Harsh Light during sunset

[DigitalCin]

During my Vacation to the 1000's Islands, I took some Beautiful sunset photos, But the sun in them are very harsh. I've tried playing around in PSP9 but I can't seem to get the harshness out. Any ideas on how to do it?

[KenB]

Not sure about PSP's toolset but in PS, I'd dupe the layer and burn the sun a bit. Maybe play with the levels as well depending on the shot.

Overall, though, I say embrace the sun. There's not a whole lot you can do. If you can't look at it with your eyes, the CCD is going to blow out as well. Other than the lens flare, I think the shot is pretty nice.

[fx101]

I hate to say it, but it is too late to fix this. In camera make sure to meter the background and NOT the sun. The sun will always be overexposed, but by metering the sun will not jump out like crazy.

[transparency]

I hate to say it, but it is too late to fix this. In camera make sure to meter the background and NOT the sun. The sun will always be overexposed, but by metering the sun will not jump out like crazy.

Hey fx101, thanks for the tip. I've learned a lot from this forum!

[Medley]

In Photoshop, you could also subdue the brightness by changing the image to Lab color, creating a new layer, painting over the white areas with some other color (say, yellow) and changing the blend mode of the layer to "Color". Then merge the layers (VERY important) and convert back to RGB.

In merging the layers, Lab mode creates an imaginary color (sometimes called an impossible color). It asks for a color (yellow, red, whatever you chose) that is as bright as white. Even your monitor can't reproduce such colors correctly. The ability of the Lab color mode to create imaginary colors is precisely the reason that many people shy away from it.

However, when you convert the image back to RGB mode, something amazing happens. Photoshop must now convert that color into something that RGB colors can reproduce. In doing so, it splits the difference- creating a color that is darker than pure white, but lighter than the color you painted with. The pure white areas of your image now take on a pale color, but one that is still darker than what you started with. So it's really never too late. Even blown-out areas can be colored using this method.

The biggest problem with this method is that the lack of detail is NOT addressed. You can color the area(s), but they will still only have that one color. In the case of your sun, you can compensate for this some by painting with more than one color- darker around the edges, and lighter towards the center.

Hope this helps.

- Joe U.