Shadow Recovery

[StuartRae]

In another thread I posted a link to a comparison I've made of shadow recovery plugins. I'm sure that those of you who are interested will have had a look, but I've now been asked to post the images here, so apologies if you've already seen them.

I'm sure we've all had the same problem with landscape shots - get a good sky and the foreground's too dark; get foreground details and the sky gets clipped.
In the past I've made two conversions and merged them, but with mixed success, so I started to look for a "one-shot" solution.

The image I've chosen is nothing special, but it does demonstrate the problem quite well, and may be familiar to some of you.

Here's the preliminary conversion in RSP to get the best sky and cloud detail.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02.jpg

And as a benchmark, here it is using the Lighten Shadows control in PSE3. It does a pretty good job, but loses some saturation in the shadows.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-LS.jpg

[StuartRae]

Here are the four plugins I've assessed.

Shadow Illuminator from Intrigue Technologies.
This is the one I use most. It gives consistently good results, but can fall over if the image contains true blacks.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-SI.jpg


Tone Mapping from Photomatix.
It's capable of some stunningly good results, but can also screw colours and tends to give a grey tinge to pale sky.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-TM.jpg


Light Machine from PhotoWiz.
It has a far more comprehensive set of controls than the previous two, allowing seperate adjustment of shadows, shadow colour, highlights and highlight colour. It can produve very good results but is more complex to use and produces grey mask haloes if you overdo things.
Because of the controls you can do lots of things to an image if you really want to - like this (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-moon-2.jpg) :-).

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-LM.jpg


SR Pro from Fred Miranda.
I was very disappointed with this. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but eventually came to the conclusion that this was the best it could do.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-02-SR.jpg

[StuartRae]

And finally some raw converters that have a fill-light capability.

Adobe Lightroom.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-LightRoom.jpg


Bibble Lite

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-Bibble.jpg


RawTherapee


http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sw.rae/examples/Aut05-0010-RT.jpg

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Stuart for posting this unusually useful series of conversions. This is an excellent image to test for shadow recovery since one can also look at changes in saturation and maintenance of the sense of depth that can be lost with such adjustments.

I really like this scene and appreciate your extra effort at sharing your work!

Asher

[Don Lashier]

Stuart, don't have it handy but you might also post a link to the dual conversons the folks did on this same shot a while back.

- DL

[StuartRae]

Hi Don,

The link to the original thread is here (http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=637) , although there are some missing images.

Unfortunately I'm no longer able to host the original RAW, although I can mail the file to anyone who PMs me.

Stuart

[Ray West]

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the comparisons. I take it your trial period of 'lightzone' has run out?

wrt the linked thread, it's a pity when the links get broken, sort of destroys the whole point of evolvement/involvement.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Bev Sampson]

I like the original unaltered photo the best.

Bev

[Alain Briot]

I like the original unaltered photo the best.
Bev

I think the original is a little contrasty and can be improved on. However, let's not forget that a shadow is, well, a shadow, hence... dark :-)

[Steve Quattrocchi]

Thank you for the demo. I am amazed at the range of results achieved. All of the images look good but I think the original is the best. A simple curves tweak is all it would need. Which is your favourite?

[Charles L Webster]

This is particularly useful because it also shows the "other effects" that shadow recovery has, and shows some of the pecularities of each of the converters used.

Thanks