW into a 8bit RGB (and later in JPG)

Playing with the curve (bending the top right corner of the curve
down) in ACR (one of the tabs) does not seem to help either. It
seems that the curve adjustment is applied after the RAW image is
converted - effectivly a similar effect could be done in
Photoshop's curve adjustment, what is too late, since the extreme
highlight info is lost.

What do you do? Can you somehow simulate highligh control by doing
some combination of adjustments in Exposure, Brightness and
Shadows? Do you have a magic combo that would share?

Or do you use some other converted that has such control?

Sometime back, I evaluated RSE and it had both bars to control
shadow and highlight contrast, although it did not work exactly the
way I wanted.

Thanks,
Aleks

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