Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
In Lightroom 3, we have the ability to jump to Photoshop and have a RAW image
open as a Smart Object (actually, it would work with JPEGs and TIFFs, too).
We can take advantage of the Smart Object feature for “double-processing”
a photo, which is where we create two versions of our photo—one exposed for
the shadows and one exposed for the highlights—and then we combine them
to get the best of both worlds. We get an image that has a range that
is beyond what even the best digital cameras could capture.
Step One:
Here's the original image (shown here in
Lightroom), which we want to double-
process in Photoshop, leveraging its Smart
Object feature. The photo has two prob-
lems: (1) the interior is too dark, and
(2) the windows are totally blown out
(clipped), so we don't see the detail in the
glass or what's outside the windows at all.
So, our plan is to double-process the photo,
with one version processed to make the
interior of the old church look good, and
the other processed to bring back the
detail in the glass windows. Then we'll
combine the two into one single image.
Step Two:
We'll start with our interior fix: in the
Develop module, drag the Exposure slider
to the right until the interior looks good
(here, I dragged to +1.15), then increase
the Fill Light amount to 47 to open the
shadows areas. Things may start to look a
little washed out, so you should probably
increase the Blacks a little to keep that
from happening (here, I increased them
to 8). Okay, so at this point, we have
a version of the photo exposed for the
interior, but of course, brightening every-
thing just made our windows problem
even worse, so we'll deal with that in
just a minute.
Continued
