(Before the advent of high dynamic range (HDR) processing I used to use the following method to extract a greater dynamic range from my images. It is still a perfectly usable solution and probably much more flexible thn the HDR processing, not to mention easier. Also, you will not be tempted to create “that HDR look” with everything in the midtones. I call them photographs with choked light. Photoshop CS3 offers a very useful adjustment tool, Shadow & Highlight which renders this method useless. However, for many users out there still using CS or CS2 this is a very useful and easy method to learn.)

I face situations where I may want to accommodate a wide tonal range in an image that has too much contrast. I picked a sample image to use here showing two garages with white paint under direct sunlight with a heavy shadow area behind a fence. [Read more...]