Exploring Highlight Recovery -- A LTG Image

The Tale behind the Images:

LTG's crw image file was downloaded and using Canon's FileViewerUtility converted to a 16-bit tiff file with no changes to the in-camera processing parameters.   This download image is the 'roll over' image for the illustrations.   '3Tone Range Adjustment Procedures' with multiple iterations of the Filter-Additive transform were used to restore highlights as much as possible as well as general image enhancement.   The results of this first effort are shown below.   There is banding in the recovered sky highlights and the shadow tones were a bit too aggressively enhanced.   Indeed, there is insufficient highlight data using this approach to be able to produce a satisfactory photo quality print.

Place your mouse over the image to see the camera download image.

. . .A LTG Image -- used with permission. . .

Noticing that there were 'cumulus' clouds this afternoon, I went out into the yard and took a photo.   I often will try to substitute 'blown' sky image areas with substitute data from other images with similar characteristics of content, adjusting for close matching of brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue.   The results of a rather hurried substitution using a 'complex 80->100% highlight tone range mask' and with other general '3Tone Range Adjustment Procedures' enhancements are illustrated below.   This time, not so much contrast was applied to the shadows and a slight warming mid-tone color cast was added.

Place your mouse over the image to see the camera download image.

. . .A LTG Image -- used with permission. . .

Another Possibility:  In studying the capabilities of the Canon FileViewerUtility program more closely, it was found to have a feature to change the original Canon 10D crw file exposure compensation setting.   A -2EV exposure equivalent 16-bit tiff image file was created from the RAW file data and then brightness, contrast, and saturation of the highlights were adjusted in PWP with the Color Curves transform in the HSL color space.   The 'highlights' enhanced image was blended with the original cameral download 16-bit tiff file in PWP using the Composite-Blend transform and a blending transition mask.   The resulting image from this blending was then adjusted for brightness, contrast, and saturation in the shadow [0-30%] and mid-tone [30-70%] tone ranges using '3Tone Range Adjustment Procedures' enhancements.   This enhanced image version with the original sky areas 'recovered' is shown below.

Place your mouse over the image to see the camera download image.

. . .A LTG Image -- used with permission. . .

Illustrated Tutorials
You are welcome to see other IMAGEs by DEN.