Dynamic image and cheek lightening

[camner]

I've been using Dynamic Image for a number of years, and I absolutely love it!

I've noticed that it does some strange things with cheeks, particularly with a flash, but even without. I'm attaching 2 photos, one unretouched, and the other only has been adjusted through Dynamic Image. Notice how the cheeks become lighter. With a flash, they often look all but blown out.

In this example, the effect is a bit subtle, but the cheeks right below the eyes seem almost a uniform color in the original and then lighten considerably in the "treated" version.

[igot2pman]

Dont know how your using the dynamic range... but if you do it on a new layer, you can use the blend if sliders to mask out the light areas. This should fix your problem.

-Keven

[Michel B]

Camner,
The default settings of the setup created by the Dynamic tool are meant to add 'pop' to a dull image, which is not the case here. You are adding too much contrast as a whole, so I would recommend decreasing the opacity of the 'adjust highlights' adjustment layer, and possibly paint on its mask to protect areas like cheeks. I hope Richard can give you better advice...

Keven,
The dynamic tool is for Elements which has no 'blend if' option. It creates a setup of 7 adjustment layers with masks to deal separately with highlights, midtones, shadows, saturation and local contrast.

[camner]

I'm just following the instructions provided by the action...it's pretty clear, actually. The only place I deviate is in the first two parts, where one drags the middle slider to the left and then right edges of where the histogram is populated; I've found that no matter where the histogram peters out, it's best not to move the slider too far to the left or right.

I'll try the blend...the only downside I see of that is that it's only in a small area (cheeks and faces in general with flash) that I would need to do the blending, and if I blend the entire layer I'll lose some of the benefit of the wonderful effect that Dynamic Image has!

[igot2pman]

Just to show you what it could do.... Here is your thumbnail picture with the blend if applyed.

But Dynamic Image sounds to be a very interesting and usufull. I'll look it up. Im using CS4, maybe they have a version...

-Keven

[camner]

Originally Posted by Michel B

Camner,
The default settings of the setup created by the Dynamic tool are meant to add 'pop' to a dull image, which is not the case here. You are adding too much contrast as a whole, so I would recommend decreasing the opacity of the 'adjust highlights' adjustment layer, and possibly paint on its mask to protect areas like cheeks. I hope Richard can give you better advice...

This probably isn't the best example I have. I was fooling around with another plugin before I applied Dynamic Image, one which increases contrast, just to see what it looks like. I was particularly interested in what increasing contrast did to the ocean...it makes it more detailed, which is nice. The cheek problem occurs without the other plugin...I just quickly grabbed a recent pic I was working on. I can try to find a better example that has ONLY Dynamic Image applied.

Thanks for the reply.

[camner]

Originally Posted by igot2pman

Just to show you what it could do.... Here is your thumbnail picture with the blend if applyed.

But Dynamic Image sounds to be a very interesting and usufull. I'll look it up. Im using CS4, maybe they have a version...

-Keven

I guess I don't know what a "blend if" slider is. I'm using Photoshop Elements 6, not CS3 or CS4. Can you tell me what the slider does, and perhaps there is a functional equivalent in PSE 6.

[igot2pman]

When you double click on a layer, or right click and click blending options/layer properties it will give you a window that has the blending modes and the blend if settings. There will be some sliders at the bottom (circled in red) and you can adjust them to taste.

The sliders basically means blend this layer at this level of brightness or darkness. And when the slider is separated is mean gradually blend from starting point to end point. To sepperate the sliders, ALT click the slider and to put them back together just push them together.

In the below picture, it shows the 189/223. This means when a brightness value is 189-223 it gradually fade the effect. Then the brightness values from 224-255 will be ignored or unaffected.

There is a video HERE that describes the blend if.

Hope this helps,
-Keven

[igot2pman]

All blend if is doing is masking out specifically certain brightness levels, and doing a gradient in between.

Originally Posted by Michel B

paint on its mask to protect areas like cheeks.

In the mask, just paint black to hide (use a soft brush).

Another thing you could do is do the effect on a duplicate layer and erase the bad parts to reveal the background. Use a soft brush with the eraser so you don’t get harsh lines.

The picture below shows the areas that the blend if masked. I put a green layer under so you could more easily see what was affected. Normally it would just be shown as see through

-Keven

[camner]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that.

I'm uploading here a better example of what I'm talking about. Notice how the entire face is way too bright in the "after" image. That's just using Dynamic Image in the "stock" manner. I find that Dynamic Image does a great job on shots without flash, and does a great job on flash shots, except for lighter parts of the face. I'm wondering if there is a way to use DI on faces with flash shots without this effect....

[Richard_Lynch]

I keep wondering how these conversations get on without my getting notified...

Camner, The DI tool does not discriminate against or for particular image areas. Cheeks you have noticed because of the way they will catch light. When the dynamic range of the image is increased, the whole dynamic range is affected...and contrast on the face increases. if you don't want to have it as strong, you can back off the correction with use of layers and opacity and masking.

Blend If is really not a hand's-on Elements tool, but I have some Blend If functions for elements that I plan to release shortly. You will not be able to adjust sliders for it but ranges based on presets. However if you are looking for the Blend If feature in Elements, you are SOL.

[Markzebra]

Whatever "dynamic image" is, its doing some very nasty things to that image. A simple Curves treatment, perhaps luminosity blended, would do a much better job

[camner]

Thanks all for the comments. Perhaps masking is the best way to go. Dynamic Image really makes images "pop" (particularly outdoor images), but doesn't work as well with flash, because by increasing the dynamic range it can wash out faces.

[Richard_Lynch]

Originally Posted by Markzebra

Whatever "dynamic image" is, its doing some very nasty things to that image. A simple Curves treatment, perhaps luminosity blended, would do a much better job

Markawhatever...first, you don't know what you are talking about as you don't know what it is...and second you also don't know what Elements does, apparently, from your comments. Please comment when you know what you are talking about.

[Richard_Lynch]

by the way, Curves are something I rarely use, quite on purpose and quite for a good reason. Most people who praise them overuse them.

[camner]

I have found Dynamic Image to be the absolutely the best "quick fix" for almost all images. Of course, it isn't perfect, and taking the time to individually correct images is better.

My photography is pretty much "chronicle vacations and trips" type shoots. I'm more interested in "telling the story" than anything else. I can't realistically take the time to "make perfect" over 200 pictures of Ecuador, for example. I take the time to do so with a few, and then the rest need quick fixes: crops for composition, color correction, etc. Dynamic Image adds a quick "punch" for pix like this. Well worth the few minutes it takes.

Like anything else, it is not difficult to get lousy results by using the tool poorly.

[Richard_Lynch]

Originally Posted by camner

I have found Dynamic Image to be the absolutely the best "quick fix" for almost all images. Of course, it isn't perfect, and taking the time to individually correct images is better.

DI was made to walk you through corrections of an image and it is a custom result...in other words the images ARE corrected individually. That the process is ordered and standardized does not mean it is 'automated' where a program tries to make the corrections for you. That is why I have you choose settings...I do not like automated correction, and wouldn't sell something that supposed to do it.

Having set steps which are prompted just speeds you through what could otherwise be a manual process. You may still have additional spot corrections to make...it would be quite a procedure that would pick out the local issues for you and correct those as well. My guess is that such a thing cannot exist ;-)

[camner]

Richard--thanks for the clarification, to which I will add:

Dynamic Image is NOT a 1-button "quick fix" a la "Auto Smart Fix" or other similar methods. I NEVER use those, because they always fail in one way or another.

When I'm working on an image, I decide quickly whether I want to spend 5-10 minutes on it or much more. If the former, I do some quick things, including color correction, cropping for composition, and obvious touch up (removing skin blemishes,etc.). I end with Dynamic Image. DI absolutely does require me to use judgment....at every step of the way.

My question about DI was that I've noticed that areas of a face that are bright to begin with (due to flash or to sunlight), get "over brightened". I'm not blaming DI for this....I just need to figure out how to correct for the issue.

[Richard_Lynch]

brighter areas of an image will get brighter...darker areas get darker... If you need to make a selective correction in that the highlights get too hot, you need to mask the change. that is a selective change that Elements will allow you to make, but not as part of a process...as that would be inconsistent and silly.

OK?

[camner]

I'm not a real ace at masking. I understand the concept, but am not very proficient at it.

One option would be to simply have DI work only on the non-faces and use the original faces. The way I did this was to duplicate the background layer, add a Layer Mask (using your nice tool!), mask out the faces, then run DI. That seemed to work. Is there a better way?

[Richard_Lynch]

There's always a better way...how much time do you have ;-)

If you do not like the results, you can run DI on a duplicate (e.g., press Command+Option+Shift+E / Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to stamp all to a new layer), and then just add a layer mask and paint with 50% gray and a soft brush over the faces (this will reduce rather than eliminate the effect). You could also potentially automate some of that by masking to the red channel, or even to skin tones themselves (you might look at Blend Mask).

The key, I think, to all of Photoshop is evaluation. You want to look at your image and figure out what you want to do...and then how. The answers need to make sense based on your knowledge of tools and the properties of images. Be aware that every action has a reaction: you can't darken the highlights without them appearing...darker. That is, the area of the cheek may end up not looking natural if you don't handle the toning down well...

Does that help at all?

[camner]

Yes...this helps a great deal. Getting a better hang of masking is probably a good idea for me...it's a very powerful concept I feel I'm only just barely scratching the surface of.