[johnni]

I sometimes deal with a number of images which need correcting in one way or another. I am generally very impressed with the results I get from PSP7 but one problem is when there is, say, a figure photographed against a strong light so that the background is OK but the figure is too dark. When I try to lighten the figure in the foreground PSP is influenced by the background lightness and refuses to make the foreground image any lighter.
Is there way to configure this, or is another program better at dealing with this?

johnni

[Noyb]

Photoshop Elements 6.0 ... the Shadow/Highlight adjustment.
Can you attach a sample ???

[fairnooks]

Version 7 might be too old but if you have a command for a levels adjustment layer you can use that to brighten the dark objects to where you want them, then you take a black color brush with soft edges and "paint" the original levels back on the level adjustment layer where you want the original light in the background and leave the darker areas you brightened alone. Then merge the adjustment layer when you're done.

That adjustment layer command might have only been in PSP 8 or 9 and later though so...

[johnni]

Thanks for the replies. I have experimented a little and found that by playing with the Effects, Automatic Contrast Adjustment and then clicking the Appearance, Flat button with the bias set at Lighter, and maybe doing it more than once, a reasonable result is obtained.

Fairnooks, I have only limited experience of PSP but I found on the toolbar the following, which sounds like what you recommended:
Layers
New Adjustment Layer
Levels
Adjustment tab
I then moved the bar under Input levels left and right, often clicking on the eye icon to see the result. A quite good result was obtained. I then combined this with the Output levels bar, clicking the 'eye' to see the result.
When saving I got the message "Because of the limitations of the specified file format (and possibly the save options you've selected), the saved file will be limited to a merged image. Would you like to continue?" I clicked Yes and the file was saved OK, but clearly there is room for more experiment. Your suggestion about the black color brush seemed way out of my experience, but thanks and I hope to improve.

johnni

[fairnooks]

You are almost there without even knowing it, keep playing with some practice images and you'll get it very quickly. When you adjusted levels on the new layer you overexposed the already bright parts to get the dark parts more clearly lit. So all you do then is take the black color brush and "paint" away the parts that are overexposed (revealing the original underneath) on the adjustment layer, all without doing any real adjustment to the picture until you merge the two layers when you are satisfied with the result.

I installed my version of PSP7 to check to see if it still works the same as later versions and its pretty close as far as the adjustment level layer goes so if you need any more help feel free to ask.

[johnni]

Thanks very much for all your trouble; I will continue trying.

johnni

[johnni]

Fairnooks, I have had another go. But I am getting a problem.

When I do as I described above I find I am working with a new layer on which I am brushing out the background with black paint. On clicking Layers I find I have a Layer 2 - "Levels", and a Layer 1 - "Background" Clicking on either of these produces exactly the same image with my lightening effects still visible and the black paint blocks also evident ON BOTH. I find I can work only with Layer 1 "Background" in order for the colour palette to appear.
When I click on Layers, Merge, there is another box for me to choose - 1. Merge All (Flatten) or 2. Merge Visible. Clicking on either of these produces the same result, with black blocks showing, not surprising since both layers are identical.
Can you suggest what I may be doing wrong in not producing two different layers?

johnni

[fairnooks]

The reason you aren't seeing a difference between the two layers is because you are looking at both of them at the same time so only the topmost layer is visible. I included two screen captures, one with both layers visible and one with the levels layer invisible. In the second with the levels layer invisible you can see the original photo underneath unchanged.

If you are getting completely black blocks then you are not "painting" on the levels layer only to remove the levels effect where you want it removed. If the photo is only returning to its original look as you paint and it looks very blocky then you are applying too much of the effect. You also want a very soft edge brush and go carefully along the edge of the areas you want to keep lighter and the areas you want to go back to the original so it looks like a natural gradient.

[johnni]

fairnooks, I may have to give up on this.

I experimented again using first a .jpg image and then a .bmp image. These images did not really need any lightening but I wanted to see if I could get two separate layer images. I did get two layer images but they were identical before I did any work on the Layer 1 (Background) and after making some adjustments to this layer both this and Layer 2 (Levels) were still identical.
That is why I said before, that after inserting some black brush marks the two images were identical. You can't merge two identical images, can you?

But I find that after lightening an image with the New Adjustment Layer, Levels and saving the image it does work reasonably OK. But it is strange that I can't see two different layers.

johnni

[Noyb]

Get a trial DL of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 .. And play with the Shadow/Highlight tool.
It's almost automatic correction for minor over/under exposure problems.
Just adjust the Highs and the Lows .. Adobe knows where they are.

[fairnooks]

This time I posted 3 pictures of the same project to demonstrate the dramatic difference in the two layers.

As you can see there is no image at all in the adjustment layer because it is an adjustment layer, not an image layer.

The background layer is the same as before with levels layer turned off so there is no effect shown on the original image.

The last image is with both on together so you can see where I erased the brightening effect on the sky with the black brush while leaving the effect in place on the bottom portion of the levels layer. If you look at the little mini window on the layers panel you can see the black and white that exactly mirrors the effect to the photo which is brigtened the bottom but returned the darker sky.

I hope that helps you sort it out. You can easily merge and save identical layers and never even see that you did it except sometimes the image will get darker when its merged on top of itself, and all this is only active until you save it which always merges the layers unless you save it in a format that preserves the layers in order to work on it again later.