If you feel the shot is good enough at this point, then you're done with the workflow...
If you're curious... let's carry on :-P

I'm currently trying out C1 Pro v 3.6.. although the price is.. pricey, I might consider buying one when my trial expires. The workflow described below works with any raw software, you know how yours work, same principles really, its all about WB, EC, CC and so on.

My normal workflow consist of making different output to correct things I wish to correct, like blown highlights (if any), play with WB, push the contrast a little, slight sharpening and so on. For those not familiar with the previous workflow I've posted in October. I mean 'output' by the files the raw converter creates from the raw file. I will also use the term 'frame' since it's really only different 'frame' with different settings 'outputed' by that software.

Using C1, some nice features comes along -

By default, I do make some changes in C1, for instance color saturation, which I set at 5% :

From here you can see the histogram, you'll ask... He's always mentioning 'shoot to the right', where is it ? I can't !! No I really can't, why ? Follow me...

That's the reason why :




Those nasty little blown highlight feathers. This bird must be eating something that really makes it to glow ! Seriously, it's always a problem exposing a bird with such high contrast. Couple this with sunrays that filters through surrounding branches and you have the perfect combination of a real metering headache. Am I trying the impossible ? I mean do I really really need to worry about such things ? I mean when I look in photography magazine, I always see these blown highlights showing on bird shots, and yet general public will be in Awe...

In any case, we can try to recover a little these, since we're shooting in RAW, RAW uses 12 bit... that's 4 bit more than JPG.. but, bit.. but.... Ok it's only 4 :-P

My first output, look carefully to the right :




What am I doing ? I use softlook with a threshold of 50 ? Geeze I'll kill the details big time. Well yes , that I what I want to do.. Kill the noise details, that is, Ah Ah !

I'll use this 'frame' exactly for that purpose. From my experience, noise always shows in the OOF part of the photo. If you do push EC a little to the right (positive), the more noise will be shown. So this 'frame' will be my background layer, and I will take care of that noise swiftly and we won't even need to run any noise reduction software that exist on the market.

The background shot was set at +0.25 EC, no CC changes, WB set at 5450 K -1 tone (warmer)

The other 'frame' goes as follow :




Look carefully at the settings to the right, this will take care (almost) of the few blown hot spot found on the bird.

I do apply a slight level of sharpening to any 'frame' which will be for the bird itself, its set at 60% and threshold of 3 in standard look (compared to softlook)

So without screenies, the 2 other 'frames' goes as follow :

+0.35 EC with a new setting : Film Extra Contrast, CC @ +0 for the general look of the bird, same WB as the background layer btw. From trial and error, it's always preferable to keep this as is. I mean the bird termination melting into the background will be smoother looking, no harsh changes of exposure, nor WB.

Also I made an extra 'frame' using -0.15 EC, Standard Film, CC @ +5 to work out the transition between the correctly exposed bird and the overly blown highlight part of it (-0.30 EC, in linear response).

I know I sound picky on all this. You really don't need to do all those 'frame' if you wish. You could always at least make 2, one for the background with no sharpening, actually some sort of softening would do. And one for the bird itself. And in Photoshop work with these 2 layers to start with.

Btw, there's some advance feature in C1, the ability to output a single frame using a more aggressive noise removal method, all you need to do is Alt-P and change the preference of noise reduction for that single frame - just click on the Process Settings tab (also usefull for banding suppression if needed) :

Part 2
I'm using Photoshop CS, I know Photoshop Element 2 don't have all these feature, I'm uncertain about Element 3. I also know there's work a rounds about Layers and especially Layer Masking, which I use a lot. For those familiar with Layer Masking, you can skip the bottom part.

So in Photoshop, I have 4 frame to work with. Just a note about C1 Pro, one neat feature about this software, it will correctly put the orientation right there in the output, no more Rotate Canvas to do in Photoshop. This is valid when you shoot in portrait orientation :

For now, we don't need to have all those frame active, I'll work on the first one, named CRW_0863.TIF, which is the one I output with Softlook set at 0 and 50 threshold. This frame is my background layer and I will kill for once and for real noise.

So with that frame, lets simply right click on the background blue box and you'll see a single option : duplicate layer -

Lets do just it, I mean... now ! Don't wait, coz I'm not into the mood... :-P




Now, let's zoom in a little.. ok a lot 100% :

There's not much noise, but I wish to slightly, ever slightly blur the background a little.. you know just a little. Lets say Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 3 pixels... No I never go beyond that, I never ever... LOL !

Make sure your background copy layer is active, click on Blur (on top), choose Gaussian Blur, and set the radius to your taste :

Now look... Oh no ! What have I done !

Yikes !
Lets breath... Here comes Layer Masking to the rescue !
Let's zoom out a little, 50% - just right click on the image, choose zoom out.

Now about Layer Masking, there's 2 way of working with. Either you choose - Hide All :

Which Hides what you just done to that layer (Gaussian Blur in this case) :

Look carefully to the right of the image, theres a black box. This is telling you you're working in - Hide All. To 'REVEAL' Gaussian Blur on that layer, you'll simply choose Foreground Color to white :

Set the Background color to black now, if its not set :

A brief explanation of foreground and background color :

When you choose Add Layer Mask - Hide All -

The white brush will be used to 'REVEAL' that layer, the black brush to revert what you've just done, no need to click on Step Backward anymore (Alt-CTRL-Z) !

When you choose Add Layer Mask - Reveal All -

The black brush will be used to 'HIDE' that adjustment you made to that layer, the white brush will be used to revert what you just done.
For those unfamiliar, read this again over and over... (no I'm not kidding)

For this very image, I'll choose Add Layer Mask - Reveal All :


Look on the right of the screen, the box is now white. We'll use the black brush to hide the effect only to a portion of the image - in this case we'll concentrate only on the bird contour, as well as the in focus branch the birds stands on.

PART 3
So far, All I've done is... nothing. I haven't done nothing ! LOL !

I'm exaggerating, I've done something, but its not yet activated. Choose a large brush tool, and from the drop down menu, choose something with a a really soft smooth edge. Resize to your taste afterwards.

I chose 150px, and by using the black brush tool, we'll hide the Gaussian Blur of 3 pixel which is currently applied to the bird. We don't need to do the entire bird, only the contour and we'll do the same on the bottom branch in focus supporting the bird.

You're working this in 50% zoom, black brush, lets start brushing (I love brushin' things..)

So Brush away along the contour of the bird, maybe keep about 20% of the total brush size outside the bird's edge, Also if you have a lot of 'objects' in relative focus, feel free to reveal this also. In the case of this photo, there's at the bottom pine needles that are in focus. I chose to reveal these as well :

From that screenie above, you'll see where I'm passing the brush tool. As well as look to the right, the white box. You'll see a contour appearing in that box.

You can always check anytime by clicking on the 'eye' of Background (layer visibility) to toggle on and off that layer :

This is a good way if you've missed some spots while brushing away :

This sums up pretty well how Layer Masking works with the brush tool.

So what we did is use Reveal All, the entire layer has gaussian blur applied to it. We use the black brush to hide gaussian blur to parts of the photo in focus.

Feel free to inspect what you've just done. If there's something you 'overdone' use the other brush (white in this case) to revert the effect locally.

This technique is not new, although I've learnt this myself. I haven't re-invented the wheel btw.

Now I'll employ a different way of working the image, I'll explain. I use to after making a change like this, do a MERGE VISIBLE (Shift-Ctrl-E), so both layer are merged together. Then you would normally carry on the next step, where either you make more adjustment to the image, or bring the other 'frame' into the game, which is all those 3 extra frame (sharpened, but with different EC, CC, attribute).

Lets try the 2nd method for now as described above.

PART 4
Who wants to play ??

I'll accelerate a little the procedure here, PART 2 and 3 were to show how to navigate and actually explain how PS works with layer masking. I don't need to do all those screenies, just a little less to give the idea.

So now you've just created another layer, this time this one is called Layer 1, and comes from the 2nd 'frame' which is the one I described in PART 1. It's the one that has the sharpening applied at 60%, threshold of 3, EC as a slight level increase (carefull about this) compared to the background (1st frame), same WB, but different levels of contrast (used Film Extra Contrast) set at +5 :

Now look when I toggle Layer 1 off :

I mentioned above 'carefull about this', when you'll start to trace contours of the bird, if there's a gap between the brightness of the background and that layer, this will show. Be extra carefull not to push beyond the envellop - figure of speach.

This time, for Layer 1 I'll use Add Layer Mask - Hide All and lets use the white brush to reveal only part of Layer 1 (the bird and the bottom branch). Don't brush beyond the bird contour much (5% is ok).

A trick here, reduce the size of the brush tool, I'll use 50px. You can also zoom in the picture to be more precise. A little hint, if the change is too drastic, play with the opacity of that brush tool. I do employ a lot of 33% opacity. In our example the change is quite good, so I'll keep doing this at 100% opacity.

Again remember, we're revealing part of the image that has no noise reduction applied (gaussian blur and/or extra noise reduction in your raw software for that background 'frame'). Also remember you can always revert what you've just done by brushing away with the black brush - gotto love layer masking uhh ?

So to make this in less time, trace the contour with a smaller brush tool, and when you're done, increase the brush size and the apply to the rest of the bird (and branches).

Don't forget to 'un-toggle both background and background copy layers so you can see if you've missed part while brushing :

You guys gonna find me picky.. I am ! Inspect the contour of the bird, is there any nasty transition happening between the sharper subject and the blurred background ? If not, great ! We're done with that layer.

A general look zoomed in at 33% :



Take a look on the right part of the screenie, this shows you what we've done so far - one background copy in Layer Masking using Reveal all, and Layer 1 with Hide All.

PART 5
There's a simpler method than what I'll describe below, its called Shaddow/Highlight, it makes less harsh changes on the photo. I prefer that method. But sometimes its not enough. Again I got to be picky to fix some small , local parts I don't like... In any case, its the same exact procedure as described in PART 4. I'll now use the 'frame' that has a slight negative EC applied to it, as explained in PART1. This 'frame is an intermediate one that will be a good transition between the normally exposed part of the bird and 'frame' #4 which has the lowest brightness level.

You can, as I did copy and past both 'frame' on top of each other. We'll now have the 'intermediate' one named Layer 2, and the less brighter one named Layer 3 -

Let's toggle each one, so they become active :

Now the secret is, we'll work Layer 2, use Layer Mask - Hide All, white brush tool, but this time we'll set opacity of the brush at 33%. Set a fairly small brush size and start with the contour of each 'hot spot', brush more and more towards the center of the area.

Btw, there was more than that area I wanted to fix, all these to a different degree. So with the brush tool set at 33%, I can apply a single pass to areas that needs the less, or brush more to those 'hot spot'.

Now when happy, you're ready to do the same with Layer 3, extra carefull where you brush. You don't want create a situation where it would show that the image has been processed to a point where there's darker spots on the bird.

And before we made the overall change - trying to cure blown highlights :

Here's a trick... we have 5 layers right now, do we need all 5 of them to carry on ? No ! Lets link each layer starting with Background Copy, Layer1, 2 and 3 and lets do a .... Merged link (Ctrl-E) !

All image link, then do CTRL-E... Linked !

Now lets see how the 'original' looked like :

You can rename that Layer 3 btw, and/or save this. Will reduce the size of mega TIFF you have.

PART 6
At this point, we can still try to recover some blown highlights. Just Duplicate the top layer (I named it 'All layers combined'). Make sure that layer is active (blue), right click on it choose Duplicate Layer. Now top of PS, Go at Image -> Adjustments -> Shaddow/Highlight -

Drop the shadow amount to zero and adjust the highlight from 5 to 15. I don't like to overdo this :

At this point, you have 2 choice. Either apply this to the entire image, -or- use... Layer Masking ! Hide All, white brush and brush away what you wish. Again you can use different brush opacity.... Sky is the limit !

So now friends, I believe you got the essential of the workflow. Think now that there's many things you could modify using layer mask. This includes Curve, Level, Photo Filter (got to love these), anything really !

And the 'Before' shot :

I did apply Photo Filter, locally (Layer Mask), applied Curve...
Don't forget to convert to profile sRGB when you save in JPG for the web

Hope this was of help ;)

Eric Cote Jan. 2005