Using Local Editing to correct blown out windows in home interiors with ON1 RAW 2022
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There are many times when taken a snapshot of a darkened, or even a properly lit room on a bright sunny day, that when editing the interior to correct exposure, the window just shows total washout.
I tried different brushes while in local adjustment, but can't either get it to "pull" in the outside enough or just continue to darken the frame as well during the darkening in local adjustments.
As a side note, when I zoom in the photo, I can't move or center the image so I can adjust the areas in the sides of the photo. (the window I was trying to Local Adjust in my sample was way to one side)
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The first thing you have to know is whether there is any detail in the windows that can be recovered. You can tell by lowering the exposure just to check for that.
When Photo RAW opens an image to be edited the first thing it does after assembling the raw data into a viewable image is to apply a Camera Profile. These are just LUTs to get to a possible better starting point. Often times in a situation like the one you're shooting in the default profile can use push highlights over the edge making them difficult to recover. You might want to try the Linear RAW Camera Profile. That tells the program to not use any LUT and just give the raw image as it was shot.
Have you tried using a Luminosity Mask to limit the Local Adjustment to only the windows? Another option is to use the new Line Mask tool to draw an outline of the windows to select just them. You might want to watch some of the training videos on masking. https://www.on1.com/videos/?coupon=CYBERWEEK
There are Blending Modes you can use to help recover brightly exposed areas. Again, this assumes there is some actual detail to be recovered. The the windows were pushed to the point where the Histogram shows a large spike piled right up to the right edge you may not have anything to recover. Colin Smith, the author of the Photoshop Cafe has a free PDF book on how to use the Blending Modes. He uses Photo RAW for his examples in the book. You have to sign up for his newsletter to unlock the download link. https://photoshopcafe.com/vault/
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Thanks, Brian for taking the time to reply and provide the above-detailed info.
The blending mode seems to be time-consuming compared to the other options. I am trying to come up to a reasonable speed with ON1.One of the main reasons I converted from Luminar 4 and DxO Photolab was the ability to use the Line Tool. I saw it in a marketing preview but now can't seem to locate it. I'll have to go into the support videos again.
The Luminosity Mask sounds interesting and worth a look, but I couldn't locate it in the link you provided.
Again, many thanks for your efforts. Have a great weekend!
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There may not be any training videos specifically about luminosity masks but they are mentioned frequently in the various masking videos. https://www.on1.com/videos/?coupon=CYBERWEEK&fwp_video_library_categories=masking
The Line Mask Tool is at the right end of the tool selection bar when you have any of the Masking Tools selected. See page 95 in the User Guide. ON1 User Guides
Blending modes take some time to learn but they are well worth it. There are only a couple that get used regularly. There are training videos for them as well. This link is for a Plus video on them. https://www.on1.com/videos/?coupon=CYBERWEEK&fwp_video_library_categories=all-about-blending
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Thanks again, Brian. Your replies are very detailed and helpful. I will be checking these features out. I missed that icon on the end last time for some reason with regard to the line masking. I just checked again and this time I didn't overlook it. It's there and it works :)
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There are many videos on how to use Luminosity masks on Youtube. Just do a search for On1 Luminosity mask in Youtube. A small snip of the results below.
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Many thanks, David. That should get me going!
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If you were in Local Adjustments then you did not miss the Line Mask tool, for some reason On1 have not included this in the standard Local Adjustments masking options.
You can access it by using the shift-P keyboard short cut, which not only activates Line Mask but expands the masking options to the full set that are available in Effects. Once activate the masking works exactly as it should.
Same goes for AI Quick Mask which can be activated by W keyboard short cut.
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