When the flash falls off ... Sometimes a flash shot will be too deep for the flash to carry to the end. This creates a too-light foreground, and a too dark background. You cannot fix this as we did in the previous tricks. You'll need what we call a "progressive" mask. In this case, the mask will help the shot get progressively lighter toward the background.
This trick relies on remembering layer masking and the simple concept of "White shows / Black Hides."
This shot is obviously dark, due to flash fall-off.
Carefully analyze the image and attempt to discover where the flash first starts falling off. This is what we call the Transition Zone.
Now, we're going to make a selection to attempt to fall right at the center of that zone. See the dotted line triangle we made to select the dark area where the flash needs help.
To make our mask "transitional" we'll use the Feather command on the selection.
Select > Feather
In the Feather dialog, set the amount of feathering to match the width of the transition zone. Can't judge how much? No problem, it happens to me all the time. Just take a brush, and hover it over the transition zone. Now adjust the brush until it is large enough to span the zone. That pixel reading will tell you how wide to make the Feather.
Once your selection is active, with the feathered amount, select
Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Levels
Observe how the mask appears with your feathered selection. Now you can adjust the Levels dialog (as explained previously) until the shot looks more natural. Your transitional zone should gradually (progressively) allow the light levels on both sides to equalize. See how nicely that works?
Now, one step further -- open diagram #3 and we see that if the foreground is too light -- you can darken it appropriately with a second, feathered, progressive mask running in the opposite direction.
Notice this time the WHITE area of the mask is to the left, and the transition zone is much wider. This allows us to more gradually adjust lighting. (Look at the layers, then at the original shot in the background layer.) Follow the same steps as able to achieve this zone as well. You can see that now the shot is fairly well balanced -- although the foreground girl's t-shirt is now too bright -- and most observers would not be aware that there was once a hot spot caused by the flash.
But sometimes you have no idea what adjustments to make? In this case, use
In this Photoshop Tutorial we've talked about:
Cropping | Exposure | Levels Masks | Digital Step Wedge
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Who invented "Photoshop Tips & Tricks"
from the Editor:
I was delighted that day back in 1989 when Peggy Killburn called to ask if I could handle one more speaker in my "Great Graphics Tips & Tricks" session scheduled for the 1990 Macworld Expo. "Yes" was my response to her request to add Russell Brown to my panel. After all, we loved Adobe's young "Illustrator" program, and were quite anxious to try out their upcoming new product called "Photoshop." After seeing his demo, I was convinced Photoshop would be big. So the next month we added "Photoshop Tips & Tricks" to our regular DTG Magazine uploads to Compuserve, GEnie and AOL. The rest is history.
I only regret that I didn't trademark the name.
Editor / Publisher: Photoshop Tips & Tricks, DTG Magazine.
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