Hiding Blown Areas.

[Alison Johnston]

Hi, I'm new here but thought I'd jump right in.

Didn't catch what software you are using but it's a simple fix in Photoshop as long as the blown areas have a little bit of information in them.

Open the image and then duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl + J or dragging the later to the new layer icon. Click on the Channels tab at the top of the layers palette and then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the RGB thumbnail, this will select the luminosity of the image. Click on the layers tab at the top of the layers palette to take you back and then click on the topmost layer I.e. not the b/ground layer and then press Ctrl + J, this will jump the luminosity to it's own layer. Press Ctrl + U and a dialogue box will appear, take the saturation slider down to 0. Change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply. Add a hide all (black) mask to the layer by holding down the Alt whilst clicking on the add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Grab a soft edged brush, and with the f/ground set to white, paint over the railings and anywhere else that you would like to fix the blown areas.

This doesn't work on all images, but it is a quick enough process to check out if it will.

Cheers, Alison.

[arith]

Thanks Alison.