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Shadow recovery

Shadow recovery is a very useful technique for backlit photos or images shot in high contrast lighting. Digital cameras are not very tolerant of overexposure, so it's often necessary to expose for the brightest parts of the scene and then enhance the shadows in post processing.

This is another reason for shooting RAW files rather than JPEGs. RAW files typically have a lot more latent shadow detail that you can bring out with careful processing. This can reveal more noise in these darker areas, but this varies from one camera to another – and you can process this out to some degree with some selective noise reduction.

So how much shadow detail can you recover? Generally, the bigger the sensor, the better the dynamic range, but it's typically a lot more than you might expect – perhaps as much as 3-4EV in exposure terms.

The real challenge is to keep the image and the lighting looking 'natural'. It's all too easy to end up with a pseudo-HDR effect or compressed midtone contrast that makes the whole image look 'flat'.

DxO PhotoLab vs Lightroom vs Capture One – which is best for RAW files?

August 2, 2020 by Rod Lawton

Which is best for processing RAW files, DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom or Capture One? Here’s a set of eight image comparisons that aims to find out.

Filed Under: Capture One, Featured, Lightroom, PhotoLab, ReviewsTagged With: Artefact/artifact, Capture One, Cloud storage, DeepPRIME (DxO), Dynamic range, Highlight recovery, Lens corrections, Lightroom (Adobe), Lightroom Classic (Adobe), Local adjustments, Perspective correction, PhotoLab (DxO), RAW processing, Shadow recovery, Sharpening, White balance

RAW vs JPEG: things you can do with RAW files that you can’t do with JPEGs

May 15, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

Most serious photographers prefer RAW files to JPEGs. They take more time and storage, but the payback is greater quality and flexibility. It’s not a one-sided argument – JPEGs have some advantages which are obvious, and some which are not – but here are six important reasons why RAW files are the way to go […]

Filed Under: FeaturedTagged With: 14-bit RAW, 16-bit image, 8-bit images, Bits and bit depth, Highlight recovery, JPEG vs RAW, LUTs, Noise reduction, Profiles, RAW file, RAW processing, RAW+JPEG, Shadow recovery, Sharpening, TIFF

BAN adjustments in Lightroom (BAN – Basic And Necessary!)

March 25, 2018 by Rod Lawton

BAN adjustments in Lightroom

There are a handful of basic tweaks you just know you’re going to want to apply to each image.

Filed Under: Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Aberrations, Barrel distortion, Chromatic aberration, Corner shading, Distortion, Exposure (slider), Highlight recovery, Lens corrections, Perspective correction, Profiles, Shadow recovery, Spot (sensor), White balance

Shadow and Highlight recovery in Lightroom

December 7, 2016 by Rod Lawton

Shadow and highlight recovery in Lightroom

It’s very easy to lose extreme shadow or highlight detail when you’re shooting high-contrast scenes, and that’s one of the reasons for shooting raw files – they contain additional highlight detail, especially, that you may be able to bring out during processing. Shadow and highlight recovery is not always possible, but I usually reckon that […]

Filed Under: Featured, Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Dynamic range, Highlight recovery, Shadow recovery

Get more natural results with this Lightroom HDR effect

December 10, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Lightroom HDR effect

HDR (high dynamic range techniques) are sometimes necessary to cope with scenes that have a higher dynamic range than the camera’s sensor can cope with. But that’s happening less and less as sensor technology improves. The latest D-SLR sensors don’t just have increased dynamic range, they’re able to capture shadow detail with less noise than […]

Filed Under: Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Clarity, HDR, Highlight recovery, Shadow recovery

How to get the most from the Capture One High Dynamic Range controls

July 10, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Capture One Dynamic Range

Capture One Pro 7 is not just an excellent RAW converter. Like Adobe Lightroom it has some quite sophisticated adjustment controls. In particular, the Capture One High Dynamic Range sliders are very good at extracting the maximum latent highlight and shadow detail in RAW files. This is not HDR in the usual sense, where you […]

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Filed Under: Capture One, TutorialsTagged With: HDR, Highlight recovery, Shadow recovery

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