Selectively brush in highlights

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• April 07, 2016 20:31

In Aperture I was able to brush in dodging that selectively affected only shadows, midtowns OR highlights. I often used this on hair to bring out highlights without affecting the darker tones. Is there a way to do this with local adjustments?


/Users/georgehowardrosenberg/Desktop/Aperture Brush.png

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  Ian Wilson

  Moderator

  • April 08, 2016 08:58

  

  You can create a local adjustment layer. There is then more than one way to go. (1) I'd suggest setting some figures for things you would like to adjust like exposure, brightness, contrast, highlight recovery (the HDR tool) - in fact anything you find on the local adjustment tab. I'd set figures more than you think you need - for instance set a whole stop of extra exposure - then brush with a low opacity brush repeatedly until you get enough of the effect you want. (You can still, of course, adjust the sliders as you like, and you can go back with a low opacity eraser if you think you have overdone it.) (2) Alternatively just select the area you want with a full-opacity softish brush, and then play with the sliders to get the effect you want.
  
  Ian

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  SFA

  • April 08, 2016 10:08

  To expand Ian's post a little ....
  
  You might also consider the Colour Balance tool which, in some cases, may have enough control for you to adjust successfully using only the Highlights adjustment option against the entire image.
  
  If you do need a Local Adjustment have a look at the colour Editor.
  
  It is possible to select a very small light band for all colours and then adjust brightness and saturation (for example) and paint on the mask for the effect.
  
  At the lightest end(near white) "colour" selection can both subtle and fickle but it is easily possible.
  
  If you select a "colour" using the "dropper" C1 will pick a related "slice" of the colour wheel. If you grab one of the edge adjusters and drag it around the full circle you will, in effect, be selecting all pale shades of any colour
  
  If you need to be particularly specific you can adjust the range of the "lightness" selected by dragging the round edge of the slice. Also by using the Smoothness slider.
  
  Plus whatever other adjustment tools may help once you have the mask painted ....
  
  This is more difficult to describe in words than it is to show on screen but a little experimentation should help you to discover the control available over the process.
  
  
  HTH.
  
  Grant

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