The Ozone System: Photoshop Shadow/Highlight

It is not often that we are in at the beginning, my fellow P.netters, but this is one of those times.

 

I think we have witnessed a beginning here, at long last, of a name for a method, frequently practiced without

acknowledgment here in pictures posted on photo.net. Hashim at that post also acknowledged this new day.

 

namely,

 

Sanford Gerald in another post on Ansel Adams said:

 

>>I use the "Ozone System". I underexpose the photograph and then use "Highlight/Shadow" in Photoshop to bring

out the details in the darker areas.<<

 

He may have been joking, but this is clearly beyond a mere jest. For those of us who are serious users of this

method, I only suggest that the defaults in Photoshop for this are too high on both

the shadow and highlight lines. Set them considerably lower, and the result won't have so much of that

distinctive "glow" around the objects in the picture. ;)

 

Here are examples of the Ozone method

 

the top is the original scanned slide, the middle is Highlight/Shadow overdone, and the last is a version of the

technique with the values dialed down from the original defaults in PS

 

Even at the defaults, there is typically an "edge" effect, and overdoing it even more produces a very flat effect.<div></div>

And yes, that is a ca. 1963 Dodge Dart (of Cartalk fame).

The original "non-ozone" is best - it's got "real" depth and drama.

Pete, I quite agree, but the bottom one would be of more "documentary" value as a picture to display in class to show the actual conformation of the mounds.

 

This is, by the way, taken at the Moundville site in Alabama -- a 13th c Mississippian mound site (in fact, the second-largest one).

Interesting. This is the first time I hear about the Ozone System. In your post you metioned the key is to underexpose and then correct with highlight/shadow Lately what I've read regarding exposure is to (expose to the right) since the lighter end of the histogram contains most of the information and the least amount of noise.

I have a bit of a hard time going to the right side since my eyes seem to like images on the darker side. So I'm working hard at shooting to the right concept.

It will be interesting to see what other people have to say about it.

Regards,

Alex

JDM, I think the last version is a big improvement, without being obviously manipulated, very natural looking. I use Adobe Camera Raw similarly, I forget what the sliders called: it's on the first tab, deals with recovering shadow detail. I find whatever percent I raise it by, a corresponding percent increase in the "contrast" slider makes the effect very seamless and natural looking. Did you raise mid-tone contrast in the above?

personally, I think somewhere between #1 and #3. I like the drama in #1, but it's nice to have the larger dynamic range and detail in #3... so it's a toss up.

 

I find that if I try bringing out all that detail that I end up reverting (basically) to #1 anyways by clipping the blacks slightly. I guess it's all personal preference. I like darks to be dark... usually anyways.<div></div>

IMO the ozone system is milked dry by pros long ago and most of amos can't realy use for as much as one single shot but, hey lets hope.

Yes, there is another path to the "Ozone System" if you shoot RAW. Then the sliders for "exposure", "fill light",

and some others have the same effect in manipulation of the RAW image, that the Shadow/Highlight does in jpgs. I

haven't yet tried scanning in RAW from slides, but need to look into doing it.

 

Of course, I was, as is my wont, being partly ironic, as was Sanford Gerald, but this really is a very useful

tool, and I wanted to point out that the default settings in PS CS3 overdo the process for most pictures. It's

wonderful for "rescuing" scans of old Kodachrome slides where the shadow detail "was lost, but now is found". ;)

<p>AND STILL LATER FOR THE ARCHIVES:</p>

<p>You can open ordinary jpgs in Adobe Camera Raw from Bridge by right clicking on the thumbnail and choosing "open in Camera Raw". I recommend option clicking on the save which "opens a copy" and the original jpg will be left unmodified, and you can save the altered file by saving as.</p>

Zone system - Expose for the shadows; develop for the highlights.

 

Ozone system - Expose for the highlights; convert for the shadows.