How to Fix Over Exposed Background

[pontiac1940]

Hi Charles
It's a tough one. Far beyond my ability. Tpgettys nailed the actual issue here, "The white is absolute white, so there is nothing to be recovered there." Point being, there is zero detail in the white areas so nothing can be "mined" out of these areas. The only solution is what others have suggested to "fill" in or replace the whites.
I such lighting situations, you might find it better to underexpose so there will be more detail the the bright regions. Then you can "mine" details in darker areas in ACR or PSE. You can also attempt using a weak fill flash to throw a bit of light onto the foreground.
Good luck
Clive

[Sepiana]

Oct 15, 2020 3:08:08 GMT Inspeqtor said:

How do I fix this over exposed background?  I believe the foreground is pretty good, or do you think the foreground also needs tidying up?

Would Elements 2020 do a good job by itself? 

Oct 15, 2020 5:29:47 GMT BuckSkin said:

I just thought of another thing you can do, providing the tree is handy and your photo is recent enough that the woodpecker hole is still there.

Preferably with a tripod, or with a good solid rifleman's hold, using Exposure Bracketing, take a series of at least three images, one two stops too dark, one two stops too bright, and one just right; then, use an HDR program to merge the images into a single properly exposed image.

I like free Luminance HDR for this; it is fairly simple and does a good job.

Charles, I'm addressing BuckSkin 's suggestion. It's a good one!

If you don't have three bracketed images, different exposures, you can "cheat". (I learnt this trick in a webinar I attended.)

- Make two copies of your Raw image.
- Open copy 2 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to +2.
- Open copy 3 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to -2.

Now you can merge these three images to get a single one which will be properly exposed.

You can use PSE 2020 to do the merging. Back in PSE 9, Adobe introduced Photomerge Exposure. 

Working in Photo-Merge

NOTE:  Adobe changed the location of Photomerge Exposure. In PSE 2020 this feature is in Guided Edit>Photomerge>Photomerge Exposure.

Guided Edit - Photomerge Exposure (Help file)

[fotofrank]

Following on to what Sepiana stated, if you open the image in camera you may want ro set one of the copies exposure to -5 to see if there is any sky there.

Cleaned up the leaves and replaced sky in Luminar.

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 15, 2020 5:29:47 GMT BuckSkin said:

I just thought of another thing you can do, providing the tree is handy and your photo is recent enough that the woodpecker hole is still there.

Preferably with a tripod, or with a good solid rifleman's hold, using Exposure Bracketing, take a series of at least three images, one two stops too dark, one two stops too bright, and one just right; then, use an HDR program to merge the images into a single properly exposed image.

I like free Luminance HDR for this; it is fairly simple and does a good job.

Of course, this all rides on where the tree is and whether you took that photo last week or fifteen years ago.

I do like this idea quite a bit Buckskin!!  The problem is, the tree is not in my yard, it is in the yard of an older lady that I just met last Thursday in town.  Since she does not really know me I do not want to try going back there so quickly.  I did try going back before I read this post of yours, but she was not really wanting me to return so soon.  I have to abide by her wishes.  My first time there was last Thursday.

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 15, 2020 15:41:13 GMT PeteB said:

Hi Charles
A simple correction is to duplicate the background layer. Then select Enhance>Adjust Lightening>Shadows/Highlights. The Lighten Shadows slider defaults to 35% —- look at the tree bark and decide if you want to accept that amount or adjust it. The next slider is important because the highlights are blown. Move the Darken Highlights slider to the right and watch the highlights change … big improvement. Last, move the Midtone Contrast slider to the right, again improving the midtones
Hope that Helps


The problem can also be addressed in ACR.  Opening the image in ACR gives you more sliders for adjustments.  

I did try all of this, but the only changes I saw was the appearance of the foreground. I was hoping to change the background. 

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 15, 2020 16:33:44 GMT Sepiana said:

Oct 15, 2020 3:08:08 GMT Inspeqtor said:

How do I fix this over exposed background?  I believe the foreground is pretty good, or do you think the foreground also needs tidying up?

Would Elements 2020 do a good job by itself? 

Oct 15, 2020 5:29:47 GMT BuckSkin said:

I just thought of another thing you can do, providing the tree is handy and your photo is recent enough that the woodpecker hole is still there.

Preferably with a tripod, or with a good solid rifleman's hold, using Exposure Bracketing, take a series of at least three images, one two stops too dark, one two stops too bright, and one just right; then, use an HDR program to merge the images into a single properly exposed image.

I like free Luminance HDR for this; it is fairly simple and does a good job.

Charles, I'm addressing BuckSkin 's suggestion. It's a good one!

If you don't have three bracketed images, different exposures, you can "cheat". (I learnt this trick in a webinar I attended.)

- Make two copies of your Raw image.
- Open copy 2 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to +2.
- Open copy 3 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to -2.

Now you can merge these three images to get a single one which will be properly exposed.

You can use PSE 2020 to do the merging. Back in PSE 9, Adobe introduced Photomerge Exposure. 

Working in Photo-Merge

NOTE:  Adobe changed the location of Photomerge Exposure. In PSE 2020 this feature is in Guided Edit>Photomerge>Photomerge Exposure.

Guided Edit - Photomerge Exposure (Help file)

Hi Sepiana,

As I mentioned earlier I can't go back to the ladies house so soon, so maybe a later date.

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 15, 2020 18:38:09 GMT fotofrank said:

Following on to what Sepiana stated, if you open the image in camera you may want ro set one of the copies exposure to -5 to see if there is any sky there.

Cleaned up the leaves and replaced sky in Luminar.

fotofrank,

OH My word!  I LOVE your correction!  I do wish I could have had the sky you were able to put into my image!!  

[Sepiana]

Oct 16, 2020 21:52:03 GMT Inspeqtor said:

Hi Sepiana,

As I mentioned earlier I can't go back to the ladies house so soon, so maybe a later date.

Charles, the suggestion I made doesn't require you to go back to take more shots. You just use the Raw image you have now.

Oct 15, 2020 16:33:44 GMT Sepiana said:

If you don't have three bracketed images, different exposures, you can "cheat". (I learnt this trick in a webinar I attended.)

- Make two copies of your Raw image.
- Open copy 2 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to +2.
- Open copy 3 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to -2.

Now you can merge these three images to get a single one which will be properly exposed.

You can use PSE 2020 to do the merging. Back in PSE 9, Adobe introduced Photomerge Exposure.

Working in Photo-Merge

NOTE: Adobe changed the location of Photomerge Exposure. In PSE 2020 this feature is in Guided Edit>Photomerge>Photomerge Exposure.

Guided Edit - Photomerge Exposure (Help file)

[hmca]

Charles......

Try this. 1. You can follow Sepiana's directions above to create an over-exposed and under-exposed image.
2. Add a layer mask to select the lightened tree trunk and create a composite layer.
3. Use the selection tool to select the trunk and top leaves and copy to a new layer.
4. Add a blank layer under the selection.
5. Here is a link to a free sky from Unsplash.
6.  Add the sky to the blank layer.
7.  You may want to use a HSL to adjust color of leaves if wanted.
8.  Create a composite layer.

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 16, 2020 22:11:21 GMT Sepiana said:

Charles, the suggestion I made doesn't require you to go back to take more shots. You just use the Raw image you have now.

Oct 15, 2020 16:33:44 GMT Sepiana said:

If you don't have three bracketed images, different exposures, you can "cheat". (I learnt this trick in a webinar I attended.)

- Make two copies of your Raw image.
- Open copy 2 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to +2.
- Open copy 3 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to -2.

Now you can merge these three images to get a single one which will be properly exposed.

You can use PSE 2020 to do the merging. Back in PSE 9, Adobe introduced Photomerge Exposure.

Working in Photo-Merge

NOTE: Adobe changed the location of Photomerge Exposure. In PSE 2020 this feature is in Guided Edit>Photomerge>Photomerge Exposure.

Guided Edit - Photomerge Exposure (Help file)

Sepiana,

How do I change the exposure to +2 and then to -2?

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 16, 2020 23:24:31 GMT hmca said:

Charles......

Try this. 1. You can follow Sepiana's directions above to create an over-exposed and under-exposed image.
2. Add a layer mask to select the lightened tree trunk and create a composite layer.
3. Use the selection tool to select the trunk and top leaves and copy to a new layer.
4. Add a blank layer under the selection.
5. Here is a link to a free sky from Unsplash.
6.  Add the sky to the blank layer.
7.  You may want to use a HSL to adjust color of leaves if wanted.
8.  Create a composite layer.

Hi Helen,

I took 16 pictures that day, 4 pictures were of a different tree that I was facing EAST and I actually did have a blue sky in the east.  The other 12 pictures were of a larger tree but I was facing WEST with out the blue sky.

Here is one:



As you can see there are a LOT of leaves that I would prefer to leave in the photo.  Most of the photos are similar in nature with lots of leaves and limbs.

You can see this limb is the same limb as the first photo I uploaded here that you worked on showing more holes in the tree.  The woodpeckers and other birds have been very busy with this tree!!

[hmca]

Oct 15, 2020 15:55:07 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Hi Charles
It's a tough one. Far beyond my ability. Tpgettys nailed the actual issue here, "The white is absolute white, so there is nothing to be recovered there." Point being, there is zero detail in the white areas so nothing can be "mined" out of these areas.

Charles, I can understand your frustration. But sometimes we have to decide on which less than perfect solution we can live with.
As Clive and Tom pointed out above, your whites are completely blown out. You can decrease the exposure by -2 in Camera RAW and you can increase it the same way.







But as was pointed out above by the quote above,  there doesn't seem to be a way to recover the white highlights in the sky.

I can understand that you would like to have more branches in your image.  However this would involve painstakingly selecting them using the mask as I suggested in my post above.

I will be following this thread to see what else might be suggested to work for you.  

[Sepiana]

Oct 17, 2020 13:27:14 GMT Inspeqtor said:

Sepiana,

Oct 16, 2020 22:11:21 GMT Sepiana said:

If you don't have three bracketed images, different exposures, you can "cheat". (I learnt this trick in a webinar I attended.)

- Make two copies of your Raw image.
- Open copy 2 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to +2.
- Open copy 3 in the Raw Converter. Change the exposure to -2.

Now you can merge these three images to get a single one which will be properly exposed.

You can use PSE 2020 to do the merging. Back in PSE 9, Adobe introduced Photomerge Exposure.

How do I change the exposure to +2 and then to -2?

Charles,

You do it with the Exposure slider in the Raw Converter dialog. According to the Help file, . . .

Exposure

Adjusts the brightness or darkness of an image. Move the slider to the left to darken the image; move it to the right to brighten the image. The values are in increments equivalent to f‑stops. An adjustment of +1.50 is similar to widening the aperture one and one-half stops. Likewise, an adjustment of ‑1.50 is similar to reducing the aperture one and one-half stops.

Source:  Tonal and image adjustments in camera raw files

[BuckSkin]

This took at most a minute and a half.





All of my sky images are landscape orientation; I didn't figure it would look very good if a rotated the sky to portrait mode; so, I used Image > Transform > Free Transform to drag the sky tall enough to fit.

I didn't take any pains in choosing the sky; I just grabbed the first one in the folder.

As you can see from the layer stack, I used a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to darken the little limbs and leaves = Brightness -60 Contrast +28

To lessen the effect on the main trunk, I painted over it on the layer mask with Medium Grey.

On the Sky layer, I set the blend mode to Darken and Opacity to 63%

Then, to really make it "Pop", I used NIK > Color Efex Pro > Landscape > Pro Contrast with the Correct Contrast slider at 30% and Dynamic Contrast at 100%

Other than the NIK, which is a free Elements Plug-in, everything was done with in-house Elements 7.

I just wanted to show that, so long as your foreground elements are darker than the sky, you don't have to do a bunch of meticulous selecting to blend on a new sky; it is the Darken blend mode and playing with the opacity that does the trick.

The sky is a photo that I purposefully took myself to add to my growing collection of sky photos.

I hope this helps.


Oh..., and by the way..., I wouldn't park my truck near that tree unless I had good insurance and still owed a lot of big payments.

[Inspeqtor]

Oct 17, 2020 14:59:53 GMT hmca said:

Oct 15, 2020 15:55:07 GMT pontiac1940 said:

Hi Charles
It's a tough one. Far beyond my ability. Tpgettys nailed the actual issue here, "The white is absolute white, so there is nothing to be recovered there." Point being, there is zero detail in the white areas so nothing can be "mined" out of these areas.

Charles, I can understand your frustration. But sometimes we have to decide on which less than perfect solution we can live with.
As Clive and Tom pointed out above, your whites are completely blown out. You can decrease the exposure by -2 in Camera RAW and you can increase it the same way.







But as was pointed out above by the quote above,  there doesn't seem to be a way to recover the white highlights in the sky.

I can understand that you would like to have more branches in your image.  However this would involve painstakingly selecting them using the mask as I suggested in my post above.

I will be following this thread to see what else might be suggested to work for you.  

Helen,

Where in PSE do I find the Exposer slider that you show??