How can I brighten up white flower petals without losing details?

[rolpahof leikonblad]

The picture (http://www.photo.net/photo/3506495)is a

little bit dark. I want to brighten it up a bit. Besides using Curves,

can Layer Style/Blending Options in Adobe Photoshop help? If yes, how?

The picture is taken in RAW, how can I take advantage of it to keep

the details while brightening up the photo?<div></div>

[watermelon]

Using the shadow / highlights in CS and above will work magic. Using the RAW dialog you can also just increase the exposure a tiny bit. If using CS2 try keeping the exposure the same and increasing the brightness instead (in the adobe raw box)

 

Nice image btw.

[rolpahof leikonblad]

Andrew Waterman , jul 04, 2005; 08:37 a.m.

Using the shadow / highlights in CS and above will work magic. Using the RAW dialog you can also just increase the exposure a tiny bit. If using CS2 try keeping the exposure the same and increasing the brightness instead (in the adobe raw box)

 

Nice image btw.

Thanks, Andrew.

I am using Photoshop 7. Could you elaborate more on how to use "the shadow / highlights in CS and above"?

Thanks in advance.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

I don't think that PS7 has this adjustment, but in CS and CS2 you can go image>adjustments>shadows/highlights which allows you to lighten shadows or darken highlights using sliders.

[beauh44]

Hi Dave, While the Shadow/Hilight tool will certainly work, there's a bunch of ways to skin the cat. A simple "S" curve using the curves tool works wonders. I took your image, made a duplicate layer and changed the blending mode to screen. That made everything much brighter, not just the petals of the flower. So I masked out everything but the white flowers. (You could also use the eraser tool to erase everything but the petals - same result) Then I did an "S" curve on that as well and they seem to pop out a little better now. Good luck!<div></div>

[minicucci]

Dave:

 

Beau's note that there are many ways to skin the cat is exactly right. If you look at the blue

channel on your file, you will see that you have an almost perfect mask for the white petals

already done for you. Make a copy of the blue channel, then accentuate the contrast by

using levels on the copy. Use either the magic wand or color range selection to select the

whites/highlights. In quick mask, add a little Gaussian Blur (about .6) to transition edges.

Save the selection. Now you can use curves or levels to control the brightness of either the

petals or the inverse, however you see fit. If the curves or levels adjustments adds a color

shift that you do not want, just change the blend mode to luminosity.

 

Here's an example of making the petals standout more by using a darker background.

[byronlawrence]

I hear the shaddow highlights tool works wonders. and have experimented with it a bit. but Personally don't like that I cannot apply it as a layer. with curves or levels you can. the attached file shows an example of curves and levels, used in a simple manner. (though you say you don't like it) I think curves is one of the most useful tools in PS, anything you can do in levels or even a brightness/contrast can be done with curves.. (try to avoid brightness/contrast btw) Levels is simple enough to grasp there are three sliders. in your case just pull the middle one to the left a bit (as pictured in the attached file). both curves and levels will open up your histogram a bit but not too much. the shadows/highlights adjustment does strange things to the histogram.

 

anyway.. these are Just several tools you can use once your picture is in PS. if you want you can apply these curves or levels in the raw conversion mode and just brighten the midtones up a bit. The MAIN point is that you want to just brighten the midtones without loosing your hightlight point or your shadow point.

 

good luck<div></div>

[rolpahof leikonblad]

Thanks folks. I will try your ways, especially the "Gaussian Blur (about .6)", which sounds very promising.

[byronlawrence]

if after selecting the petals, as mentioned you can use the selection>feather and make it 2 or 3 pixels to soften your selection a bit before you apply your changes.

 

if you use a layer, having a selection set will create a layer mask when the adjustment layer is created. one drawback to layers is in PS7 you cannot use many adjustment layers on 16 bit/channel files, but you can turn layers on and off. and one drawback of image adjustments (with no layer) is that you have a limited history, so if you go past the history log or if you save the file then that is it, no reverting to previous states. this is all beside the point though. I just thought to mention the selection feathering